FOr Feb 3/08 -- 4th After Epiphany, Year A Annual Meeting Sunday

These resources are based on Jim Strathdee's hymn We Have This Ministry (#510 in Voices United).

CALL TO WORSHIP
We have this ministry, and we are not discouraged
We have a ministry of food, of fellowship, of faith.
Here in this place we come to be refreshed so that the ministry can continue.
Here we come to meet the God and Christ who calls us to serve and empowers us to share our living.
Brothers and sisters, let us worship together. Let us pray…

OPENING PRAYER
O Christ the tree of life, our end and our beginning,
Help us to grow to full flower, help us to be what we are created to be.
In this time together, as we worship, pray, sing, and celebrate, may you be part of our gathering.
Holy Spirit, made known in bread, wine, and water. Spirit present in our laughter and our tears. Fill us with hope and promise in this hour together.
Threefold God, empower us so that when we leave we are better able to live out the ministry we share. Amen.

Offering Prayer
Brothers, sisters, clergy, lay, God you have called us all to serve.
We join in the ministry of sharing your love and life in abundance.
Young and old, new-comer and long timer,
Each of us offers what we have that the world would be filled with your Grace, O God.
We have this ministry,
O God, receive our giving. Amen.

COMMISSIONING AND BENEDICTION
We have this ministry. May we not be discouraged.
The yoke of Christ is ours, we go as people called to serve.
Openly we share God’s word of love, speaking truth as we believe
Praying that this troubled world would healing light receive.
We have this ministry
God, will use our living, our giving, our loving
And we go out knowing that the God who calls us also helps us grow to full flower, rooted in the love of Christ.
Thanks be to God! Amen.