Gathering & Gospelling: Worship VI

Worship VI

Chapter 7: Create Good Controversy: Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly 

John 6:5-14

When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages* would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they* sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

Genesis 12:1-2

Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Call to Worship:

God we know what heaven it like; for you promise it will be the place without hunger

No one will want for food or drink, for freedom or respect or for love or for companionship

God, in that place all greed will cease, we will learn to rely on your manna, knowing there is enough

Indeed, there will be extra, like the filling of the 5,000

For Truly God, your blessings spill over. touching all nearby

Come Let us worship God. 

Prayer of Dedication/the Day: Lord Jesus, I want to be your disciple. I want to help you. Will point out to the people throughout the week that I’m supposed to be serving? Please bless them, heal them of their pains and illness. Let them somehow know that this food is from your hands. Amen. (Based on Prayer Unbinding the Gospel p. 179)

Confession: Reflective Questions:

Who is hungering for God?
Who is just simply hungry, without the basic provisions they need?

What is our calling as Christians to feed the hungry? What is one thing I can do this week to put my discipleship into practice? 

Joys & Concerns: Add to your Prayer List  for today any individuals from our 24hr day of praying for those you have contact with

Prayer for the Body of Christ, New Covenant , The Church’s Children

Prayer for the Neighborhood, The Greater Church, The World 

Creative Activity: Group Prayer, ever person adds a line

Homework: Reflect over this summer. If you have notes from worship, look them over. If not, maybe look at your calendar and reflect about how it’s been going. How is your prayer going? What do you need to pay attention to go forward. 

What is the most important thing your’ve learned/discovered/remembered this week and in the past 6 weeks?

Study Verse: I will bless you…so you will be a blessing—Genesis 12:2

Prayer of the Day/Dedication: Holy God, we are yours, the church is yours, our work is yours. I pray you bring energy, intelligence, imagination and love to us and your church. Please use us for your purposes as we continue to the good news of gathering at church with every one we meet. In Christ’s holy name we pray. Amen. 

Hymn Suggestions: I’m Gonna Live So God Can Use Me, Lift High the Cross, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go, There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy, Amazing Grace

Gathering & Gospelling Worship Series

If you want doc versions, sample bulletins, and the handouts as a separate materials page, email me at Katyandtheword at Gmail

If you use this material, please consider donating to my GoFundMe for my Doctorate in Ministry for Creative Writing as a working Theologian. Any Contribution from $5-100 is appreciated and I am happy to provide receipts as needed.  

Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times.

One thought on “Gathering & Gospelling: Worship VI”

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: