discipleship – katyandtheword

Fish for People/Fisher’s of Men

GATHERING AROUND THE WORD

Welcome & Announcements
Call to Worship (based on Psalm 90)

God, be a dwelling place for us, we pray.

Lord you have been a dwelling place for all generations

Before the mountains were brought forth, or even you had formed the earth, you are present

From everlasting to everlasting you are are God

For a thousand years in your sight, are like yesterday when it is past.

So let us praise God from yesterday to tomorrow.

*Hymn #343 “Called as Partners in Christ’s Service”

Called as partners in Christ’s service, Called to ministries of grace

We respond with eep commitment Fresh new lines of faith to trace

May we learn the art of sharing, Side by side and friend with friend,

Equal partners in our caring To fulfill God’s chosen end.

Christ’s example, Christ’s inspiring, Christ’s clear call to work and worth,

Let us follow, never faltering, Reconciling folk on earth.

Men and women, richer, poorer, All God’s people, young and old.

Blending human skills together Gracious gifts from God unfold.

Thus new patterns for Christ’s mission, In a small or global sense,

Help us bear each other’s burdens, Breaking down each wall or fence.
Words of comfort, words of vision, Words of challenge, said with care,

Bring new power and strength for action, are us colleagues, free and fair.

Prayer of Confession: (unison): God, I confess that sometimes I am like Simon Peter, and all I have to say is “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful person.” We have seen evil, yet you are good all the time. All the time God is good. So you teach me to count my days and my blessings. Let your work manifest in your servants, we pray. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon: God satisfies us in the morning with God’s steadfast ove, so that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days in the good news: In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

HEARING THE WORD

Children’s Time : Telling God’s Story

(All children are invited to the front)

Prayer for Illumination

1st Scripture Reading Psalm 90:14-17

2nd Scripture Reading Luke 5:1-11

“Feed My Sheep” Pastor Katy Stenta

Reflection Roger Held

Joys & Concerns & The Lord’s Prayer (p. 16 in the blue hymnal)

RESPONDING TO THE WORD

Offering

*Doxology (#592 in Blue Hymnal) Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise God all creatures here below. Praise God above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Amen.

SENDING THE WORD

Prayer of Dedication: God, let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us. Give us the gifts we need to let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Prosper for us the work of our hands we pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Hymn # 370 “Just as I am, Without One Plea”

Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou baddest me come to Thee

O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Just as I am though tossed about, With many a conflict, Many a doubt

Fightings and fears within, without.

Just as I am Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse relieve

Because Thy promise I believe,

*Charge & Benediction

The peace of Christ be with you.

And also with you. (Invitation to share Peace)

Death of John the Baptist

Mark 6:1-29

Psalm 122

Bulletin

Call to Worship

I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord

Let us build this as a place of peace and security

For the sake of our friends and family let us say to one another Peace be with you

Peace be with you, come let us seek good

Call to Worship:

We are called and sent two by two

God provides us all we need

Let us pray and anoint and heal together

Come let us worship the Lord

Prayer of Confession: God we confess that we do not go into the world, we stay on the known path. We lack courage, we forget the weak, we ignore suffering. We do not honor each other, we have trouble loving and serving the Lord. Restore us to your house and teach us how to pass the peace we pray. Amen.

Prayer of Confession:Discipleship is so hard, Lord. Often we are carrying too much baggage with us from place to place to place. When we are hurt, we have trouble shaking the dust off our feet and hear the echoes of what was said before. We doubt that we have the authority to banish demons. Encourage us in our discipleship we pray

Prayer of Confession: God, we confess that discipleship is hard. Often we carry baggage with us from place to place, much more than the recommended staff. We have trouble shaking the dust off our feet from troubling experiences. We struggle to take on the authority to banish demons. Help us to be the disciples you would have us to be.

Assurance of Pardon: Peace be with you. God’s grace reigns down and proclaims the truth In Jesus Christ we are forgiven.

Prayer of Dedication/Prayer of the Day: Lord, help us to seek the good. Help us to say Peace be with you for every single individual we meet, for the sake of all of our community for our friends, neighbors and families. Let us pray for peace within all our walls we pray.

Communion: Let us give thanks to the Prince of Peace, who welcomes us into the kingdom with a celebratory meal, bringing us together. The bread and cup tie us together, build our community and sends us out for the work of peace. May we share Christ by sharing the peace here today and everyday.

Hymns: Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, We will serve the Lord, Called to Partner’s in Christ’s Service, All Hail for Christ’s Anointed, Be Thou My Vision, For All the Saints, Lead On O King Eternal

With Children: Pack for a trip (pretend pack with paper items), Talk about/write down hurtful words and things: rip them up/shake the dust from your feet, Anoint each other with oil and pray for each other.

Other Weeks of Seeds of Prayer Narrative Lectionary Resources available here

Communion Prayer by Rev. Dr. Barb Hedges-Goettl

Invitation

B: Come to me,

all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

L: I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,

and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Prayer of Great Thanksgiving

B: O God, you commanded light to shine out of darkness.

You divided the sea and dry land.

You created the vast universe and called it good.

You made us in your image,

sending out your light and truth to lead us

to you and to your holy dwelling.

The sum of your word is truth;

You speak the truth, and declare what is right

And so we praise and thank you, O Lord.

L: Then in the fullness of time,

out of your great love for the world,

you sent your only-begotten,

in whom your fullness dwells,

to be for us the way, the truth, and the life.

Revealing your truth and your love,

Jesus taught those who would hear him.

He healed those who believed in him.

He received all who sought him

and lifted the burden of their sin.

And so we praise and thank you, O Lord.

B: In fulfillment of Christ’s promise,

you pour out the Holy Spirit upon your people,

filling us with the power of your truth.

By the Holy Spirit’s power over us

and over these earthly gifts of bread and wine,

you make this the communion of the body and blood of Christ,

and unite us to him and to one another.

And so we praise and thank you, O Lord.

Prayer after communion

B: Having received this gift of communion, O God,

We ask that you kindle faith in us. Lead us into all truth,

Empower us to claim Jesus as the way, the truth and the life.

May his coming in glory find us

ever watchful in prayer,

strong in truth and love,

and faithful in the breaking of the bread.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Benediction

L: May the light of Christ

B: illuminate your way

L: show you the truth,

B: and empower you to live for him.

2: Until you feast with all the saints

in joy of Christ’s heavenly banquet. Amen.

Partnerships

One thing that frustrates me about church is when people grudgingly take on tasks.

I don’t know, for me its more fun to be involved and DO things, don’t you want to be a part of whatever is happening?

This week I got the chance to talk to a wonderful lady. Together we planned an arts project in 2 parts: 1 a Family Friendly Art Show 2. A Kids Theater Program (that is very accessible monetarily and hopefully schedulewise).

It was a good hour.

Don’t get me wrong, there will be prep involved, but mostly it just took a spark, an idea.

There will be setup and hosting and taking down.

There will be more planning for part 2

But the way I look at it; it will be LOADS of fun, as most ministry is.

So I’m confused…..do we really begrudge the time & energy that is spent in ministry….or are we just afraid that we are going to have to do it alone!

And for me it took a partnership. So often people don’t want to lead in the church, because they feel like they have to do it alone.

Good News! We don’t have to. God is with us, we are never alone, and God sent us partners! From the gecko, God realized that we work better in Tandem.

This sounds just like “Bible Study”…what’s different about all of this?

My Presbytery is trying to explore the whole 1,001 worshipping communities/church planting.

As we did we talked over exciting interest for starting a house church in the college area…

and we were discussing how to go about, different ideas and resources (i.e. Messy Church etc.)

and someone asked “Can someone tell me, how this is different from a Bible Study? I mean we do this, we get to better in different houses and worship and get together what is different about this?”

Well……I might have said a few things in response 🙂

1. Its not that different but we are reformed and always reforming because we need to find new ways to tell the gospel message. Clothing Exchanges are not that different from Rummage Sales (as one of my congregants pointed out). But they ARE different because they speak to a different generation in a different way!

2. We need to meet people where they are in a tree, by a well, even on the cross. If that is what Jesus is doing then that’s what we should do too.

3. Because we need to show our willingness to see, know, people in places that AREN’T the church. When people say they are Spiritual-but-not-religious they mean they want to reach God, but they don’t want to reach God in the same way we do, so we need to find ways that work for people. Ways in which they are comfortable. Thank God, the message is the same as what it was over 2000 years ago, even though the method changes

4. Aren’t we reformed and always reforming so we can grow and be nurtured closer to Christ? Don’t we hope that we keep looking at ways to become more able to see God?

5. Because its not exactly the same, it seems the same, but its really not. Because we are saying, come to our Game, Come to our Home Field, Come to our Turf and we’ll tell you about how we do the God thing. Its not simply sitting inside the church and throwing open the doors and wondering why no one is coming in…its going out to meeting them on their turf…its street ministry at its finest.Its changes to a “you might not experience God the same way we do, so we’ll come to you and let you tell us what you want to try” thing…that’s what Spiritual-but-not-religious is, experiencing God in a new way!

Your right, its exactly like Bible Study…..Only Different!

What if I stood up and sa…

What if I stood up and said “Jesus=anti-stumbling-blocks” and sat down?

Thoughts on tomorrows sermon…

What if I stood up and said “Jesus=anti-stumbling-blocks” and sat down?

Thoughts on tomorrows sermon…

“As healing was integral…

“As healing was integral to Christ’s ministry, the church is called to continue this concern for wholeness. (W-3.5401) Wholeness not as a result of holiness, earnestness or skill of prayers, or the faith of the ones seeking healing, but as the gift of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. (W-3.5405) Prayer is vital because Prayer essentially a a time of waiting in faith upon God, (W-3.5403).”

The Feeding and Care of Pastors….

Pastors only work one day a week, and it’s a half day, Right????

I think my new thing is to ask for an budget for weekly exercise. I find it hard to find the time, energy and money to exercise. Yet if I sign up for a class I inevitably attend, enjoy it and ultimately get sick less, which is a win on all fronts…oh yeah, and to continue to ask for more staff–I always think we need more staff, because I am feeling overworked

In fact, I find in general that anytime I overwork, I get sick. It’s just the way my body works. Not eating or sleeping regularly? There’s no getting away with that….I just get sick, get an enforced day off, and am not happy while I’m at it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath

So that’s it, eat, sleep, and hopefully exercise. Contrary to popular belief pastors do not work only half a day, its more of a on-call-and-thinking-about-your-job-24/7-type-of-career. When we say that we are called, we really mean it!

Maybe the confusion comes from the following facts

1) I love my job

2) I truly care about all those in my ministry

3)I have work-a-holic tendencies.

Add it all up and it means that when I’m working, I don’t always look to be hard at work. It is hard to separate my “work” self from my “home” self (maybe because they are almost the same thing), and I have trouble setting time aside for myself.

Take last week, Monday I worked all morning fielding phone calls for the Farmer’s Market Grand Opening, that afternoon and evening I prepped more stuff for the opening and wrote the bulletin. Tues Morning I ran our Mugs and Hugs Playgroup, immediately after lunch I came back to help to set up then I stayed until 6pm for the market. That night I worked on a bulletin for a funeral.

Wednesday I spent the morning home with the family (normally my open door office hrs), that afternoon I spent with a family for their visiting hrs at the funeral home. That night I finished the bulletin for the funeral.

Thursday I conducted a funeral and burial (at the graveyard), accompanied the family for lunch, that night I packed for a trip

Friday I travelled up to Silver Bay for a retreat of Presbytery (the governing board) and slept over. Sat I returned early due to babysitting difficulties (after the 2nd sitter called out with the stomach flu I gave up), Sat night I prepped for worship/Sunday School.

Sunday=Adult Sunday School and Agape Worship.

Then there’s all the things I wanted to do: prepare more stuff for the farmer’s market, pick up signs from the shop, plot out my scripture passages for the next month, visit all the shut ins (this is esp. due because I’ve been sick), visit some of our community connections, foster relationships, pray more, oh and rest up since I’m on meds for laryngitis (remember how I said I get sick when I don’t take care of myself…well point made God), this doesn’t even include any of the personal stuff I wanted to do…

How do I resolve this? I think I need to set stronger boundaries, but I also need to train my congregation to take better care of me. I am the most likely to take care of myself if someone else reminds me to do so. My husband helps with this, but I still have a long ways to go to doing it “right”. Someday I’ll get the Jubilee right, in the meantime, I’ll strive to keep a better schedule…..l