5/3/20 Online Worship

Welcome
Good morning! I’m glad to be worshiping with you today in this way. This week you can expect another letter detailing our reopening plans. That will not be happening soon. We will be slowly starting back up. Your safety, an abundance of caution, and love of neighbor are guiding our steps through this. While this is not my preferred way to worship with you, I am glad that I get to worship in this way. I look forward to putting this together every week, but I’m especially looking forward to the day when we can worship together again. 

You can follow along in this bulletin for the service. If you are on a computer, phone, or other mobile device, then you can click on each of the videos as they come up. If you  have a smart tv or streaming device connected to your tv, go to our YouTube channel and then go to playlists. Every Sunday We’ll have a new playlist set up with prayers, songs, and a message. As you come to each of those in the service you can play that video. With a playlist, as soon as one finishes, the next video starts so that all you have to do is hit pause until you’re ready to play again.

​My prayer is that even in this format, we can worship together, and still see God at work.

Peace,
Pastor John

​The video that comes next is a welcome, has a few announcements, and an opening prayer.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Food Pantry will be open on Monday from 3pm-5pm. If you know someone who could benefit from this, please send them our way.

We will be celebrating our graduating seniors once we get closer to the new graduation date of July 19th. If you know of a senior, please let us know.

Will you join us in our first song today, 

Joys & Concerns
We will continue to share our joys and concerns, as well as our prayer requests. Simply follow the link below and fill out the form. If you need to add more, you can fill the form out again. These will be shared with the congregation via email on Monday morning.
Share a joy, concern, and/or prayer request

Prayer
Start the next video, and enter into a time of prayer.
When directed, take a few moments of silent prayer. Please lift up our community as we continue in our cancellations, shut downs, and the challenges they bring. There will be a pastoral prayer, then you are invited to join in the Lord's Prayer which is below.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen

Following the prayer is a video for the Children's Message. When you've finished that video, Linda Bond has a few words for our kids, and a short prayer you can say together.

Children's Message
There are lots of distractions that can draw us away from God, but this week try to take a few minutes each day to quietly think and pray about what God might be saying. 

How can our actions today be an example of God's love?

Let's pray- Dear God, help us to listen to you and act in ways that would be pleasing to you. In Jesus name, Amen

Offering
​Watch your email this week as we introduce something new for us. We’re setting up online giving. You can continue to give by mail, or in person once worship starts back up. This will be a new option for us that works with our existing software. Watch for more information about that this coming week.
As you go through your week this week, look for opportunities that you can give

​Let us pray,
Consoling and Guiding God, we bring our offerings and our very lives to your altar this morning. Many of us come feeling like we are in the midst of a storm, with disagreement and discord buffeting us from all directions. Help us to hear your voice in the midst of this, your call to serve, and your encouragement to endure for the work of the kingdom. Lead us to the light and hope of this Easter season, so we can joyfully and faithfully serve you in the world! In the name of Jesus, our rock and redeemer, we pray. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING                            
Our Scripture Reading comes from Ephesians 1:15-23 (link is for the whole chapter)
15Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that 16I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. 18I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, 19and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength. 20God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens, 21far above every ruler and authority and power and angelic power, any power that might be named not only now but in the future. 22God put everything under Christ’s feet and made him head of everything in the church, 23which is his body. His body, the church, is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in every way.
 
Liturgist: This is the word of God, for the people of God
Congregations’ Response: Thanks be to God!

Would you join in singing our next song

Click here for the Signs video

Reflection
Where do you see miracles happening around you?
How can you be a sign that points others to Jesus?

Please join in singing our final song

Benediction
Read this prayer from the end of Jude
To the one who is able to protect you from falling,
and to present you blameless and rejoicing before his glorious presence,
to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
belong glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time, now and forever. Amen.

The video below is the Signs video about the Gospel of John