Building the Body of Christ through Renewed Worship (Part 5)

Sending Forth

As the closing song dies down, the same heartbeat that was heard at the start of worship begins, signaling to the witnesses (preachers) to also join the assembly as they lead the way back into the margins. Consider this closing litany of sending as an epilogue:

The “cloud of witnesses” has been peering over the balcony of heaven. In this litany of sending, their names are called along with the nameless and those who yet live.

Song of Sending is an 18th century aphorism, attributed to John Wesley. I think of this text as rules for the journey. This ancient (text) and modern (tune) message is quite relevant for twenty-first century disciples seeking to fulfill the Great Commission. It can be found in Zion Still Sings (# 95).

Rule of Life
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

Discussion Starters:

1. Where did you sense God’s presence most in this model?
2. Where did you experience discomfort? Explain.
3. What would you have done differently?
4. Are there person(s) within your faith community who are unable to fully participate in corporate worship?
5. How might you begin to address this as worship leader?

Worship Resources

Opening Prayer - Dururu is a prayer chant that originates with one of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines known as the Aetas. Through this free-flowing, spontaneous prayer the Aetas offer chants of joy, praise, lament, celebration or whatever erupts from within the depths of their being.

Call to Worship Reprinted by permission of the publishers from Touch Holiness, ed. Ruth C. Duck and Maren Tirabassi. © 1990 by The Pilgrim Press. Adapted by Cynthia A. Wilson, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Invocation © Cynthia A. Wilson, 2011

Prayer of Confession and Pardon © Cynthia A. Wilson, 2011

Invitation © Cynthia A. Wilson, 2011

Great Thanksgiving Reprinted by permission from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, © 1993 Westminster John Knox Press. Adapted by Anne Ferguson, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Lord’s Prayer © Jim Cotter, Prayer at Night, Cairns Publications, 1981, available in the United States from Morehouse Publishing and currently in the United Kingdom in a new edition, Praying the Dark Hours, published by The Canterbury Press.

Closing Litany adapted from “A Litany to Honor Women” by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove and Enuma Okoro. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals (Grand Rapids; Zondervan, 2010).

Music Resources:

• Circles of Care: Hymns and Songs (COC) - The Pilgrim Press
• For Everyone Born: Global Songs for an Emerging Church (GS) – GBGMusik (GBGM)
• Lead Me, Guide Me : African American Catholic Hymnal (LMGM) – GIA Publications
• One World, Many Voices: An Interfaith Song Book (OWMV) – Interfaih Center at the Presidio
• The Faith We Sing (TFWS) – Abingdon Press
• United Methodist Hymnal (UMH) - United Methodist Publishing House
• Worship & Song (WS) – Abingdon Press
• Worshipping Ecumenically (WE) - WCC Publications Geneva
• Zion Still Sings: For Every Generation (ZSS) – Abingdon Press

Other Resources:

• The Africana Worship Book Series (AW) – Discipleship Resources
• “The Praise of God in the Theological Reflection of the Church” by Geoffrey Wainwright. Primary Sources of Liturgical Theology: A Reader, Dwight Vogel, ed., (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press/ A Pueblo Book, 2000.
• “Ritual and Verbal Image” by David N. Power. Primary Sources of Liturgical Theology: A Reader, Dwight Vogel, ed., Collegeville: The Liturgical Press/A Pueblo Book, 2000.
• Worship for the Whole People of God: Textbook for Christian Worship by Ruth C. Duck. Westminster: John Knox Press, 2012.