Fire Burning Within! A 21st Century Resource for Pentecost Sunday

Call to Worship
Leader: I feel something in this place!

People: It feels like fire burning within!

Leader: It feels fresh and exciting!

People: It feels like fire burning within!

Leader: It feels like uncontainable joy!

People: It feels like fire burning within!

All: It is fire burning within! We are on fire and the world can't put it out!

Opening Prayer
O God, we have prayed for your Spirit to come and dwell among us, and today it has. Continue to ignite in us new possibilities of community and fellowship. Enliven in us the passion to serve and to share. Grow in us the desire to set this world on fire through your Holy Spirit; and in so doing, we shall never be the same. Amen.

Prayer of Confession
Spirit of God among us, you have chased us and far too often we have run from you. We have resisted the call to be blameless in your sight. We have rejected your mandate to eradicate racism and sexism. We have ignored your plea to care for the children and to bless the elderly. Forgive us, we pray, and renew in us a clean heart as we continue to speak a new Holy-Spirit-created language of unity and peace. Amen.

Benediction
Leader: Can you feel the fire!?

People: Yes! It is keeping us alive!

Leader: Then go, spread the fire everywhere; and know that the Pentecostal Lord of life will be with you now and always!

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The Rev. B. Kevin Smalls is the Associate Council Director for Young Adult and Campus Ministries for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

21st Century Africana Liturgy Resources: "Worship Resources for Pentecost Sunday, Copyright 2006 Kevin Smalls. All Rights Reserved. Posted with permission.