Giving Thanks

By Kachael J, Michael Parker & Lindsey Baynham

Holy Spirit, You Are Welcome Here!

An Opening Prayer
(Kachael J)

Holy Spirit you are welcome here.

We invite you into this place where we, your orators, your writers, your psalmists, and your worshipers are gathered.

We praise you for the amazing gift you have bestowed upon us. May we never take it for granted that you chose us from the foundations of the world to be here at this time.

Help us to cultivate, nurture, and use the gift that you have placed in us for your glory and honor.

We are nothing without you. We are the writing instruments in the hand of the most capable and creative entity, the Great I am, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha and Omega.

May the works we pen this weekend and from this day forward exalt and reverence the almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. May these works be anointed to encourage, edify, chastise, free, heal, save, teach, forgive, bring purpose, expose, and unify your body.

May they defeat, confuse, tear down, expose, shame, tread-upon, and rebuke the enemy of our souls, the great deceiver, and the stealer of destinies.

With the great counselor as our guide and with our pens in our hand may we write the vision, record our history, and compose a new sound that will reverberate through the ranks of your people.

Awaken within us your purpose and release us to new levels of knowledge of you and your kingdom.

Holy Spirit, come, you are worthy!

God Invites Us!

A Call to Worship
(Michael Parker)

Leader: God invites us to journey into our destiny!
People: We’re moving! God is our guide!

Leader: Can you sense it? God is moving us to unexpected greatness!
People: We are here to move God with our praise! Let the praise begin!

Thank You for Calling Us

A Prayer
(Lindsey Baynham)

Gracious God, for the many members one body, several pieces, one puzzle, and various flavors yet all ice cream we give thanks! We give thanks for the diversity, intricacy, and beauty we find in the people of God. The breadth and depth of the church is truly amazing.

Thank you for calling: the teachers, the doctors, the organized fanatics, the preachers, the musicians, the big-picture thinkers, and the detail people. The laity and the ordained, the worker-bees and the speakers, and the writers.

I’m thankful that God called: the servants, the artists, the advocates, the prophets, and prophetic listeners, the young, the ‘a little bit older,’ the dreamers, the evangelists, and the justice seekers.

Thank you for calling out to Abraham, Moses, Esther, the prophets, the kings, a young virgin, and the Twelve to follow by faith and for continuing to call all people.

Amen.

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Kachael J was a voracious reader growing up and enjoys exploring new worlds through literature. A researcher by training and a worshiper at heart, she desires to see people and communities raised, repaired, and restored by the power of the Holy Spirit and preaching of the gospel. Using one of her hobbies, video editing, Kachael creates videos to encourage and help others in their faith walk. The daughter of a United Methodist ordained elder and a native of Atlanta, Georgia, she currently resides in the Atlanta Metro area and works in commercial real estate.

Rev. Michael Parker is a provisional elder in The United Methodist Church. He pastors Bells United Methodist Church and United Methodist Church of the Redeemer in Prince George's County, Maryland. Rev. Parker is pursuing a DMin at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore. He has been a consistent voice for the voiceless.

Rev. Lindsey Baynham is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church currently serving as the Director of Clergy Excellence in the Virginia Annual Conference. This proud alumna of Randolph-Macon College and Duke Divinity School has a passion for worship design, preaching and teaching, laughter over a meal with friends, and connecting folks.