Liturgical Resources

Call to Worship

Sometimes God calls us through burning bushes, telling us to go free a whole people despite our insecurities and fears.
God, help us accept your call on our lives.

Sometimes God calls us, and we don’t understand the full meaning of the call, the ways our families, friends, and communities may resist the good news and us as messengers of it.
God, help us accept your call on our lives.

Sometimes God calls us to a path that is harder than we think we can handle, asking us to trust that God will provide what we need.
God, help us accept your call on our lives.

Beloved, God’s call takes many forms. Sometimes it feels as natural as breathing, and sometimes we want to run as far as we can. But take assurance in this: You are not alone. God is with us, and God’s call can be trusted, because no matter where it leads, God is there.
God, help us accept your call on our lives and to trust that what you equip us to do is what you call us to do as members of the Body of Christ. Thanks be to God! Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2026.

Opening Prayer

Pour your Light,
Holy Spirit of God,
into our hearts and minds.
Help us to know more clearly
and grasp more fully the
Good News of Jesus.
And help us then
to know how to share it.
We ask this
through Jesus Christ, who
with You and the Father,
are One God.
Amen.

From the Diocese of Zululand, South Africa. Found in Prayer Encircling the World: An International Anthology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 105.

Prayer of Confession

Christ Jesus, our teacher and our friend, we have not listened for your word amid the clamor of words all around us. We are more pleased to repeat familiar tunes than to listen for new melodies and strange harmonies. We try harder to defend what we think we know than to reach for that which is beyond our grasp. Slow to trust, afraid of the unknown, we are cautious to hear and do your will. We pray for hearts to pay attention to the cries of our neighbor and to resonate with your Spirit. Silence us and instruct us until we learn afresh to sing the songs of faith, hope, and love. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

There is no greater joy in the heart of God
than the moment when a child opens
to the gift of forgiveness.
God’s Spirit reaches out to assure us
of welcome in Christ.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven.
Glory to God! Amen.

Adapted from Allen P. Happ and David B. Bowman in Touch Holiness: Resources for Worship, Updated, eds. Ruth C. Duck and Maren Tirabassi (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2012), 118 and 124.

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Benediction

Beloved, when the path is easy and when the path is rough, when God calls through a burning bush or a still, small voice or a loving rebuke, remember: you are not alone. May God bless you with the courage and humility to accept God’s call and with the assurance that if God calls you, God will equip you. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2026.