We believe we are created in the image of God, male and female.
Believing that God’s will for us is goodwill, we follow in the footsteps of God’s beloved Son,
Jesus the Christ.
We believe Jesus lived to forgive, and showed us how, by serving one another, we connect to the heart of God.
Jesus’ mission to bind up and heal the broken hearted is our mission also.
We believe and trust Jesus’ saving act of taking all our sin, regret and sorrow
upon his own shoulders.
He bore them to the cross where they died with him.
Jesus was buried in a tomb, but on the third day God raised him from the dead,
as promised.
Not long after his resurrection, also as promised, God sent the Holy Spirit into our midst
speaking truth in every language to all who have ears to hear.
We believe The Spirit is our ever-present advocate, counselor,
and friend teaching us to love God and one another as the Christ loved us.
Praise God! Amen.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
O, most Compassionate and Loving God, we continue to celebrate the resurrection event for seven more Sundays. By your great mercy you have given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection. May we learn to manifest this living hope in all of our work, in our prayers, our ministries, and in every effort put forward to bring about a renewed and adventurous vitality in the life of the church. Make us more than ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Make us visionaries for Christ, receptive to the needs and ideas of all whom we encounter. Help us switch on the high beams of our imagination and creativity to light our path to the future. Ignite in us a willingness to be transformed by the challenges you put before us, and the gifts of those you send into our midst. All this we pray in the name of the Christ. Amen.
INVITATION TO THE OFFERING
There are all sorts of ways we humans can misremember, misapprehend, misappropriate, misquote, misspeak, and even misarticulate what we think are universal, and even biblical truths. For example all sorts of folks have misapprehended this phrase: “God helps those who help themselves.” They think its from the Bible because it mentions God. NOT! Ben Franklin popularized the phrase, for Americans, in Poor Richard’s Almanac, back in 1736, a publication which my father read religiously. Granted it’s true that disciplined Christians don’t wait for God to put food on their table; they work to sustain themselves and their families. But because we apprehend the teachings of our savior we also work to help those who cannot help themselves. According to Acts 4:32, the earliest Christians did not claim private ownership of possessions; everything they owned they held in common.
UNISON OFFERTORY PRAYER
Wondrous and Eternal God, bless these tithes and offerings. We offer them with grateful hearts, trusting that you will guide us to use them wisely, for the edification of Christ’s church and the good of humanity. Jesus taught us that all things are possible with you. May all our work and all of efforts serve your will. In the name of the Christ we pray. Amen.
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