Diane Test – Worship

July 8, 2018: “Life’s Journey by Jesus’s Yoke”

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Come to the table, you who are scattered and torn.
Here we find hope.
Come to the table, you who are scared and lonely.
Here we find love.
Come to the table, you who are tired and tense.
Here we discover guidance and light in our darkness.
Come to the table, you who are happy or sad.
Here our lives are embraced by God’s grace.

Visitors are always welcome!

Rockville United Methodist Church

142 Grove Street
Vernon, CT 06066
860-875-6562

Sunday Worship 10:00 AM
Sunday School 10:00 AM
Adult Sunday School 8:30 AM
Adult Study Thursday 10:00 AM

Nursery service available.

Elements of Worship*

Worship is a highly personal and, at the same time, communal experience. People come together as the Body of Christ to be filled with the necessary spiritual and nurturing energy to act on the great mission to which we all, as Christians, have been called.

Each week, we remember the gift of life Christ by his death on a cross and rising from the grave gave us. This is the new life we celebrate. This is the reason we offer our gratitude and praise through prayer and through music to the Giver of all life.

There’s a pattern in our weekly worship service. Weekly, we follow the same form:

We gather.
We receive.
We respond.
We go– out into the world to serve God and those God puts in our path to teach, preach, heal, and serve.

Every worship service begins with a Gathering time of prayer and praise. We are called to worship, invited to reconnect as a community with the words of The Lord’s Prayer, and sing our praise in the Gloria Patri (Praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

Once we’ve been gathered together and called into a worshipful and waiting attitude and mood, we’re ready to Receive what God is eager to give us. In this part of the services the lessons of our faith are taught first in the children’s moment, then through our anthem, followed by scripture and a time of reflective thought on what we heard as it is interpreted by the sermon. Now the Word of God becomes paramount to growing our faith and living out our mission as Christ’s body, the Church.

Once we have received what God has planned for us, then we are called to Respond in some way. Our time of responding to God’s message for our lives may come as a prayer for ourselves and also for others. It may include a time of confession or a time to pray a prayer of petition and hope. It may include a witness like our Christ Stories, when someone from the congregation shares how the Spirit of Christ is lived out in his or her life. It will also include a time to give our gifts through the offering and our tithe. We even have a sung Prayer response to cap this time of hearing the Word of God, and now sharing the Word of God.

Finally, we come to that portion of the service which sends us out into the world to share the Good News with others. We’ve gathered to worship; we’ve received what we need to find healing and strength for our task; we’ve responded in prayer and song and through our gifts; and now, it’s time to scatter out into the world. We Go prepared to do what we have been called to do…make disciples of all nations and to pass on the peace we have received to those in need.

Our benediction closes the service of worship, but it begins a time of sharing the peace we have received calling us to pass it on. Reminding us we don’t just do worship, we live it daily in our lives.

*With thanks to the blogspot by https://craigyoshihara.wordpress.com/2013/04/28 for the inspiration for this sermon. Pastor Ricki.