Prelude - “Jesus, Rose of Sharon” [by C. H. Gabriel] - Sarah Park
Welcome to Mantua Center Christian Church
-- a community seeking to have open minds, open hearts, and open arms.
- Whether online or in the house this morning, we want to welcome you to our service today as the Dr. Rev. Alecia Evans-Hayes brings us a word from God. Please take a few moments and greet those seated near you.
- INVITATION FOR MISSION UPDATES:
While we are singing our fellowship hymn, Weave, Ministry Leaders and congregants are welcome to come forward to the mic, to give a mission update or share ways for people to get involved in missions and ministries.
Response - Weave #495
Weave, weave, weave us together, Weave us together, in unity and love.
Weave, weave, weave us together, weave us together, together in love
Mission Trip Commissioning Brian Hurd & Mission Trip Participants
Will those of you who are participating in the mission trip? Please come forward.
BRIAN HURD: Today our youth of CYF United and their friends will be leaving on a Mission trip. The folks that are going will be staying at a Methodist church, Christ Church in downtown Charleston, West Virginia. They will go in three different groups to work on three different homes. One is the home of a veteran, and the other two are the homes of elderly people. They will be doing painting and building a porch. They will build a small ramp into a mobile home. They will be changing lives.
Pastor Chad and some of his family will also be going on the mission trip. Which shows that you can take the man out of the church, but you can’t take the church out of the man.
The theme of the week is from Amos chapter 5, verse 14:
Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.
We will now commission these people to do the Lord’s work.
BRIAN: Have you heard the call that there are people who need your help? If so, answer, we have heard the call
MISSION TRIP PEOPLE: We have heard the call.
BRIAN: And will you answer the call by lending your time and your talents to help them in their need? If so, answer, we will.
MISSION TRIP PEOPLE: We will.
BRIAN: We have heard your commitment and we thank God for your willingness to answer this call to service.
We rejoice in your service in this location as an extension of the ministry of CYF United and pledge our support and prayers that your mission may be effective. May the Holy Spirit guide us while we are absent one from another.
On behalf of MCCC, in support of CYF United, we commission you to this service. May God bless you and make you a blessing. Amen.
Please pray with me:
God of adventure, we commit these folks to your service in a mission of rebuilding and hope. May they find the joy of working together, of helping those that need help and of walking together in your spirit. Guide them in their travels and open their hearts to the wonders of working to build the kingdom of God. Amen.
To the mission trip people: Go now, on your journey. Godspeed.
*Call to Worship - Katie Baird
One: There are many who have walked God’s path before us, showing us the way with their lives.
All: We come to give thanks for them.
One: God calls us saying “Whom shall I send?”
All: And we say “Here I am, send me.”
One God accepts us as we are, fills us with the Spirit and empowers us to act.
All: God sends us out to be Christ in the world.
*Opening Hymn - When Morning Gilds the Skies #100, v.1-2
1 When morning gilds the skies, my heart awaking cries, may Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer to Jesus I repair; may Jesus Christ be praised!
2 Discordant humankind, in this your concord find, may Jesus Christ be praised!
Let all earth around ring joyous with the sound, may Jesus Christ be praised!
Invitation to Generosity
Invitation - Katie Baird
Offertory - “Fall away in the depths of my spirit” [by W. G. Cooper]
Response “Give Thanks” #528
Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One,
give thanks because he’s given Jesus Christ his Son. Give Thanks!
Offering Prayer - Katie Baird
Children’s Moment - Brian Hurd
Pastoral Prayer & The Lord’s Prayer - Katie Baird
We celebrate your absolute and complete unfairness, God.
You do not give us what we deserve.
You answer our unfaithfulness with generosity.
You do not repay betrayal with vengeance.
You never stop loving when we give every reason for you to stop.
You give us every possible chance, and then still more, to start again.
But our story doesn’t end there.
You invite us into the life of faith
where your impossible grace becomes the standard for our living.
In the silence, we pray for your company
as we try the things we fear most we can’t do:
In the silence,we name the people it is impossible for us to forgive and ask you to walk with us in the journey to grace.
[silence]In the silence we name the people we know we have no right to ask forgiveness of and ask you to walk alongside them with your compassion.
[silence]We name the situations that have no resolution that we can possibly imagine
and pray that will not stop us
from always choosing love.
Your ending is always
and only
love.
May we live to make that the world’s ending too.
Amen
Holy Communion
Meditation - Nora Brant
Hymn - One Bread, One Body #393
Refrain:
One bread, one body, one Lord of all, one cup of blessing which we bless.
And we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.
1 Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man no more. Refrain
2 Many the gifts, many the works, one in the Lord of all. Refrain
3 Grain for the fields, scattered and grown, gathered to one for all. Refrain
Prayer - Katie Baird
Words of Institution - Katie Baird
Music - “Nearer, my God, to Thee” [By L. Mason] Sarah Park
Special Music - “Make Me a Channel of Blessing” (by Lucy Ann Warriner [Euclid]) - Jan Green
Scripture - Genesis 1:26-29, 2:6-7 - Rev. Dr. Alecia Evans-Hayes
Supporting Texts: John 10:10, Romans 7:23, James 4:7, James 1:12-16
Genesis 1:26-29
26Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 27So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.
Genesis 2:6-7
6but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— 7then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.
John 10:10
10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Romans 7:23
23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
James 4:7
7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 1:12-16
12Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. 16Do not be deceived, my beloved.
Sermon - “It’s an Inside Job!” - Rev. Dr. Alecia Evans-Hayes
*Closing Hymn - Fill the World with Love #467, v.1, 4
With the vision in our minds of how the world could be
And the fullness of our heart from the suffering we see
When we make all that we are and have part of God’s destiny
We can fill the world with love. We can fill the world with love.
Let us hesitate no longer in our doubt and our dismay
There’s a power at work within us that has promised a new day
And the time will surely come, it will not be long delayed
When God fills the world with love. When God fills the world with love.
Benediction Katie Baird
As you go from here,
remember to love.
For love is what God asks of us;
it is the very heart and soul
of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
So go from here to love and serve God
by loving and serving those you meet.
And may God—
who loved us first, and who showed us what real love looks like—
be with you and among you
wherever you find yourself in the coming week. Amen.
Postlude - “Come to the Saviour, make no delay” - [by G. F. Root] - Sarah Park