This is a planning preview shared before the series begins. Sermon focus, scripture, music selections, and worship elements may be adapted or revised as the series develops. Pastors and worship planners are welcome to use and adapt this approach for your own context.

Every summer, stages light up and screens flicker with stories that pull us in: stories about generosity that doesn’t add up, faithfulness when nobody’s watching, searching for what’s lost, and being called to something you don’t feel ready for. These aren’t just Hollywood scripts or community theater productions. They’re parables, and parables have always been God’s favorite way of finding us.

Over four weeks (June 21 through July 12), we pair the summer’s biggest stage and screen stories with the parables and passages that mirror them, discovering that the gospel has been telling these stories long before the credits rolled.

Visual Theme

The series uses a vintage marquee and billboard aesthetic with warm golden amber marquee lights against radiating blue sky sunbeams and a Kansas pastoral landscape. The feel is outdoor movie night meets rural Kansas: warm, inviting, nostalgic. Not slick Hollywood but hometown theater magic.

The altar features a one-time installation at the beginning of the series: a marquee-inspired display with warm string lights and a simple “Now Showing” frame that changes the sermon title each week.

The Golden Ticket

The Golden Ticket invites the whole congregation into a shared experience. Starting June 14, gold-colored cards will encourage congregants to see each week’s stage or screen story before Sunday worship. The back of each card lists all four weeks with the story, dates, and a viewing guide. Partnership conversations with McPherson Community Theatre and the local movie theater are creating natural cross-promotion opportunities (group rates, popcorn vouchers, concession discounts for ticket holders). The premise is simple: see the show, then hear the gospel.

Week-by-Week Overview

Week 1: June 21 — Grace That Seems Unfair

Scripture: Matthew 20:1-16 (Workers in the Vineyard)
Sermon Type: General | Primary Promise: Gifts
Special Focus: Father’s Day; UMMen Sunday; John Wesley Fellowship Award (8:30 service); Willy Wonka at McPherson Community Theatre

The landowner pays the five o’clock workers the same as the dawn crew, and the dawn crew isn’t happy about it. Willy Wonka hands a golden ticket to Charlie Bucket, who did nothing to earn it. Grace doesn’t follow our accounting. This parable confronts every instinct to measure, compare, and resent, and invites us to discover that God’s generosity isn’t a limited resource. On Father’s Day, we celebrate the kind of love that gives without keeping score.

Hymns / Organ

• “Amazing Grace” (UMH 378)

• “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (UMH 121)

• “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (UMH 400)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• “No Longer Slaves” — Bethel Music

• “Goodness of God” — Bethel Music

• “Your Grace Is Enough” — Matt Maher

Week 2: June 28 — Faithful When No One’s Watching

Scripture: Matthew 25:14-30 (Parable of the Valuable Coins)
Sermon Type: Formation | Primary Promise: Service
Special Focus: Toy Story 5 in theaters; Youth Trip to Texas begins

A master entrusts coins to three servants and leaves town. Two invest boldly. One buries the gift in fear. In Toy Story, the toys come alive when no one’s looking; their character shows in the moments nobody sees. What do we do with what we’ve been given when the boss isn’t watching? This is a formation text about developing our gifts through faithful practice, not hoarding them out of fear. The buried coin isn’t punished for failing. It’s confronted for never trying.

Hymns / Organ

• “Take My Life, and Let It Be” (UMH 399)

• “Trust and Obey” (UMH 467)

• “Be Thou My Vision” (UMH 451)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• “Build My Life” — Housefires

• “Faithful” — Elevation Worship

• “Do It Again” — Elevation Worship

Week 3: July 5 — Worth Searching For

Scripture: Luke 15:1-10 (Lost Sheep and Lost Coin)
Sermon Type: General | Primary Promise: Presence (with Prayers as secondary)
Special Focus: Pastor Appreciation / Welcome Back Sunday; Minions & Monsters in theaters

A shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for one. A woman tears her house apart for a single lost coin. In Minions & Monsters, the creatures nobody takes seriously turn out to be exactly what the story needs. God doesn’t write off the lost, the small, or the overlooked. God searches relentlessly. On Pastor Appreciation and Welcome Back Sunday, we celebrate a community that searches for one another. The question isn’t whether you’re worth finding. God already answered that.

Hymns / Organ

• “Softly and Tenderly” (UMH 348)

• “Blessed Assurance” (UMH 369)

• “I Sought the Lord” (UMH 341)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• “Good Good Father” — Chris Tomlin

• “Who You Say I Am” — Hillsong

• “So Will I” — Hillsong

Week 4: July 12 — Called Before You’re Ready

Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 (Paul’s Testimony of Mercy and Calling)
Accompanying Text: Luke 15:4-7 (Lost Sheep)
Sermon Type: Call | Primary Promise: Witness
Special Focus: Moana live-action remake in theaters; series conclusion

Paul calls himself the worst of sinners, and in the same breath he says Christ Jesus considered him faithful and appointed him to serve. Moana hears the ocean calling long before she feels ready to answer it. Calling doesn’t wait for readiness. God doesn’t look for the most qualified. God looks for the willing. This final sermon invites the congregation to consider what God is calling you toward that you don’t feel ready for. The series concludes with the discovery that every story, on stage, on screen, and in scripture, is really God’s story finding us.

Hymns / Organ

• “Here I Am, Lord” (UMH 593)

• “The Summons” (TFWS 2130)

• “God of Grace and God of Glory” (UMH 577)

Contemporary / Praise Team

• “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” — Hillsong United

• “The Commission” — CAIN

• “Send Me Out” — Steve Fee

The Arc of the Series

Each week pairs a scripture with a stage or screen story already familiar in the culture, creating shared reference points across the congregation. Week 1 confronts how grace can feel unfair when it refuses our accounting. Week 2 asks who we are when no one is watching. Week 3 wonders what or whom is worth searching for. Week 4 asks whether readiness is required for calling. Four parables, four cultural stories, one running discovery: the gospel keeps finding us in places we didn’t expect to be reached.

Targeted Audience Connections

The summer’s pop culture lineup gives families a shared experience to bring to worship. Kids who already love Willy Wonka, Toy Story, Minions, and Moana get to discover the gospel woven through those stories. Movie and theater lovers in the wider community find a low-barrier invitation: come see the show, then hear the sermon. Newcomers and seekers encounter Jesus’s most accessible teaching form, parables, wrapped in stories everyone can relate to.

Inter-Series Connections

The Gospel on Stage and Screen sits between Tending the Soul (ending June 14) and Passing the Flame (starting July 19). Where Tending the Soul cultivates practices for noticing God at work, this series puts that noticing into practice with the cultural stories already shaping our imaginations. Grace Groups Summer Pilot launches June 17, four days before the first sermon, creating a natural small group connection point throughout the series. Each sermon stands alone, so summer travel doesn’t break the arc.

“I pray that you will then be filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes from Jesus Christ, in order to give glory and praise to God.” — Philippians 1:11 (CEB)

Paul closes this prayer with an image: filled with the fruit of righteousness. Not striving after it. Not earning it. Filled with it, like a tree in full summer, heavy with fruit because of what’s been happening quietly underground.

Righteousness, in Paul’s vocabulary, isn’t moral perfection. It’s right relationship with God. Fruit is what shows up when that relationship is healthy. You can’t produce fruit by willpower. You can only stay rooted and let it grow.

The end goal isn’t private holiness. Paul says this fruit exists “to give glory and praise to God.” The fruit isn’t for us. It’s for the watching world. Our lives become visible evidence that God’s work is real.

God who fills us with fruit we didn’t grow, keep us rooted. Christ, the vine that holds us. Holy Spirit, ripen in us what gives God glory. Amen.

Recently I drove an hour to a hospital ahead of a procedure. The visit lasted longer than I expected, but no one would have called it long. Loved ones were present. Prayer, conversation, the kind of presence that doesn’t require a script. Then I drove home.

The calendar math on a trip like that doesn’t add up. Two hours of windshield time for what most people would describe as a brief encounter. There were emails I could have answered in those two hours. A sermon I could have edited. Phone calls I could have returned. By any productivity logic, sending a card and a text would have done most of what was needed.

Except it wouldn’t have.

There’s a line that keeps coming back to me. A trip like that is the kind of thing that’s easy to second-guess on the calendar and hard to regret once you’ve done it.

The discipline of pastoral presence is not the discipline of doing more. It’s the discipline of recognizing which moments the calendar can’t measure. Some encounters require physical proximity. Some prayers need to be prayed in the same room. Some news needs to arrive on someone’s doorstep instead of in their inbox. Trying to translate those moments into a more efficient form usually subtracts something the people on the other end can feel even when they can’t name it.

This isn’t only a clergy problem. Anyone who has weighed the trip to a hospital, the funeral two states away, or the friend in crisis across town, anyone who has asked whether a phone call would do, has run some version of the same calendar math. The honest answer is that the phone call would do, in a literal sense. The voicemail would communicate. The card would arrive. None of those alternatives are wrong.

What changes is what gets carried forward. I learned this early in ministry from other clergy who demonstrated by example and encouraged me to do the same. I like being efficient, and the practice didn’t always make sense to me. They made the trips anyway. They kept saying it made a difference. I’ve come to know it from experience since, partly from the trips I’ve taken and partly from a few important visits I missed.

That morning visit won’t show up in any metric anyone tracks. No one in that hospital room will remember the exact words of any prayer. They won’t think back on the conversation as the thing that changed everything. By the calendar, that hour was less productive than the hour I gave up to drive there. By the kind of math the calendar can’t do, it was the one thing that needed to happen before lunch.

The problem with this discipline is that you can never quite prove you got it right. The trips you don’t make rarely come back to haunt you in any traceable way. The trips you do make rarely produce evidence dramatic enough to vindicate the time. You’re left to trust that the hour was worth the math you couldn’t justify on paper.

Easy to second-guess. Hard to regret.

When something inside you says go anyway, that’s worth listening to.

“This is my prayer: that your love might become even more and more rich with knowledge and all kinds of insight.” — Philippians 1:9 (CEB)

Paul doesn’t pray for the Philippians to love more. He prays for their love to grow smarter. Love rich with knowledge. Love sharpened by insight. Love that can decide what really matters.

This is a distinctly Wesleyan idea. John Wesley insisted that faith engages heart and mind together. Love without discernment becomes sentimental. Knowledge without love becomes cold. But love that grows rich with insight becomes wise. It knows when to speak and when to listen, when to hold on and when to release, when to comfort and when to challenge.

God isn’t interested in keeping us naïve. The spiritual life is a journey toward greater clarity, not less. As love matures, it doesn’t get softer. It gets wiser.

The prayer for someone you love today might be the hardest one: not more feeling, but more discernment.

God of love and wisdom, grow us into people whose love is rich with knowledge. Christ, you loved with discernment. Holy Spirit, help us decide what really matters. Amen.

“I have good reason to think this way about all of you because I keep you in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace, both during my time in prison and in the defense and support of the gospel.” — Philippians 1:7 (CEB)

Paul is in chains when he writes these words. He cannot visit Philippi. He cannot preach from their pulpit. He cannot share a meal at their table. But he carries them in his heart, and isn’t embarrassed to say so.

There’s vulnerability here that’s easy to miss. Paul, the fierce apostle, the theological heavyweight, admits he needs these people. Not just their money or their prayers, but their presence in his inner life. He lets them matter to him.

Most of us resist this. We’d rather be the ones who have it together, the ones who give help rather than receive it. But Paul models something essential. Letting people matter to you is not weakness. It’s the architecture of faith.

You were designed to carry others and to be carried. Both require the same thing: an open heart.

God who keeps us in your heart, give us courage to need each other. Christ, you wept with friends. Holy Spirit, soften our resistance to being held. Amen.

A pastor inviting a congregation to read a business book together. I know how that sounds.

For the next five months, the McPherson First Leadership Board is reading Patrick Lencioni’s The Advantage, a book about organizational health. Every other Wednesday, starting today, I’m publishing a companion post here on Substack so the rest of the congregation, plus anyone outside the church who’s curious, can read along with us.

The reasonable question is, why? Why would a church take time it could spend on prayer and discipleship and service, and instead spend it on a framework written for executives?

Here’s my answer. Organizational health is not a worldly distraction from spiritual work. It is part of spiritual work. The people of God have been doing this work for thousands of years. We just called it faithfulness.

The Church Has Always Done This

Read Acts 6 and you find the early church doing organizational health work. The Hellenist widows were being neglected in the daily food distribution. The system was breaking down. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the disciples, named the problem, and asked the community to choose seven trusted leaders to share the work. The text matters. “It isn’t right for us to set aside proclamation of God’s word in order to serve tables. Brothers and sisters, carefully choose seven well-respected men from among you. They must be well-respected and endowed by the Spirit with exceptional wisdom. We will put them in charge of this concern.” That is not a corporate restructuring. That is the body of Christ figuring out how to keep its promises to its most vulnerable members.

Read Exodus 18 and you find Jethro pulling Moses aside. “What you are doing isn’t good. You will end up totally wearing yourself out, both you and these people who are with you. The work is too difficult for you. You can’t do it alone.” Jethro then proposes a tiered leadership structure: leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. Moses listens. The work continues, and Moses survives.

Read 1 Corinthians 12 and Paul describes the church as a body with many parts, each with a distinct function, each indispensable to the whole. That is ecclesiology, yes. It is also a working theory of how a healthy organization operates.

Lencioni gives us modern language and a clean framework. The church gives us ancient practice and theological depth. They belong together. When a community of faith asks who we are, how we behave, what we do, how we will succeed, what matters most right now, and who must do what, that community is not borrowing the world’s questions. The community is asking the questions it has always asked, in language a wider audience can understand.

Why the Leadership Board Is Reading This

Our Leadership Board affirmed two answers on April 22, 2026, by unanimous voice vote.

Mission: To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Values: Love boldly. Serve joyfully. Lead courageously.

Those are the first two of Lencioni’s six questions. Why do we exist, and how do we behave. The other four questions, what do we do, how will we succeed, what is most important right now, and who must do what, are still in front of us. We will work them through over the summer, one Board meeting at a time, with the book as a shared text and scripture as the deeper ground.

This is not a strategic planning project. This is the slow work of clarity, the kind of work that makes everything else possible.

The Shape of the Journey

The Board reads in five sections, one per month, May through September. Each Board meeting includes a discussion of that month’s reading, with theological framing and scripture anchors built into the agenda.

The Reading Together series here on Substack runs alongside that. Eleven posts in total, every other Wednesday through October 7. Each post pairs a written reflection with a 3 to 5 minute video. The text and the video do different things. The text develops the theological frame. The video carries the personal pastoral voice. They complement each other; they do not duplicate. You can read the post without watching the video, or watch the video without reading the post, but the richer experience is both.

Two audiences are welcome here. McPherson First members, friends, and staff, who get a window into the work the Board is doing and shared vocabulary for how we plan and communicate together. And anyone outside the church who is curious about what happens when a faith community takes organizational health seriously. Pastors, lay leaders, board chairs in nonprofits, anyone wrestling with the same questions in a different setting. You are welcome here.

Two things I’m not promising. I’m not promising this will always feel inspiring. Some of these conversations get into meetings, accountability structures, and language discipline. That is the point. And I’m not promising tidy conclusions. The Board is doing real work in real time. The posts will reflect that.

What I am promising is theological depth, real field notes from inside a working congregation, and an honest invitation to think alongside us.

How to Read Along

Three ways to engage.

• Pick up a copy of The Advantage at the McPherson First church office. Limited copies are available for free pickup, first come, first served.

• Order your own copy. The book is widely available in print, ebook, and audio.

• Or just read the posts. The posts are designed to stand on their own. You’ll get the theological frame and the field notes whether or not you read the book.

By October, I plan to compile the eleven posts and the field notes from our Board meetings into a companion guide that other churches can use. That work is being done in the open, on this Substack, with you reading alongside.

The first reading post lands here on Wednesday, May 20, when the Board takes up the introduction and the case for organizational health. Watch for it.

For now, the invitation is simple. Come with us.

“I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 1:6 (CEB)

“The one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job.” Paul writes this with astonishing confidence. Not hedged. Not conditional. Sure.

Notice where the confidence lives. Paul isn’t confident in the Philippians. He’s confident in God. The guarantee isn’t that they’ll get it right. The guarantee is that God doesn’t quit.

That distinction changes everything. If your faith depends on your consistency, your best intentions, your track record, you’re in trouble. But if the one completing the work is the same one who started it, then the unfinished places in your life aren’t evidence of failure. They’re evidence of ongoing construction.

God started something in you. God isn’t gone. The work continues. Your job is to stay present to the project, not to finish it by yourself.

God who stays through every unfinished place, thank you for not giving up on us. Christ, you began the work. Holy Spirit, keep us present to it. Amen.

These worship elements are an early draft being shared as a preview for the upcoming service. The final version used in worship may be adapted or revised. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.

Welcome

Nobody gets through the hard stuff alone, and today’s scripture celebrates the people who show up when life takes an unexpected turn.

Welcome to McPherson First United Methodist Church! I’m [NAME], and I’m delighted you’re here this morning.

We’re forming disciples of Jesus Christ who love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously. Whether you’ve been part of this congregation for decades or this is your very first Sunday, you belong here.

Five membership promises shape how we grow in our faith and how we support one another on the journey: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. You’ll hear each of these named as we worship together today.

If you’re new or looking for your next step, visit mcphersonfirst.org/next or download the Church Center app. You can check in, request prayer, find ways to serve, or give. You can also text CONNECT to 620-241-3626 to stay in the loop.

8:30 addition: I invite you to join in our responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.

Call to Worship

Leader: We do not walk this road of faith alone.
People: God gives us companions for the journey.
Leader: Even in difficult seasons, joy grows between us.
People: We are grateful for those who share the way.
Leader: God began a good work in us and will bring it to completion.
People: We trust the One who holds us together.
Leader: Come, let us worship the God of partnership and grace.
People: We praise God with thankful hearts!

Welcome Your Neighbor

Paul wrote to the Philippians from a prison cell, and the first thing he told them was how thankful he was for their partnership. Faith was never meant to be a solo journey. This is what witness looks like: showing up for one another and inviting others into the circle.

As you greet one another, think about who isn’t here today. Who might you invite next week?

Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.

Opening Prayer

God of every partnership and every good beginning, we gather grateful for the people who walk beside us. Open our hearts to your word. Deepen our bonds with one another. Send us out stronger together than we ever could be alone. Amen.

Invitation to Prayer and Pastoral Prayer

We’re about to enter a time of prayer together. Whether you’re here in person or joining us online, know that God hears every prayer, whether spoken aloud or kept quiet in your heart. During our prayer, there will be a couple of moments of silence. Use these pauses however feels right to you, perhaps to listen for God’s voice, to offer your own prayers, or simply to rest in God’s presence.

Prayers is one of the five membership promises, and you’re never alone in your prayer journey. You can submit prayer requests anytime by texting PRAY to 620-241-3626. If you’d like to join our prayer team and receive prayer prompts throughout the week, text PRAYERTEAM to that same number.

Will you pray with me?

God of companionship and grace, you created us for relationship, with you and with one another. We pause now to quiet our hearts and open ourselves to your presence.

(Brief pause)

We praise you for the gift of partnership. You did not leave Paul alone in prison. You did not leave the Philippians without encouragement. You do not leave us without people who share the journey. Thank you for every person who has walked beside us through unexpected turns: the friends who listened, the family who showed up, the strangers who became companions.

We confess that we sometimes try to carry everything alone. We resist asking for help. We forget that needing others is not weakness but the way you designed us to live.

(Moment of silent reflection)

We lift to you those who feel isolated today, those grieving, those facing transitions, those carrying burdens too heavy for one person. We pray for mothers and all who nurture others, especially those for whom this day brings complicated feelings. We pray for our graduates stepping into unknown futures, and for this congregation as we partner together in your mission.

Gather all these prayers, spoken and silent, and weave them into your good purposes. We pray in Jesus’ name, joining our voices in the prayer he taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Invitation to Give and Check-In

Paul thanked the Philippians for being his partners in the gospel from the very first day. Every act of generosity, then and now, sustains the ministry we share. We respond to God’s faithfulness by practicing gifts ourselves.

Thank you to those who give faithfully week after week. Your generosity sustains this ministry and makes everything we do possible. And if today is your first time giving, thank you for taking that step. Your gift matters, and we’re grateful you’re part of what God is doing here.

You can give through the offering plate, online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, through the Church Center app, or by texting GIVE to 620-241-3626.

As the offering is received, I also invite you to check in through the Church Center app, at mcphersonfirst.org/next, or using the attendance pad in your row. Checking in is how we practice presence: showing up and being counted among the body of Christ.

Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We’ve given our gifts and offered our prayers. Now we’re sent to practice service, to be God’s hands and feet in our community. Will you pray with me?

Faithful God, thank you for the gifts we’ve shared today. You began a good work in this congregation, and you will bring it to completion. Use our offerings to strengthen every partnership that serves your kingdom. Amen.

Will you please stand as we sing together?

Benediction

Go now as partners in the gospel. Love boldly. Serve joyfully. Lead courageously. And may the God who began a good work in you carry it to completion. Amen.

“I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now.” — Philippians 1:5 (CEB)

Paul doesn’t call the Philippians his audience or his converts. He calls them partners. The Greek word is koinonia: shared life, shared risk, shared work. From the beginning they didn’t just listen to Paul’s preaching. They funded it, traveled with him, defended him when he was in trouble, and carried the gospel when he couldn’t.

Partnership changes the math. A speaker reaches whoever shows up. Partners reach everyone they know. The Philippian church multiplied Paul’s ministry because they refused to stay on the receiving end.

Faith gets flattened when it becomes a performance we watch. Partnership invites a different posture. You have something to contribute, something only you can offer. The gospel moves forward through ordinary people who sign on as coworkers rather than spectators.

God of shared life and calling, thank you for inviting us into partnership. Christ, you made disciples into co-laborers. Holy Spirit, show us where our contribution belongs. Amen.

I invite you to connect with the voices of the Bible as we explore one of the most moving letters in scripture, a letter written from a prison cell that overflows not with complaint, but with gratitude for the people who walked alongside.

Paul writes to the church at Philippi from Roman imprisonment. These believers had supported him financially, prayed for him, and stood with him through difficult seasons. And yet his opening doesn’t focus on his hardship. It focuses on partnership.

The word Paul uses is koinonia, far more than attendance or casual support. It describes mutual participation in something larger than themselves. Paul wasn’t managing volunteers for his project. He was joined with the Philippians in the gospel’s own advancing movement. This partnership carried real cost. The Philippians were the only church that supported Paul financially, and they did it repeatedly, tangibly sharing his suffering. When Paul says he keeps them in his heart while imprisoned, he’s not being sentimental. He’s naming the architecture of his survival. He was not abandoned. He was carried by a community he couldn’t see or touch.

Notice what Paul doesn’t do. He doesn’t minimize their struggle by telling them to be strong on their own. He doesn’t pretend that faith is a solo journey. Instead, he celebrates that they were never meant to walk this road alone.

This matters because many of us carry a belief that needing people is weakness. We struggle to ask for help. We show up at church smiling on Sunday morning while the weight of the week sits heavy on our shoulders. We answer “fine” when someone asks how we’re doing, even when fine is the last word that fits. But Paul, sitting in a Roman prison, facing circumstances that would justify complaint, Paul writes to say: I am grateful for you. I couldn’t do this without you.

What would change if we believed that? What would shift in how we live if we understood that partnership isn’t something nice to add to faith, it’s the way God designed us to live?

The Methodist movement was built on this conviction. John Wesley’s class meetings were small groups where people asked each other, “How is it with your soul?” They were not afterthoughts to real faith. They were the means through which faith itself deepened. This summer, we’re launching Grace Groups to carry on that same Wesleyan practice of intentional spiritual community. Small gatherings of six to eight people meet weekly for an hour to practice koinonia: shared accountability, shared growth, shared faith.

The beautiful promise embedded in Paul’s letter is this: You are not alone. The same God who sustained Paul through imprisonment, the same God who stirred the hearts of the Philippians to stand with him, is still weaving community. God began a good work in you and will bring it to completion. And God is doing it through partnership. Through the people who show up. Through the community that carries you when you cannot carry yourself.

This week, listen for your name. Notice who walks beside you. And find the courage to let them help you carry the load.

This is part of the Voices of the Bible series from Andrew Conard. Each week we explore the scripture passage for the upcoming sermon, helping you encounter the text before Sunday morning.

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“I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy.” — Philippians 1:3-4 (CEB)

Paul sits in a prison cell when he writes these words. Every reason for bitterness is available to him. Yet when he mentions the Philippians in prayer, gratitude rises. Every time. Not selectively. Not on good days only. Every time.

There’s a practice hidden in this sentence worth noticing. Paul has trained himself to connect the memory of certain people to thanksgiving. Their faces appear in his mind, and gratitude follows. That kind of response doesn’t happen by accident. It grows through repetition, through the slow discipline of giving thanks for the people God has placed in your life.

Who comes to mind when you pray? What if their names became triggers of thanksgiving instead of worry? The people you carry in prayer shape the posture of your heart.

God of every grateful memory, train our hearts to thank you for the people we love. Christ, you prayed for your friends. Holy Spirit, turn our prayers into joy. Amen.

A note for readers: I’m away from the pulpit on May 3. Pastor Chantel Makarawa is preaching her own message at McPherson First UMC. The manuscript below is what I prepared for the Senior Sunday stop in the Fresh Start series. Sharing it here for subscribers who want to read along with the series.

In a few days, our seniors will walk across a stage, recei…

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Paul walks alone into Athens, a city of philosophers and altars to gods he doesn’t recognize. Instead of shrinking into silence, he pays attention, builds a bridge, and speaks truth with grace. What he carries from home, his faith and his courage, turns out to be enough.

New to Grace Groups? Grace Groups are small communities of 6 to 8 people who meet weekly to grow deeper in faith and support each other. They’re a place to be honest about your faith journey and watch over each other in love, not a Bible study, not a therapy group, not a place to fix each other’s problems. The format is simple, the conversation is real, and over time, these become the people who know your story. Every meeting follows the same five-part rhythm below.

1. Center

Open with prayer or a moment of silence. Take a breath. Let the week fall away.

God who is never far from any of us, thank you for meeting us wherever we are this week. Open our eyes to recognize where you are already at work, and give us courage to speak with honesty, humility, and hope. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

2. Soul Tending

Check in with where you are spiritually, not where you think you should be. These five areas can help you find your way into the conversation. Pick the one or two that feel most alive, or most stuck, right now.

• Prayers — How is your prayer life? What are you reading or listening to?

• Presence — How has worship or being with other Christians shaped your week?

• Gifts — Where are you giving your time, money, or energy?

• Service — Where are you serving? What does that look like right now?

• Witness — Where have you shared your faith or lived it out loud?

This week’s scripture follows Paul into a foreign city, where what he carries from home becomes exactly what he needs. As you check in, consider:

• Where have you recently felt like you were in a foreign place?

• What parts of your faith have become your “native language” over time?

• Paul’s distress in Athens turned into grief, not anger. What stirs that same grief in you?

3. God Sightings

Share something from this week where you noticed God moving, in your life, in someone else’s, or in the world around you. Big or small, it counts.

• Where did you see God already at work before you arrived this week?

• Who has been a bridge-builder for you, meeting you where you were?

• What “altar to an unknown god” have you noticed in your own life lately, a place of unnamed longing or searching?

4. Growing in Grace

Name something you’re carrying, a decision, a fear, a next step you’ve been avoiding. The group isn’t here to fix it. Just to hear it, sit with you in it, and pray.

• Witness is our focus this week. What conversation is God nudging you toward?

• Paul invited the Athenians to take one next step. What next step could you offer someone?

• What do you carry from this community that will help you find your voice in your next foreign place?

5. Close

Pray for each other before you leave.

Each person shares one prayer need in a sentence. Then someone in the group prays for them out loud. Keep it simple: “God, I pray for [name]...” and one or two sentences is plenty.

God is not far from any one of us. In God we live, move, and exist. Carry that with you into every foreign place this week.

“God overlooks ignorance of these things in times past, but now directs everyone everywhere to change their hearts and lives.” — Acts 17:30 (CEB)

All week we’ve traveled with Paul through Athens — noticing what floods our attention, finding the altars we’ve already built, discovering that God gives life and breath without needing anything in return, recognizing that every nation shares one origin, and reaching out toward a God who was never far away. Now Paul lands on the urgent word: everyone everywhere. Not just the Jews in the synagogue. Not just the philosophers on Mars Hill. Everyone. The scope of God’s invitation is as wide as creation itself. Paul doesn’t end with a comfortable theological idea. He ends with a call to change — hearts and lives, not just opinions. And he grounds it in resurrection. God proved the truth of this message by raising someone from the dead. That’s not an abstract claim. It’s an event that reordered everything. The God who isn’t far away is also the God who acts — decisively, historically, personally. Today, as you hear this text preached, listen for where God is directing you to change. Not everyone else. You. The invitation is as personal as it is universal.

God who directs everyone everywhere, we hear your call to change our hearts and lives. Christ, your resurrection proved that death doesn’t get the last word. Holy Spirit, make this Sunday’s worship the moment something shifts in us. Amen.

“In God we live, move, and exist. As some of your own poets said, ‘We are his offspring.’” — Acts 17:28 (CEB)

Paul quotes their poets back to them. He doesn’t arrive with foreign language and foreign ideas and demand that Athens learn his vocabulary. He finds the truth already embedded in their culture and names it. “In God we live and move and exist.” This is the most intimate claim about God in all of Scripture — that God isn’t a distant force to be appeased but the very atmosphere in which every moment of your life takes place. You don’t go to God. You’re already in God. Every step, every breath, every conversation this week happened inside the presence of a God who holds all things together. You are not trying to find your way to a faraway deity. You are God’s offspring, already held, already known.

Tomorrow we gather to explore what it looks like to find your voice in a foreign place — and to discover that the God who made everything isn’t waiting for you to arrive. God is already there. Join us at 8:30 a.m. with hymns and organ music, or 10:15 a.m. with our praise team. Online worship is available at mcphersonfirst.org/worship/pages/online-worship.

God in whom we live and move and exist, we are your offspring — known, held, and loved before we ever reached for you. Christ, you stood in foreign places and spoke the truth with grace. Holy Spirit, prepare our hearts for worship tomorrow. Amen.

“God made the nations so they would seek him, perhaps even reach out to him and find him. In fact, God isn’t far away from any of us.” — Acts 17:27 (CEB)

“Perhaps even reach out to him and find him.” Paul uses tentative language here — perhaps, reach out, find. The search for God isn’t a guaranteed straight line. It’s more like reaching in the dark, hoping your hand lands on something solid. And Paul says it does. God isn’t far away from any of us. Not from the person who has been searching for decades and still isn’t sure. Not from the person who stopped searching years ago because the disappointment was too heavy. Not from the graduating senior about to leave everything familiar behind. The promise isn’t that the search will be easy or that doubt won’t show up. The promise is that the God you’re reaching for is reaching back — and the distance between you is shorter than you think. Every honest question, every moment of wonder, every ache for meaning is your hand reaching out. And God is close enough to grab it.

God who is never far away, give courage to everyone still reaching. Christ, you came close so we wouldn’t have to search alone. Holy Spirit, shorten the distance between our doubt and your presence. Amen.

“From one person God created every human nation to live on the whole earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.” — Acts 17:26 (CEB)

Paul stood in one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the ancient world and made a radical claim: every nation, every people, every culture comes from one source. In Athens, where Greek philosophers considered non-Greeks to be barbarians, this was not a safe thing to say. It still isn’t. We build entire systems around the idea that some people belong more than others — that nationality, ethnicity, or culture determines worth. Paul dismantles all of it in a single sentence. From one person. Every human nation. The person sitting across from you at work, the family that just moved in down the street, the stranger whose language you don’t speak — you share an origin. God determined the boundaries of lands, but never intended those boundaries to become walls between people who belong to each other. Belonging isn’t something you earn. It’s something God built into the fabric of creation.

God who created every nation from one ancestor, break down the walls we build between your children. Christ, you crossed every boundary to reach us. Holy Spirit, expand our sense of family until it matches yours. Amen.

“Nor is God served by human hands, as though he needed something, since he is the one who gives life, breath, and everything else.” — Acts 17:25 (CEB)

The Athenians built an altar inscribed “To an Unknown God.” They covered their bases. If there was a deity they’d missed, they wanted credit for trying. It was a hedge, not a confession. But Paul saw something truer in that inscription than the Athenians intended. They were more right than they knew. The God they didn’t know was the only one who didn’t need their altar.

Every other god in Athens required something: sacrifices, rituals, attention, appeasement. But the unknown God, Paul says, doesn’t need to be served by human hands. This God gives life, breath, and everything else. The altar “To an Unknown God” was the most honest thing in Athens, because it admitted what none of the other altars could: we’re reaching for something we haven’t yet grasped.

We do this too. We build altars to what we think God wants: our productivity, our performance, our exhausting efforts to be enough. Paul says the real God doesn’t need any of it. The God you haven’t fully known yet is the one who has been sustaining your every breath while you were busy trying to earn it.

God who gives life, breath, and everything else, forgive us for acting as though you need our performance. Christ, you showed us that grace flows one direction, from God to us. Holy Spirit, help us receive today what we cannot earn. Amen.

These worship elements are an early draft being shared as a preview for the upcoming service. The final version used in worship may be adapted or revised. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.

Welcome

Have you ever walked into a room where everyone seemed to speak a different language, not literally, but where everything felt unfamiliar and you weren’t sure your voice belonged? Today we discover what happens when faith meets a foreign place.

Welcome to McPherson First United Methodist Church! I’m [NAME], and I’m delighted you’re here this morning.

We’re forming disciples of Jesus Christ who love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously. Whether you’ve been part of this congregation for decades or this is your very first Sunday, you belong here.

Today we’ll share Holy Communion together. All are welcome at Christ’s table, and if you’re worshiping online, you may want to have bread and juice ready.

Five membership promises shape how we grow in our faith and how we support one another on the journey: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. You’ll hear each of these named as we worship together today.

If you’re new or looking for your next step, visit mcphersonfirst.org/next or download the Church Center app. You can check in, request prayer, find ways to serve, or give. You can also text CONNECT to 620-241-3626 to stay in the loop.

Call to Worship

I invite you to join in our responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.

Leader: God is not far from any one of us.
People: In God we live and move and exist.
Leader: From every nation, God has drawn us together.
People: We gather as God’s own children, seeking the One who made us.
Leader: What others call unknown, we have come to know through Jesus Christ.
People: We worship the God who gives life, breath, and everything else.
Leader: God invites every person everywhere to turn and discover new life.
People: We open our hearts to the God who is already here.

Welcome Your Neighbor

This morning we hear how Paul stepped into a place full of strangers and chose to engage rather than withdraw. He looked around, found common ground, and started a conversation that changed lives. One of our five membership promises is witness, sharing our faith and inviting others into this community. Before Paul ever preached a sermon in Athens, he spent time in the marketplace simply talking with people.

Think about the people in your life who don’t have a faith community. Who might you invite to worship, to a Grace Group, or simply to coffee to talk about what matters most? This week, as our seniors prepare to enter new places, we’re all reminded that witness starts with genuine relationship.

Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.

Opening Prayer

God of every nation, you are never far from any of us. Open our eyes to see you at work in unfamiliar places. Give us courage to speak your truth and humility to listen for your voice in unexpected people. Shape us through your word today. Amen.

Invitation to Prayer and Pastoral Prayer

One of our five membership promises is prayers, building a real relationship with God through honest conversation. Right now, we bring our hearts before God together. If you’d like our prayer team to pray for you by name this week, text PRAY to 620-241-3626 or submit a request through the Church Center app.

Will you pray with me?

God of every nation and every generation, we come to you as people who are still learning to find our voices. We pause now to simply be present with you.

[Brief pause]

We pray for our high school seniors who stand at the threshold of something new. The excitement and uncertainty of graduation, new campuses, new jobs, and new cities all converge in these final days of high school. Walk with them into every unfamiliar room. Remind them that you arrived in those places long before they did.

We pray for everyone navigating foreign territory this morning, those starting new jobs, entering new relationships, grieving what’s familiar, or facing circumstances they never planned for. When the landscape feels unrecognizable, anchor them in the truth that you are never far from any of us.

We pray for this congregation as we continue through construction and change. Give us the same adaptability Paul showed in Athens, holding firmly to the gospel while speaking the language of the moment.

We lift up those who are sick, those who are lonely, those carrying burdens they haven’t named out loud. You know every need before we speak it. Meet each person in the specific place where they need you most.

We bring before you the silent prayers on our hearts right now.

[Moment of silent reflection]

We pray for our community of McPherson, for those who lead, those who serve, and those who struggle unseen. Make us a church that pays attention, just as Paul paid attention to the culture around him before he ever opened his mouth to preach.

We pray in the name of the God who is already at work in every place we’ll go this week. Amen.

Invitation to Give and Check-In

We continue living out our membership promises with gifts, supporting God’s work through our financial resources. If you already give regularly, thank you. Your faithfulness sustains this ministry week after week. If you’re considering giving for the first time, we’re grateful for whatever you offer. Every gift matters. You can give online through the Church Center app, at mcphersonfirst.org, or by texting GIVE to 620-241-3626.

We also live out our promise of presence, not just showing up, but actively participating in the life of this community. We’d love to know you’re here today. Check in through the Church Center app, visit mcphersonfirst.org/next, or sign the attendance pad in your pew and pass it along.

Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.

Senior Sunday Recognition and Blessing

[After announcements, before sermon. Sarah introduces seniors at 10:15 service; Andrew follows with blessing.]

8:30 Service (no students present)

Today is Senior Sunday. At our 10:15 service, Sarah will introduce our graduating seniors, and I hope you’ll greet them outside the sanctuary after that service if you’re able to stay. Even though they’re not with us right now, I want to invite you to speak a blessing over them. These young people are about to step into foreign places: new campuses, new jobs, new cities. They need to know this church is behind them.

Leader: Join me in blessing our graduating seniors:
People: We celebrate their gifts. We believe in their future. We send them with our prayers.

Amen.

10:15 Service (after Sarah’s introductions)

Thank you, Sarah. You’ve just heard a little about each of these remarkable young people. In just weeks, they’re stepping into foreign places: new campuses, new jobs, new cities. Every one of them unfamiliar. But they’re not going empty-handed. They carry gifts already inside them, values shaped here, resilience built through victories and setbacks, and the love of people who’ve watched them grow.

Before they go, we want to speak that truth over them.

Leader: Church, say it with me:
People: We see your gifts. We believe in your future. We send you with our prayers.

The God who guided Paul to his voice in Athens guides you into your next chapter. You are seen. You are valued. You carry enough. This congregation remains your home. Amen.

Holy Communion

Invitation, Confession, and Pardon

Preaching Pastor: We come now to the Lord’s table. If you are worshiping online, please have bread and juice ready. Together we’ll share Christ’s invitation, confess where we’ve fallen short, and receive God’s grace. Join in the words on screen.

Preaching Pastor: Paul stood in the middle of Athens and told a city full of strangers that God is not far from any of us, that in God we live and move and exist. Now that same God sets a table and invites us close. We don’t come because we have all the answers or because we’ve found the right words. We come because God has already found us.

Host Pastor: This is God’s table, and all are invited. Whether you’ve been following Jesus your whole life or you’re still figuring out what you believe, whether you feel at home here or everything still feels foreign, you belong at this table. We prepare our hearts to receive by confessing together.

People: Merciful God, we confess that we have stayed silent when you called us to speak and spoken carelessly when you called us to listen. We have clung to what’s familiar rather than following you into new places. We have overlooked the signs of your presence in people and places we dismissed as foreign. Forgive us. Give us the courage of Paul in Athens, to find your fingerprints in unexpected places and to proclaim your love without fear. Amen.

Host Pastor: Take a moment for your own silent prayer.

(All pray in silence)

Host Pastor: Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God’s love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!

People: In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven! Glory to God. Amen.

The Great Thanksgiving

Preaching Pastor: The Lord be with you.
People: And also with you.
Preaching Pastor: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them up to the Lord.
Preaching Pastor: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give our thanks and praise.

Preaching Pastor: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Almighty God, creator of heaven and earth.

You made every nation from one ancestor to live on the whole earth. You placed eternity in the human heart so that we would reach out for you and find you, because you have never been far from any of us. When we wandered after lesser gods, you sent prophets to call us home. And when the time was right, you sent your Son to stand among us and proclaim the truth we could not discover on our own.

In Jesus, you revealed yourself not as an unknown God but as a God who knows us by name, who gives us life, breath, and everything else.

And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

People: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

Host Pastor: Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. Through his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, set us free from sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: ‘Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’

When the supper was over, he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: ‘Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’

Preaching Pastor: And so, remembering all you have done for us in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves to you, our praise, our thanks, our lives. United with Christ, we proclaim the mystery of faith:

People: Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

Preaching Pastor: Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

Host Pastor: By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Preaching Pastor: Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty God, now and forever.

Host Pastor: And now, with the confidence of children of God, let us pray:

All: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

Receiving Holy Communion

Preaching Pastor: Though we are many, we are one body because we share one bread. The bread we break connects us to Christ’s body. The cup we share connects us to Christ’s life poured out for us.

Communion servers, please come forward to receive first, then serve our congregation.

(Servers come forward, receive, and take positions)

Host Pastor: Friends, God welcomes you to this table of grace. You don’t have to be a member of this church or even a United Methodist. Come with an open heart to receive God’s love.

I invite you to come forward by the center aisle. There are serving stations on each side of the sanctuary, one for each section of pews. When you arrive, you’ll receive a piece of bread. Hold it carefully and reverently; it represents the body of Christ. Then you’ll be offered a small cup of grape juice. Eat and drink. If you’d like to pray, you’re welcome to kneel at the rail. When you’re ready, return to your seat using the side aisles. Place your empty cup in the holders at either end of the rail.

Gluten-free bread is available at the station on the right side as you face the front of the room. If you need communion brought to you, raise your hand or let an usher know.

If you’re worshiping online, receive the bread and cup now, knowing you are part of this body.

This table is open to all. Come and receive God’s grace as the ushers give you direction.

(Music plays as congregation receives)

Prayer After Holy Communion

We’ve been fed at Christ’s table. Now we’re sent to practice service, to be God’s hands and feet in our community. Will you pray with me?

Eternal God, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. You have met us at this table just as you meet us in every foreign place, with grace we didn’t earn and welcome we didn’t expect. Send us into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Will you please stand as we sing together?

Benediction

Go into every room, every campus, every conversation, and find your voice.

God the Creator goes before you, Christ walks beside you, and the Holy Spirit speaks through you. Amen.

“As I was walking through town and carefully observing your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown God.’ What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.” — Acts 17:23 (CEB)

Someone in Athens built an altar to a god they couldn’t name. Just in case. Just because they sensed there was something more than what they could see and categorize. Paul didn’t mock that altar. He honored it. He saw it as evidence that the human heart reaches for God even when it doesn’t know God’s name. We all build altars to unknown gods — those moments when we sense something larger than ourselves in a piece of music, a conversation that goes deeper than expected, a sunset that stops us mid-step. The longing is real even when we can’t articulate it. Paul’s genius was meeting people at their own altar, their own searching, and saying: what you’ve been reaching for has a name. The unnamed longing in your life isn’t random. It’s an invitation.

God of every unnamed longing, thank you for placing eternity in the human heart. Christ, you are the answer to the question we didn’t know how to ask. Holy Spirit, meet us at the altars we’ve already built and reveal the God we’ve been searching for. Amen.