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.
Dates: October 18 through November 22, 2026 · Texts: Joshua through Isaiah, the fall Old Testament arc (Narrative Lectionary 106 through 111)
Joshua stood before a people at a crossroads and said, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” That choice still stands in front of us. Across six Sundays this fall we trace the covenant story of God’s people: Joshua’s bold choice, David’s failure and restoration, Solomon’s plea for wisdom, an outsider washed and welcomed, the prophets’ call to do justice, and a promised kingdom where swords become plows. One question runs through all of it: whom will you serve? The series is an invitation to choose, again and again, to belong to a faithful God.
The Look and Feel
The altar holds one static design for the whole series rather than changing week to week: a household threshold, an open doorway, echoing the “as for me and my house” of Joshua 24:15. The palette is warm and grounded, deep blue and stone and lamp-gold. Practically, this is a deliberate choice for a six-week fall stretch when staff capacity is thin. One build, no weekly reset, and the image stays in front of the congregation long enough to do its work.
Under consideration for the launch Sunday: a covenant-renewal moment, or a written “whom will you serve” reflection card people carry home. Both are still pending a look at what the worship team can actually carry. Series graphic and worship slides come from our Church Media Squad request.
How the Arc Is Shaped
This is one series with an internal hinge rather than two series wearing one name. The first half, Joshua and David and Solomon, is about choosing and keeping. It closes on November 1, All Saints, where the sending turns the congregation outward. The second half, Naaman and Micah and Isaiah, is about widening and fulfilling, and it opens November 8 on New Member Sunday, where the door widens to let people in. The turn is felt in the worship itself. It is not branded or announced.
Week 1: October 18 — Choose This Day
Scripture: Joshua 24:1-15 · Type: Decision · Promise: Witness · Series launch, Laity Sunday
Joshua rehearses everything God has done, then sets a choice in front of the people. Faith is not inherited on autopilot. It is chosen. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” becomes the congregation’s own declaration and launches the series. Laity Sunday sits well here: the choice belongs to the whole household of faith, not to the person in the pulpit.
Hymns / Organ
A Charge to Keep I Have (UMH 413)
O Jesus, I Have Promised (UMH 396)
Lift High the Cross (UMH 159)
Jesus Calls Us, O’er the Tumult (UMH 398)
Lord, I Want to Be a Christian (UMH 402)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Firm Foundation (He Won’t) by Cody Carnes
Cornerstone by Hillsong
I Have Decided to Follow Jesus
Christ Be Magnified by Cody Carnes
This I Believe (The Creed) by Hillsong
Week 2: October 25 — Create in Me a Clean Heart
Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-9; Psalm 51:1-9 · Type: Formation · Promise: Prayers
Nathan’s parable corners David, and David’s “I have sinned” opens into the honest ache of Psalm 51. Grace meets us with truth, and truth makes restoration possible. The covenant survives our failure because God is faithful, not because we are. The Bathsheba backstory gets narrated rather than read aloud, so the reading itself stays on Nathan and on David’s response.
Hymns / Organ
Depth of Mercy (UMH 355)
Change My Heart, O God (TFWS 2152)
Spirit of the Living God (UMH 393)
Just as I Am, Without One Plea (UMH 357)
O for a Heart to Praise My God (UMH 417)
Contemporary / Praise Team
O Come to the Altar by Elevation Worship
Clean by Natalie Grant
King of My Heart
White Flag by Passion
Mercy by Matt Redman
Week 3: November 1 — Ask for Wisdom
Scripture: 1 Kings 3:4-15 · Type: General · Promise: Prayers · All Saints, Communion, Daylight Saving ends
Given something close to a blank check from God, Solomon asks not for wealth or victory but for a discerning heart to serve the people. Faithful leadership begins on its knees. All Saints names the people who kept covenant before us, Communion is the covenant meal, and the sending turns the congregation outward toward the second half of the series. Three things land on one Sunday here, so the planning work is keeping the service from feeling crowded.
Hymns / Organ
God of Grace and God of Glory (UMH 577)
For All the Saints (UMH 711)
One Bread, One Body (UMH 620)
Sing with All the Saints in Glory (UMH 702)
For the Bread Which You Have Broken (UMH 614)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Holy Forever by Chris Tomlin
Remembrance (Communion Song) by Matt Maher
Death Was Arrested by North Point Worship
I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin
Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn) by Keith and Kristyn Getty
Week 4: November 8 — Washed and Welcomed
Scripture: 2 Kings 5:1-15a · Type: Invitation · Promise: Presence · New Member Sunday
Naaman, a foreign general, is healed only when he humbles himself and washes in the Jordan, and he gets there on the word of a captured servant girl and his own servants. God’s covenant widens to the outsider, and the people God uses to widen it are the ones with the least standing in the room. On New Member Sunday the door opens and we welcome new members into the household of faith.
Hymns / Organ
In Christ There Is No East or West (UMH 548)
Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters (UMH 605)
Help Us Accept Each Other (UMH 560)
There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (UMH 121)
Take Me to the Water (TFWS 2103)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Come As You Are by Crowder
Jireh by Elevation Worship and Maverick City Music
House of the Lord by Phil Wickham
Good Grace by Hillsong UNITED
Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me by CityAlight
Week 5: November 15 — Do Justice, Love Kindness
Scripture: Micah 1:3-5; 5:2-5a; 6:6-8 · Type: Justice · Promise: Service · United Methodist Women Sunday
Micah cuts past the question of what offering would finally satisfy God and lands on the heart of the covenant: do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. A promised ruler from Bethlehem points ahead toward Advent without arriving there yet. United Methodist Women Sunday fits the week, since this is a congregation that has been doing justice through its women’s ministry for generations.
Hymns / Organ
What Does the Lord Require (UMH 441)
Lord, Whose Love Through Humble Service (UMH 581)
When the Poor Ones / Cuando el Pobre (UMH 434)
Let Justice Roll Like a River (TFWS 2253)
For the Healing of the Nations (UMH 428)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Build Your Kingdom Here by Rend Collective
Same God by Elevation Worship
Do It Again by Elevation Worship
God of Justice (We Must Go) by Tim Hughes
Hosanna by Hillsong
Week 6: November 22 — When Swords Become Plows
Scripture: Isaiah 37:1-7; 2:1-4 · Type: General · Promise: Witness · Christ the King finale, Sunday before Thanksgiving
Under Assyrian threat, Hezekiah turns to God rather than to despair, and Isaiah lifts the congregation’s eyes to the end of the story: a mountain of the Lord where nations beat their swords into plows and learn war no more. The covenant’s end is the reign of Christ and the peace of God. The Assyrian siege of chapter 36 gets narrated rather than read. Christ the King closes the series and hands off to Advent 1 the following Sunday.
Hymns / Organ
Crown Him with Many Crowns (UMH 327)
O Day of Peace (UMH 729)
Rejoice, the Lord Is King (UMH 715)
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (UMH 154)
Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (UMH 203)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Is He Worthy by Shane and Shane
All Hail King Jesus by Jeremy Riddle
Prince of Peace by Hillsong UNITED
Tremble by Mosaic MSC
Worthy by Elevation Worship
How the Series Builds
Six sermon types carry the six weeks: Decision, Formation, General, Invitation, Justice, General. The two General weeks are Solomon and Isaiah, both of which do more teaching than turning, so the type fits the work each is doing. The membership promises land Witness, Prayers, Prayers, Presence, Service, Witness. That leans on Prayers and Witness and leaves Gifts out entirely, which is a deliberate call rather than an oversight: the Five Promises series immediately before this one spends a whole week on Gifts, so across the full fall the congregation gets all five amply.
The music was screened against our Music Tracking log to rest the hymns and praise songs we have leaned on recently, which is why some obvious fits are missing. A handful of the 10:15 picks will be new to the congregation. The plan is to keep it to one or two new songs per service rather than asking people to learn five at once.
A Few Planning Notes
The series was scaffolded late, past its usual concept window, and the frame came second. The Narrative Lectionary readings were already mapped, but the original working title treated these six texts as a study in leadership. Reframing to the covenant question of Joshua 24:15 gave the arc something that holds across all six texts and lands naturally on Christ the King, and it turned a series about biblical leaders into a series about the congregation’s own choice. That reframe is the single most useful piece of planning work in the whole series.
Three of the read-aloud ranges are narrowed from the full lectionary text, weeks 2, 3, and 6, with the surrounding narrative summarized by the reader instead. Long readings that require backstory tend to lose a congregation before the sermon starts, so we tell the setup and read the turn.
As For Me and My House follows Five Promises, our five-week walk through the membership promises, and the handoff is intentional. Five Promises closes on Exodus 19 and 20, the covenant at Sinai. This series opens on Joshua 24, where a later generation renews that same covenant. The congregation arrives at Joshua’s question having just spent five weeks learning what covenant living actually looks like.