Behind the Series: Five Promises
Five promises, five weeks, one way of life. A look at the planning, scripture, and music behind our fall series at McPherson First UMC.
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: September 13 through October 11, 2026 · Texts: Genesis and Exodus (Narrative Lectionary 101 through 105)
Every time someone joins McPherson First United Methodist Church, they answer one question: will you faithfully participate in the ministries of the church by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness? Most people say yes without fully understanding what they are signing up for. This five-week series unpacks those five promises, one per week, using the sweeping narrative of Genesis and Exodus as the biblical lens. Noah shows up when God calls. Abraham steps into the unknown. Joseph stays connected in the darkest place. Israel walks through the sea. A covenant asks for everything. These ancient stories illuminate the practices that shape us into the people God is calling us to become.
The Look and Feel
The working concept is five distinct but related visual elements that together form a whole, each promise anchored to its own symbol from the Genesis and Exodus text. Presence takes the ark and the open horizon after the flood. Witness takes a path leading into the distance, a tent, stars over open land. Prayers takes light through a barred window. Service takes parted water and a path through the sea. Gifts takes stone tablets and the gesture of offering. A unified palette of warm earth tones (desert, water, sky) holds the five together, and the typography should feel grounded and inviting rather than institutional.
The altar builds across the five weeks. Each Sunday adds one symbol for that week’s promise, so by October 11 the altar holds all five: five stones stacked into a cairn, or a wooden frame filled in panel by panel, or five candles lit progressively with all five burning on the final Sunday. On World Communion Sunday in Week 4, the table itself becomes the focus, with breads and fabrics from other cultures underscoring that service reaches around the world.
Week 1: September 13 — Show Up
Scripture: Genesis 6:13-22; 9:12-17 · Accompanying text: Matthew 8:24-27 · Type: General · Promise: Presence · New Member Sunday, series launch
Noah’s story is not primarily about a boat. It is about a person who showed up when God called. In a world where everyone else had checked out, Noah was present. Presence is the foundation promise because everything else builds on it. You cannot pray, give, serve, or witness from the sidelines. Showing up, in worship and in community and in the hard places, is where discipleship begins.
Hymns / Organ
Here I Am, Lord (UMH 593)
Standing on the Promises (UMH 374)
Great Is Thy Faithfulness (UMH 140)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Who You Say I Am by Hillsong
Build My Life by Housefires
Here Again by Elevation Worship
Week 2: September 20 — Live It Out Loud
Scripture: Genesis 12:1-9 · Accompanying text: Matthew 28:19-20 · Type: Call · Promise: Witness · Third Grade Bibles, Grace Groups fall on-ramp
God called Abraham to leave everything familiar and go, not for his own sake but to become a blessing to all nations. Witness is not about having all the answers or being pushy about faith. It is about living your faith visibly enough that others can see it, and courageously enough that you are willing to tell the story. Abraham did not have a script. He had a call and a willingness to go.
Hymns / Organ
I Love to Tell the Story (UMH 156)
Go, Make of All Disciples (UMH 571)
Blessed Assurance (UMH 369)
Contemporary / Praise Team
So Will I by Hillsong UNITED
Christ Is Risen by Phil Wickham
Living Hope by Phil Wickham
Week 3: September 27 — Stay Connected
Scripture: Genesis 39:1-6a, 19-23 · Accompanying text: Matthew 5:11-12 · Type: Formation · Promise: Prayers
Joseph did not end up in prison because he did something wrong. He ended up there because he did something right. And in the worst possible circumstances, he stayed connected to God. Prayer is not just for mountaintop moments. The deepest prayer happens in the dark, when the situation has not changed, when the answers have not come, when the only thing left to do is keep talking to God. Joseph models what it means to hold onto spiritual practices while everything around you says to give up.
Hymns / Organ
Sweet Hour of Prayer (UMH 496)
What a Friend We Have in Jesus (UMH 526)
Be Thou My Vision (UMH 451)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Even When It Hurts by Hillsong UNITED
Goodness of God by Bethel Music
Way Maker by Sinach
Week 4: October 4 — Give Yourself to It
Scripture: Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29 · Accompanying text: Matthew 2:13-15 · Type: Invitation · Promise: Service · World Communion Sunday, Communion
The Red Sea moment is an invitation. God acts, and the people respond by walking through. Service works the same way: God opens the path, and we step into it. “Stand firm and see the deliverance” is not passive. It is trust that leads to action. On World Communion Sunday we remember that the table stretches around the world and service extends beyond our walls. Giving yourself to God’s work means trusting that the path through the water is real, even when you cannot see the other side. The week also kicks off the Trick or Treat on Main Street candy donation and leads into Fields of Faith at the high school that Wednesday.
Hymns / Organ
Here I Am, Lord (UMH 593)
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (UMH 127)
We Are Called (TFWS 2172)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Do It Again by Elevation Worship
Rescue by Lauren Daigle
The Commission by CAIN
Week 5: October 11 — Give First
Scripture: Exodus 19:3-6; 20:1-11 · Accompanying text: Matthew 5:17 · Type: Decision · Promise: Gifts · Go and Grow Campaign launch
The covenant at Sinai asks for everything, and it starts with God’s generosity. “I brought you out” precedes every commandment. Giving is not an obligation layered on top of faith. It is a response to a God who gave first. The Go and Grow Campaign launches this week, and the sermon frames financial generosity not as a fundraising ask but as a spiritual practice, a decision to put God first with our resources because God put us first with grace. This is the series closer, and all five promises lead here, to the moment of commitment.
Hymns / Organ
Take My Life, and Let It Be (UMH 399)
We Give Thee but Thine Own (UMH 181)
All Things Come of Thee (traditional Doxology response)
Contemporary / Praise Team
Reckless Love by Cory Asbury
Take Heart by Hillsong UNITED
All I Have Is Christ by Jordan Kauflin
How the Series Builds
Five sermon types carry the five weeks with no repeats: General, Call, Formation, Invitation, and Decision. The five membership promises run alongside them in an order chosen for how they build rather than how the vow recites them. Presence comes first because everything else needs someone present. Witness follows, because presence that stays hidden is not yet witness. Prayers hold the middle, the practice that sustains the rest when circumstances turn. Service moves outward. Gifts land last, at the moment of commitment.
A Few Planning Notes
New Member Sunday launches the series on purpose. People who have just made these promises hear them unpacked in depth, and longtime members who made them years ago hear them again through ancient stories rather than as a membership checklist. The Grace Groups fall on-ramp opens in Week 2 as the next step for anyone ready to go deeper. Five Promises follows The Good Life, our late-summer walk through the Ten Commandments, and the Exodus 19 and 20 overlap in Week 5 is intentional: the congregation returns to Sinai having spent four weeks learning what covenant living looks like in practice. It leads into As For Me and My House in October, which opens on Joshua 24 and the renewal of the very covenant this series unpacks.