Worship Elements: A Faith Worth Receiving
2 Timothy 1:1-14 (CEB) · Passing the Flame · Week Two
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
Welcome to worship at McPherson First. I’m [NAME], [CONNECTION to McPherson First]. Whether you’ve been part of this community for years or this is your first time, whether you’re in the sanctuary or joining us online, we are glad you’re with us. You belong here.
We are in week two of our series Passing the Flame, walking through Paul’s letters to a young pastor named Timothy. Last week we sat with the question: what is worth holding onto? This morning Paul gets specific about where Timothy’s own faith came from. He names Timothy’s grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, two women who lived an authentic faith in front of Timothy long before Timothy claimed it as his own. Somewhere, someone lit your flame too. Today is a chance to remember them.
As followers of Jesus, we make five promises to God and to one another: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Today the promise we will sit with most closely is presence, showing up, both for God and for one another. Paul reminds Timothy that presence is how faith gets passed.
In your bulletin this morning you will find a flame card, our series graphic on the front and a blank back. Before worship ends, you will be invited to write a name on the back, the name of someone who lit the flame of faith for you. Hold the card with you throughout the service.
Call to Worship (8:30 only)
I invite you to join in the responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.
Leader: Paul names Timothy’s grandmother Lois.
People: Someone we can name lit our flame too.
Leader: Paul names Timothy’s mother Eunice.
People: We carry faith we did not begin.
Leader: God did not give us a spirit of timidity.
People: God gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-control.
Leader: Come to receive what has been passed to you.
People: We come ready to remember, ready to rekindle.
Welcome Your Neighbor
Let’s take a moment to welcome one another. Witness, one of the five promises we make to God and one another, begins right here, with noticing the person beside us. The presence of a kind stranger can be the way someone first meets the love of Christ.
Picture someone whose flame of faith feels dim today, waiting for someone like Lois or Eunice to show up. Could you be that presence this week and invite them to worship next Sunday?
Please stand and welcome your neighbor. If you’re worshiping with us online, know that you’re part of this greeting too. Then remain standing as we join together in song.
Opening Prayer
With that song still echoing, let’s turn it into prayer. Pray the words on the screen with me, asking God to rekindle what was placed in our hands.
All: God of every generation, you lit our flame through people we may not have thanked. Rekindle in us the gifts they placed in our hands. Remind us we carry a treasure worth passing on. Teach us presence again. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Pastoral and Lord’s Prayer
Here in the sanctuary and online, we come now to pray as a church. There will be a moment or two of quiet; let them be your own.
Prayers is one of the five promises we make to God and one another. You can share a prayer request on the card in your pew rack and drop it in the offering plate, or anytime through the Church Center app. This week, consider letting one name on a flame card become a prayer you actually pray, every day. Will you pray with me?
God of generations, you have placed us in a chain of faith that includes grandmothers we knew and grandfathers we never met, teachers and friends and strangers who took time. We pause in your presence.
(pause)
Thank you for the names we are remembering this morning, for those who prayed for us before we knew we needed it, and for the Lois and Eunice figures whose ordinary faithfulness has been forming others for years.
We confess the ways we have kept faith hidden, treated it as private, or assumed it was someone else’s to pass along.
We sit with what we have received and have not yet shared, and we listen for what you would have us do.
(pause)
We pray for those who are ill or recovering, those grieving, and those waiting on diagnoses, test results, or hard conversations. We pray for those wondering whether their faith is still worth holding; fan the embers until the glow returns. We pray for a world that teaches children faith is something to hide.
Bless those who feel timid this morning. Place your Spirit of power, love, and self-control in them until timidity is no longer their story. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who never hid himself from us, joining our voices in the prayer he taught us:
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.
Invitation to Give and Check-In
Part of following Jesus here is learning to give. Gifts is one of the five promises we make to God and one another, a way we invest in the community that will pass faith to the people coming after us.
Thank you to those whose giving shows up month after month, quietly investing in faith that outlasts us. If this is your first time giving here, thank you for beginning.
You can give through the offering plate, online at mcphersonfirst.org/give, or through the Church Center app, the easiest way to give from your phone.
Your bulletin includes a flame card today. On the blank back, write the name of someone who lit the flame of faith for you. Take it home as a reminder to pray for that name this week.
I also invite you to check in through the Church Center app, at mcphersonfirst.org/next, or using the attendance pad. Checking in is how we practice presence.
Ushers, please come forward to receive this morning’s offering.
Doxology (8:30 only)
Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow. UMH #94 in E♭. Chorus.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
What we’ve given here goes on to pass faith to people we may never meet. Now we’re sent to practice service, becoming for someone else the presence that shaped us. Will you pray with me?
God of every gift, thank you for the offerings received this morning, and for the quieter offerings we cannot see: a prayer said in a car, a bulletin taken home, a name remembered. Bless the giver and the giving. Send us out to become for someone else the presence that shaped us. Make our service a thank-you for what has been passed to us. In the name of Jesus Christ, whose life became our gift. Amen.
Will you stand, or remain standing, as we sing together?
Benediction
Carry what has been passed to you. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.
The God of Lois and Eunice and Timothy goes before you, Christ keeps the flame burning beside you, and the Spirit of power and love fills you. And all God’s people said, Amen.