Worship Elements: Faithful When No One's Watching

Matthew 25:14-30 (CEB) · The Gospel on Stage and Screen

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

Good morning! I’m [NAME], [CONNECTION to McPherson First]. Welcome, whether you’ve been part of this congregation for decades or today is your very first Sunday. You belong here.

Everyone gets handed something. A talent, a season, a responsibility no one else can carry for you. Today’s scripture asks a question that sits with you long after the story ends: what did you do with what you were given?

We want to lift up our youth who left today for their trip to Texas. They’ll be traveling, serving, worshiping, and growing in faith through July 3. We’re grateful for the adult leaders going with them, and we’re praying for safe travel, deep conversations, and God’s work in every young person on that bus.

As followers of Jesus, we grow in faith through five membership promises God uses to shape us: prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Today the promise we will sit with most closely is service, what we do with what God has entrusted to us in every long stretch when no one is watching.

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 (8:30 only)

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

Leader: God entrusts each of us with gifts we did not earn.
People: We come to worship the God who gives generously.
Leader: Some gifts are visible. Others grow quietly in hidden places.
People: We bring what we have and offer it to God.
Leader: Faithfulness doesn’t require perfection. It requires showing up.
People: We show up today, ready to be shaped by God’s word.
Leader: The One who gave us everything invites us to risk everything.
People: We worship the God who calls us faithful.

Welcome Your Neighbor

In today’s parable, the servants who invested did not work alone. They went into the marketplace, into the world of other people. Witness starts with being present to one another, with risking connection instead of burying what we have.

Think of someone in your life carrying a gift they may have buried, perhaps because they thought it was too small to matter. Could you tell them what you see in them, and invite them to worship next Sunday?

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

Opening Prayer

We’ve lifted our voices in song. Now let’s quiet our hearts and pray together, using the words on display.

All: God of every good gift, we come with what we have, our doubts, our courage, our unfinished work. Open our hands and our hearts. Shape us into people who invest boldly in the life you have given us. Amen.

Pastoral and Lord’s Prayer

We enter a time of prayer together. During our prayer, there will be a couple of moments of silence. Use them however feels right. Prayers is one of the five membership promises through which God works in us. Text PRAY to 620-241-3626 anytime to submit a prayer request. Will you pray with me?

Faithful God, you entrust us with more than we realize, time, abilities, relationships, resources, and you do not give these things carelessly. We pause in your presence.

(pause)

We praise you because every gift reflects your confidence that we can do something beautiful with it. We thank you for the people in this room who show up faithfully week after week. For the teachers and the tech team members, the cooks and the caregivers, the ones who serve in ways no one else notices. Thank you for the courage it takes to invest when the outcome is uncertain.

We confess that sometimes we bury what you give us. Fear tells us to play it safe. Comparison tells us our contribution is too small. Exhaustion tells us someone else will step in. We hold back the very thing you designed us to offer.

We offer our prayers of confession to God in this time of quiet.

(pause)

We give thanks for the gifts you have placed in our hands. For the abilities that came to us through grace. For the people you have entrusted to our care. For the seasons when we found the courage to risk something we could have buried.

God of patience, meet us in the places where we have been afraid to try. Strengthen the hands that hesitate. Embolden the hearts that hold back. We pray for this congregation, that we would be a community where people discover what they have been given and find the courage to use it. We lift up our youth and their adult leaders, who set out this morning for Texas. Protect them on the road. Open their eyes to you in every conversation, every service project, every moment of worship. Bring them home changed. We pray for our neighbors who are carrying burdens alone, for our community where needs go unmet, and for a world that desperately needs people willing to show up.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who gave everything he had been given, 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.

All: Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

All: 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

The master in today’s parable didn’t ask the servants to produce something from nothing. He gave them what they needed and trusted them to put it to work. That’s what gifts look like in practice, not generating resources out of thin air, but faithfully investing what God has already placed in our hands.

Thank you to those who give faithfully, month after month, quietly and steadily. You are the partners who carry this ministry through every season. If today is your first time giving, thank you for taking that step.

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.

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.

Doxology (8:30 only)

Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow. UMH #94 in E♭. Chorus.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

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

Generous God, we give thanks for the gifts shared in this place today. Use what we offer to build your kingdom in McPherson and beyond. As we leave this place, send us out to put our faith to work in every hidden corner and open door where your love is needed. In Christ’s name. Amen.

8:30: Please remain standing as we sing together. (Congregation already standing from the Doxology.)

10:15: Will you please stand as we sing together? (Seated through the offering and this prayer; no Doxology at 10:15.)

Benediction

Go now, faithful in the gap. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.

And may the God who entrusts, the Christ who gives, and the Spirit who emboldens go with you always. And all God’s people said, Amen.