Worship Elements — Noticing the Growth
Mark 4:26-29 (CEB) · Tending the Soul: Growing in Grace Through Three Questions · Communion Sunday · VBS Kickoff
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 United Methodist Church! I’m [NAME], [CONNECTION to McPherson First]. Whether you’ve been here for years or this is your first Sunday joining us, in person or online, you belong at this table.
Have you ever looked at a houseplant you forgot about and realized it grew anyway? You didn’t water it enough, you didn’t move it to better light, and somehow there are new leaves. Today’s scripture is one of Jesus’s shortest parables, and it describes that kind of growth, the kind that happens while we sleep.
Today we will share Holy Communion together. All are welcome at Christ’s table. We practice an open table because God’s grace reaches us before we reach for God. If you’re worshiping online, have bread and juice ready.
Today we kick off Vacation Bible School, Kingdom Quest: An Epic Journey to Discover God’s Kingdom. Kids gather here at 11:30 AM for lunch, then return Monday through Wednesday evenings, 5 to 7 PM, exploring what Jesus meant when he talked about the kingdom of God. The kids will be chasing the same mystery we’re exploring in worship.
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. Today the promise we sit with most closely is witness, the discipline of noticing where God is at work and having the courage to name it.
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 the responsive call to worship as you see the words on display.
Leader: Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like, someone scatters seed on the ground.”
People: We come with seeds we’ve scattered and seeds we didn’t know we planted.
Leader: The seed sprouts and grows, but the farmer doesn’t know how.
People: We come trusting the mystery of God’s growth in our lives.
Leader: First the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain.
People: We come to notice what God has been growing all along.
Leader: Come, worship the God who grows what we cannot manufacture.
People: We praise the God who tends the soil of our souls.
Welcome Your Neighbor
Jesus describes a farmer who scatters, sleeps, wakes, and then one day notices the harvest is ready. Growth happened while he wasn’t looking. This is what witness looks like, learning to notice where God is at work and having the courage to name it.
As you greet your neighbors, think about who in your life needs to hear that God is growing something good. Who might you invite to worship next week? If you’re worshiping online, send a hello in the chat or a text to someone you’ve been thinking about.
Please stand, welcome your neighbor, and then remain standing as we join together in song.
Opening Prayer
Jesus tells of a kingdom that grows while no one is watching. Join me in praying the words on screen.
All: God of seed and soil, we come with open eyes and open hearts. You have been growing things in us that we have not yet noticed. Slow us down. Sharpen our sight. Help us see the harvest you’ve been tending, in our lives, in this community, and in the world. Amen.
Pastoral 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?
God of seed and soil, God of stalk and grain, we worship you. We pause in your presence.
(pause)
You are the one who scatters abundance across the earth and calls it good. You plant kingdoms in ordinary ground. You grow forests from seeds no bigger than a breath. Your patience is beyond our understanding. You tend the soil of generations without hurrying, without tiring, without giving up. We praise you for the mystery of your work, growth that happens while we sleep, transformation that unfolds beneath the surface, harvest that arrives at just the right time.
We confess that we have not always trusted your pace. We have tried to force growth in ourselves, in others, in this community. We have measured our faithfulness by what we can see and count, and we have dismissed the invisible work you were doing all along. Forgive us for our impatience. Forgive us for the times we pulled up the seed to check if it was growing instead of trusting the soil.
We offer our prayers of confession to God in this time of quiet.
(pause)
We give thanks for the growth you’ve produced that we didn’t earn. For the relationship that deepened while we weren’t looking. For the faith that held in a season we thought would break us. For the person who showed up at exactly the right moment. For the quiet, mysterious ways you have been at work in our lives, first the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain. Thank you for every harvest we almost missed noticing.
We bring before you the needs of this community and world. We pray for those in a season of waiting, who have scattered faithfully and see no harvest yet. For those carrying grief that feels endless. For those facing illness and uncertainty, wondering if healing will come. For our neighbors who are lonely, anxious, or losing hope. For the places in our world where justice grows slowly and the vulnerable still suffer. God, you know how the seed grows even when we don’t. Meet your people in their waiting.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the seed that fell into the ground and rose to bring forth a harvest. Amen.
Note: On Communion Sunday, the Lord’s Prayer is prayed within the Great Thanksgiving below, per UMC communion order, and is not repeated in the Pastoral Prayer.
Invitation to Give and Check-In
The farmer in Jesus’ parable scatters seed, releases it from his hand into the soil. That’s an act of trust. Giving is the same kind of act. When we give, we practice gifts, releasing what we have into God’s purposes and trusting that something will grow from it.
Thank you to those who give faithfully week after week. Your generosity sustains this ministry and makes everything we do possible. 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, 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.
Doxology (8:30 only)
Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow. UMH #94 in E♭. Chorus.
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: Jesus told a parable of a kingdom that grows while we sleep, a harvest the farmer did not produce but came forward to receive. This table is the same kind of gift. We did not grow what is offered here. Christ has set the table; the work of grace was already underway before we arrived.
Host Pastor: This is God’s table, and all are invited. Whether your faith feels like a full head of grain or a stalk just breaking through, you belong here. We prepare our hearts to receive by confessing together.
All: Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have tried to manufacture our own growth rather than trusting yours. We have been impatient with ourselves and with others. We have overlooked the harvest you placed before us. Forgive us, restore us, and help us remain in your grace. 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.
Holy Communion: 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 scattered the seeds of life across creation and called it good. When we wandered from your love, you did not abandon us but planted prophets, teachers, and faithful witnesses in every generation, seeds of your kingdom growing quietly in the soil of human history.
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. He showed us the mystery of your kingdom, seed scattered on ordinary ground that becomes something extraordinary. Through his life, death, and resurrection, you planted the seed of new creation in the soil of a broken world.
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, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ’s offering for us, as 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 cup. 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. Grow in us what we cannot grow in ourselves, faith deeper than our understanding, love wider than our reach, hope stronger than our fear.
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 the 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: With the confidence of children of God, we pray together:
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.
Holy Communion: Receiving
Preaching Pastor: The bread we break is the body of Christ. The cup we share is Christ’s life poured out for us. Like the kingdom in Jesus’ parable, the harvest was already underway before we knew it was ready. We come forward to receive what God has grown.
Communion servers, please come forward to receive first, then serve our congregation.
Host Pastor: Friends, this is an open table, and all are welcome at the harvest God has grown. 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.
When you come forward, 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 unfermented wine or grape juice. Eat the bread and drink the cup. After receiving, you’re welcome to kneel at the rail to pray. Place your empty cup in the holders at either end of the rail, and return to your seat using the side aisles.
Come forward by the center aisle. There are serving stations on each side of the sanctuary, one for each section of pews. 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.
Preaching Pastor: If you’re worshiping online, receive the bread and cup now, knowing you are part of this body.
Prayer after Holy Communion
We’ve been fed at Christ’s table from a harvest we didn’t grow. Now we’re sent to practice service, trusting the same God to grow good fruit through us. Will you pray with me?
Generous God, thank you for feeding us at this table. You have planted your grace in us through bread and cup. Send us out to notice your growth in the world and to serve wherever the harvest is ready. Amen.
Will you please stand as we sing together?
Benediction
Go with eyes wide open to what God is growing. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.
And may the God who scatters, the Christ who feeds, and the Spirit who grows go with you always. Amen.