Worship Elements: Passing the Flame

2 Timothy 3:14-4:8 (CEB) · Passing the Flame · Week Four · Go and Grow Combined Service

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. This is one combined Go and Grow service in a lessons-and-carols shape, so the message comes as four short reflections across the morning rather than a single sermon. Pastors and worship leaders are welcome to use and adapt these for your own context.

Welcome

Welcome to worship at McPherson First. I’m Pastor Andrew Conard. Whether you’ve been here for years or this is your first time, in the sanctuary or online, we’re glad you’re with us. You belong here.

This morning takes a different shape than usual. We will walk back through the whole series in four short readings, and after each one you will hear a reflection, a song, or the voices of our own young people. This is the final Sunday of Passing the Flame, and it is also Go and Grow Sunday, when our children and youth share what God has been doing in them and we watch the flame catch. When worship ends, stay with us for a taco salad bar in Hess Hall, our thank-you meal to celebrate what God has grown this summer.

The promise we sit with today is witness, sharing what we have received with someone who needs it. Paul’s last instruction to Timothy is our invitation.

Welcome Your Neighbor

Take a moment to greet one another before we continue. Witness, one of the five promises we make to God and one another, starts with seeing the people God has placed around us. Every person you greet is someone the flame is being passed to, whether you say a word about Jesus or not.

Picture someone who needs what you carry, someone the flame is ready to be passed to. Could you reach out this week and invite them to worship next Sunday?

If you’re worshiping with us online, know that you’re part of this greeting too. Please stand and welcome your neighbor, then remain standing as we sing.

Opening Prayer

Let the music carry us into prayer. Will you pray with me? Follow the words on the screen, asking God to make us bold to pass the flame on.

All: God who keeps the flame alive across generations, we arrive with a torch in our hands. Thank you for the young voices we will hear today and the adults who lit their flame. Send us out bold to pass the flame on, joyful in our sending. In the name of the God who lights the flame, the Christ who carries it, and the Spirit who passes it on. Amen.

Pastoral and Lord’s Prayer

Whether you’re here in the sanctuary or joining us online, will you pray with me as one church. I’ll pause once or twice; rest in the quiet however you need to.

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. Will you pray with me?

God who stands by us, you have placed us in a line of faith that stretches back through generations and forward beyond our own lives. We pause in your presence.

(pause)

Thank you for those who lit our flame, often without knowing what they were doing, and for the children and youth in this room who carry what we have handed them. Thank you for being faithful when no one else stood by.

We confess the ways we have hesitated to pass on what we have received, keeping faith private out of fear, holding it tightly out of pride, or assuming someone else would do the passing.

We sit with the names of those we have not yet reached, and we listen for what you would have us do.

(pause)

We pray for the children and youth who shared today, for parents and grandparents wondering whether the flame will catch, and for those whose children have wandered. We pray for the quiet carriers of faith whose names no one will speak from a stage, and for all who are ill, recovering, or grieving.

Bless our congregation as this series concludes. Make us people with open hands and a lit flame, ready to pass what we have received to anyone who needs it. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, who stood by us when nobody else did, 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

On a day like today, generosity comes full circle. Gifts is one of the five promises we make to God and one another, one of the clearest ways we invest in the next generation. The children and youth who shared with us this morning are in front of you partly because of the gifts this congregation has given, year after year.

Thank you to the faithful givers who sustain this ministry month after month. If you’re giving for the first time today, thank you for joining the work.

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 has a flame card today. The prompt is different than the past two weeks: write the name of someone who needs what you carry. Carry it home to pray over this week, and follow up with a text, a phone call, or a visit.

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.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We’ve given, and now we’re handed something to carry. We’re sent to practice service, passing on what we’ve received. Will you pray with me?

God who stands by us and sends us, thank you for these offerings, given visibly and invisibly. Bless the giver and the giving. Send us out from this place to serve, not as people who have finished but as people who have been entrusted. Make our service a thank-you for a faith we did not earn. In the name of Jesus Christ, who handed everything he had to us. Amen.

Meal Invitation

One last reminder before we go: the taco salad bar is ready in Hess Hall, and our students are serving. If you gave to Go and Grow this spring, this meal is our thank-you to you in particular, and everyone is welcome. Come and celebrate what God has grown.

Benediction

Pass the flame. Love boldly. Serve joyfully. Lead courageously.

The God who stood by Paul goes before you, Christ stands beside you, and the Spirit sends you out to pass the flame. And all God’s people said, Amen.