Worship Elements — Releasing to Grow

John 15:1-5, 8 (CEB) · Tending the Soul: Growing in Grace Through Three Questions · New Member Sunday · Split 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. 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 community for years or you’re visiting for the first time. You belong here.

A vineyard keeper doesn’t tend every vine the same way. Some branches get trained along the trellis. Some get trimmed back hard. The keeper decides, because the keeper knows each branch by name. Today we close our Tending the Soul series with John 15, and Jesus’s image of vine and branches.

Today is also New Member Sunday. If you’ve been exploring what it means to belong to this congregation and you’re ready to take that step, we’ll have an opportunity to welcome you later in the service.

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 presence, the discipline of remaining connected to the vine and to one another, season after season.

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: Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper.”
People: We come to the one who is the source of all life.
Leader: God removes what is dead and trims what is alive, so that we bear even more fruit.
People: We come trusting the hands that shape us.
Leader: “Remain in me,” Jesus says, “and I will remain in you.”
People: We come to stay connected to the vine.
Leader: Come, worship the God who tends us, prunes us, and grows us into something beautiful.
People: We praise the God who produces in us what we cannot produce alone.

Welcome Your Neighbor

Jesus says, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” None of us bears fruit alone. We’re connected to the same vine, which means we’re connected to each other. This is what witness looks like, staying connected and inviting others into the life we share.

As you greet your neighbors, think about someone who needs to know they’re not alone, someone who might be ready to put down roots in a community like this one. Who might you invite to worship next week?

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

Opening Prayer

Pray with me using the words on display, asking the true vine to keep us connected.

All: God of vine and branch, we come with open hands. Some of us are holding on to things that no longer bear fruit. Some of us are being pruned and don’t understand why. Teach us to remain, connected to you, connected to each other, trusting that your work in us will produce a harvest we cannot imagine. 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?

God of vine and branch, vineyard keeper, we come into your presence. We pause in your presence.

(pause)

We worship you as the source of everything that grows. You are the vine that feeds every branch. You are the keeper who kneels in the dirt, who inspects each shoot, who makes decisions about our growth with wisdom and love we cannot fully understand. We praise you for your intimate attention, for knowing each of us by name and tending us with hands that never tire.

We confess that we have not always trusted your pruning. We have clung to what is dead because it felt familiar. We have resisted the cuts that didn’t make sense, pulling away from you instead of remaining. We have tried to produce fruit through our own effort and wondered why we were exhausted. Forgive us for the times we chose self-sufficiency over dependence on the true vine.

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

(pause)

We give thanks for the fruit you’ve already produced in our lives. For the relationship that deepened after something else was cut away. For the ministry that grew because we released what was spreading us too thin. For the new growth we’re just beginning to notice, tender and green and full of possibility. Thank you for every season of pruning that led to a harvest we didn’t expect.

We bring before you the needs of this community and world. We pray for those who are in the middle of being pruned, who feel the sting of loss, transition, or letting go. We pray for those battling illness, carrying grief, or facing uncertainty about the future. We pray for our neighbors who feel disconnected, branches that have broken off and don’t know how to find their way back to the vine. We pray for those joining this congregation today, that they would find here a community rooted in your love. God, tend your people. Produce in us the fruit that glorifies you.

We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the true vine in whom we remain, 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

Jesus says that branches produce fruit when they remain connected to the vine. Giving is one of the ways we stay connected, releasing what we have into God’s purposes and trusting that fruit will come. When we give, we practice gifts, participating in what God is doing through this congregation.

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.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

We’ve given our gifts and offered our prayers. Now we’re sent to practice service, to bear the kind of fruit that points back to the vine. Will you pray with me?

Generous God, thank you for the gifts we’ve shared today. Use them to extend your love throughout McPherson and beyond. Produce fruit through our generosity that we cannot produce on our own. Send us out to serve as you have served us, with patience, with care, and with the confidence that you are the source of everything that grows. Amen.

Will you please stand as we sing together?

Benediction

Go, connected to the vine. Love boldly, serve joyfully, lead courageously.

And may the God who tends, the Christ who sustains, and the Spirit who produces fruit in us go with you always. Amen.