April 12, 2020
Easter!
Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4
Call to Worship
(this is adapted from Thankful Praise, p. 107, CBP Press, 1987.
A “repeat each line” call to worship. The congregation repeats what the
leader says. If you’re leading worship on-line, ask those on-line to repeat.
Encourage those in the room with you to repeat, with vigor!)
Praise God!
Christ lives!
We live.
Praise God!
Death dies.
Praise God.
Hope soars!
Love grows.
Live now
with power
in Christ.
Lift hands
to God.
Christ lives;
Praise God!
Opening Prayer
God of Resurrection Power, we come to you today with eager hearts. How we
yearn not only to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but to know true resurrection in our
own lives. Surrounded by so many deaths (from COVID-19, but also deaths of our
own jobs, death of our freedom of movement, death of any sense of control …),
we reach out to you. Show us YOUR way! Infuse us with YOUR power! Raise us
UP to lives of resurrection joy, even as we sing our glad “Alleluia!” AMEN
Moment for Stewardship
(if you are making an appeal from a virtual platform, be sure to encourage folks to respond in any and all forms you have available. On-line? By phone? Write and mail in a check? Drop offering in the church office door or mail box?)
We are witnesses to the power of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God,
so now let’s offer our gifts and tithes in thanksgiving, eager to share the Easter good news of abundant life, forgiveness and grace with all the world.
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God, you have become our light and our salvation –
let these gifts open the gates of joy
to all who hunger and thirst for your holy presence.
May this offering RING OUT our joy,
and demonstrate our delight, for Christ is RISEN!
Congregational Response: Christ is risen, indeed! Amen.
Invitation to Communion
At the Table, we usually think about the Upper Room, and the death of Jesus.
But today I invite us to think about the Risen Christ as our Host.
It is the Risen Christ who extends the open invitation to any and all who would come.
It is the Risen Christ that joins us together, making many individuals into one people at the Table. With believers from all times and places, we rejoice as we
share in these gifts of bread and cup.
So, as we take this bread and drink from this cup, remember the Christ who was raised, now calling you and me, to new and abundant life, echoing with the reverberations of resurrection. AMEN!