Worship Resources for
the Center for Faith and Giving
April 19, 2026
Easter +3
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
Call to Worship (adapted from Psalm 116)
One: Come! Let’s share our love for God, who hears us.
Many: God leans in to hear our pleas!
One: Together, let’s offer our hearts and minds.
Many: Let’s call on the name of the Lord!
One: With our hearts and minds, we praise God!
Many: Together, we praise the Lord our God!
Opening Prayer
Mighty God, you bring life out of death and joy from our sorrow.
In this Easter season, we rejoice in the assurance of your presence with us.
Open our eyes to the ways you appear among us not only in worship,
but in our daily activities and encounters.
Help us offer you the best of our lives,
in grateful affirmation for the gifts you pour out upon us! AMEN
Moment for Stewardship (adapted from Acts 2:38)
In this season of so many concerns, sometimes with our mental anxieties sky-rocketing, how important it is for us to step back and take a deep breath! Step back with me in history.
Peter, Jesus’ disciple, was preaching in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. The gathered crowds were astonished at his words: God made Jesus (whom the crowds had crucified) both Lord and Messiah (Christ)!
The crowd then asked, “What should we do?” and Peter laid out a plan.
1800 years later, Walter Scott created a “five-finger exercise” from Peter’s response.
– Have faith.
– Repent.
– Be baptized (immersed).
– Accept that your sins are forgiven.
– Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In grateful response to the ways we’ve learned, lived, and look forward, let’s share our offerings as faithful, repentant, baptized, forgiven, and Holy Spirit-infused disciples of the Risen Christ!
Prayer of Thanksgiving
God of Grace, thank you for the ways we’re able to use this time to offer our gifts and our very lives back to you. Thank you for standing with us, even in the midst of frightening and disconcerting times. Thank you for the ways your love continues to flow into the world, even when the world is caught in war, violence, and so many of your beloved children suffering. Please use these gifts and use each of us to share further the Good News of your resurrecting energy for us and all your creation. AMEN
Invitation to Communion (from Luke 24: 13-35)
One of the best stories of the Gospels comes toward the end of Luke, as two followers of Jesus were on the road to a village called Emmaus. That morning, the disciples had discovered Jesus’ body was gone and his borrowed tomb was empty.
Full of sorrow, and bamboozled by what they’d heard, these two people talked over one another in their effort to explain all that had happened to the stranger who joined them on their walk.
When the two were ready to stop, they persuaded the stranger to come in and stay, because night was closing in. Then, this guest turned the table! He became the host, taking bread, blessing and breaking it, and giving it to them.
Luke simply reports: “Their eyes were opened and they recognized him.”
So may it be for you, for me, for us:
That the Risen Messiah will be made known to us in the breaking of this bread!