May 19 Service
Groveport UMC, Groveport Ohio
Rick Birk, Pastor
WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
BREAKTHROUGH PRAYER: Amazing God, We pray that through the Holy Spirit Your preferred future for Groveport United Methodist Church will be made clear to us. Give us the courage we need to follow You wherever You may take us. We ask that You bind us together in love so that we can bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to our friends, families, and community. Open our eyes so that we may see the amazing things You are already doing among us. AMEN.
PRELUDE “To God Be the Glory”
LIGHTING OF THE ALTAR CANDLES
*OPENING HYMN “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord”
CALL TO WORSHIP:
L: Beloved of God, pay attention. Did you notice? There are dry bones all around us. In our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our schools, our community and nation and world. They pop up wherever people are parched for love and dignity, provision and hope. We notice them, and we wonder:
P: Will these bones live?
L: Pay attention. Can you hear it? So many of us carry dry bones that clank around in our hearts. Dreams that are dying. Gifts that are languishing. Hopes left undernourished and neglected. Loneliness that eats away at our sense of connection with one another until we wonder:
P: Can these bones live?
L: Pay attention. Can you feel it? The Holy Spirit breathes among us. Breathe in love. Breathe in provision. Breathe in connection and flourishing. Because the Spirit never quits breathing among us, assuring us:
P: These bones will live.
L: Pay attention. Can you sense it? God is always putting us back together. In dreams of abundance and visions of cooperation, in the cacophony of voices who share and receive the good news in their own languages, the Spirit revives us and restores us, reminding us:
P: These bones live, because Love dwells among us, now and always. Thanks be to God!
HYMN “Jesus Loves Me” #191
END OF SCHOOL RECOGNITIONS: 2024 Graduates; Scholarship Recipients
PRAYER OF CONFESSION:
L: We do not stop enough to listen to the still-speaking God. And like the people of Jerusalem long ago, we often misunderstand the Spirit’s movement among us. In the silence and stillness of this moment, let us draw near to God and listen. [silence] Let us confess together: We confess to you, Renewing Spirit, that we confuse unity with uniformity, and diversity with divisiveness. We speak and behave as if being a part of your family means assimilating others to our way of living. We deny and destroy the beauty you created in each person. We long to change these patterns, O Creator, but we do not know how. Teach us to value challenge. Help us to see strength in difference. And empower us to build your kingdom in creativity and love. Amen.
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
FIRST SCRIPTURE READING: Ezekiel 37:1-14
OUR TIME OF PRAYER (During our time of prayer, the altar rail is open for all who wish to come forward.)
HYMN “Sanctuary”
PASTORAL PRAYER
THE LORD’S PRAYER
OUR TITHES AND OFFERINGS Special Music by Angela Martin
*DOXOLOGY
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
CHILDREN’S MOMENTS (Children 1st-6th grades may attend Jr. Church at this time)
SECOND SCRIPTURE READING: Acts 2:1-21
SERMON “These Bones Will Live”
HOLY COMMUNION
*CLOSING HYMN “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus”
*BENEDICTION
*SENDING FORTH “Because He Lives” (chorus only)
POSTLUDE “Sunshine in My Soul”
