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This service of lament and longing for God's light was held on the night of Wednesday, December 20—the night with the least sunlight of any day on the calendar in the Northern Hemisphere.
The Sunday for which this service is designated is World Communion Sunday. On this day churches around the world will come to the Table of the Lord as an expression of their oneness in Jesus Christ.
Worship service ideas for the month of November.
September is a time of new beginnings. The new school year, the new church school year, and a new year of church ministries and activities are all worth remembering, celebrating, and dedicating in worship.
The highlight of the October calendar may be World Communion Sunday, when Christians everywhere celebrate what it means to belong to the body of Christ—"the holy catholic church, the communion of the saints." In celebrating the Lord's Supper, we most deeply celebrate our oneness in Christ.
Loving God, we cry out to you on behalf of the people of the Darfur region.
We do not find that the Bible prescribes a specific liturgy for worship, we do find that our understanding of the Scriptures and the guidelines that it provides will be very helpful in discerning the pattern of worship and understanding the freedom for variation and flexibility in our worship life.
Before you come to the meeting, spend some time with these two chapters from Revelation. As you read these chapters, remind yourself that while John is an exile on the island of Patmos he receives this revelation from God. You are getting a view of the throne room of heaven.
The theme of worship is very prominent in the Scriptures. Many of the references are calls to worship in which God's children are told that worship is their joy and their privilege. But many other passages indicate that the worship life of the church requires constant assessment. It can get off course and need to be redirected; it can face new opportunities and need new forms; and it can benefit from new insights and experiences.
This Bible study explores the sacrament of Communion.
In corporate worship we are expected to give a response to what God has said and done. So we talk about the "service of response" of a worship liturgy, and it always follows the proclamation of God's word in the sermon. When God has spoken his word of hope and grace, it is unthinkable that we would leave church without a response. The dialogue of worship always includes the assumption that God waits for some response to his word.
In the dialogue of worship in the Reformed tradition, congregational song has primarily had the role of the people's response to God. And that role has been shaped by Scripture, as shown through a study of the Psalms as the songbook of the Bible. In our discussion on congregational song, we will examine closely the nature of the Psalm songs and how that can serve as a model for our songs today.
