CAMERA/slides @ Pulpit; Headset Mic
WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
Peace be with you! I’m Tiffany McCafferty, and on behalf of the Presbytery of Lake Michigan’s Youth Strategy Team, I am pleased to share with you this Youth-Led Virtual Worship Service for Pentecost 2021!
Over the past 15 months, we have all been met with unprecedented challenges - including many that arose in the making of this service! But with challenge also becomes opportunity; new gifts are discovered, different voices are heard and we all find more reasons to place our faith and trust in God, and not in ourselves or our individual efforts.
The service in which you are about to join includes the participation of 32 different Middle, High School and College students from 9 different worshipping communities. While we are all longing for the day - hopefully soon - when we can gather together again as the youth of the Presbytery of Lake Michigan, we are thankful for the technology and ability to come together virtually to create this unique worship experience.
Let us pray:
God of all times, pour out your spirit anew upon your church, upon all who gather to worship you through this offering, that we may see and know that together we are one body; together we are Christ’s church; and TOGETHER, WE RISE. AMEN.
SLIDES FULL - SOUND FROM PC ONLY
PENTECOST WORSHIP 2021
“TOGETHER WE RISE”
JAKE PRELUDE: a video montage of youth talking about what they can’t wait to do when we can be together again; when we can be church together again; what they miss; share their plans/dreams/visions for their future and the future of the church (with musical background)
LYNNE CALL TO WORSHIP AND OPENING HYMN Youth from ______________
ONE: It’s time. It’s time to gather together in one place.
MANY: It’s time to open our hearts to God’s Spirit; it’s time to open
our mouths to speak God’s truth.
ONE: It’s time to gather and share our voices; to sing, pray and bless the
LORD!
MANY: It’s time to open our eyes to God’s presence; it’s time for
dreams to become reality
ALL: Now is the time to worship God. Come, Holy Spirit!
OPENING HYMN: Come, Now Is the Time to Worship Band from _____
By Brian Doerksen
CCLI Song #2430948
NEED: CALL TO CONFESSION, PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS - Youth From
CALL TO CONFESSION
LEADER: If we say that we are without sin, then we are lying to ourselves, and we don’t know the truth of how amazing God’s love for us really is. But, if we can trust in God enough to admit what we have done wrong, or not done at all, and to face the things that scare us, then God, who is faithful and just, will make us whole. Please join me in the Prayer of Confession:
PRAYER OF CONFESSION (unison):
God of Grace, thank you for loving us no matter what. Help us love one another the way you love us.
Forgive us for fighting and judging and labeling one another.
Forgive us for hiding behind social media and texts instead of reaching out to connect.
Forgive us for letting the world’s ways of power and fear come between us and keep us from speaking up for those who need help and justice the most.
Give us the courage to answer when you call, to dare to dream and make those dreams real.
Forgive us, God, and make us whole again. In the name of the One who came to save us, we pray, Amen.
ASSURANCE OF FORGIVENESS
LEADER: As the prophet Ezekiel spoke long ago, God’s promise of salvation is for us:
"I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees. You will be my people, and I will be your God." Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace (from Ezekiel 36:24-28, NRSV).
JAKE
FIRST READING: Ezekiel 37:1-14 YOUTH FROM MUSKEGON FIRST
This could be done as “readers’ theater, with one reading Ezekiel and another all of the things that God says.
37 1-2 God grabbed me. God’s Spirit took me up and set me down in the middle of an open plain strewn with bones. He led me around and among them—a lot of bones! There were bones all over the plain—dry bones, bleached by the sun.
3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Master God, only you know that.”
4 He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones: ‘Dry bones, listen to the Message of God!’”
5-6 God, the Master, told the dry bones, “Watch this: I’m bringing the breath of life to you and you’ll come to life. I’ll attach sinews to you, put meat on your bones, cover you with skin, and breathe life into you. You’ll come alive and you’ll realize that I am God!”
7-8 I prophesied just as I’d been commanded. As I prophesied, there was a sound and, oh, rustling! The bones moved and came together, bone to bone. I kept watching. Sinews formed, then muscles on the bones, then skin stretched over them. But they had no breath in them.
9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, ‘God, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!’”
10 So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.
11 Then God said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Listen to what they’re saying: ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone, there’s nothing left of us.’
12-14 “Therefore, prophesy. Tell them, ‘God, the Master, says: I’ll dig up your graves and bring you out alive—O my people! Then I’ll take you straight to the land of Israel. When I dig up graves and bring you out as my people, you’ll realize that I am God. I’ll breathe my life into you and you’ll live. Then I’ll lead you straight back to your land and you’ll realize that I am God. I’ve said it and I’ll do it. God’s Decree.’”
MITCHELL
ANTHEM: Rise by Arianne Abela, Detroit, MI 2017
From the Justice Songbook; available at justicechoir.org/songbook
JAKE
SECOND READING: Acts 2:1-21 YOUTH FROM HOLT
(This could be split between two readers, a narrator and Peter, as indicated)
NARRATOR:
2 1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
5-11 There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were blown away. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites;
Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene;
Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes;
Even Cretans and Arabs!
“They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!”
12 Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?”
13 Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”
14-21 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency:
PETER:
“Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:
“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke,
the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives,
the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help
to me, God, will be saved.”
MESSAGE - Elijah Brown
MESSAGE ENDS ABRUPTLY - GO TO CAMERA FULL FOR INTRO TO MOMENT FOR MISSION
TIFFANY @ PULPIT, Headset Mic
We hear you, Elijah! And we accept your challenge!
Let us pray:
Holy Spirit, giver of life, we thank you for Elijah’s message, and for the witness of our young people, for all they have shown us about what it means to be church at a time such as this. May we continue to reach out and welcome all people into our community of faith in many, many ways. May we continue to be blessed by the visions and dreams of our children and youth with open hearts and open minds. Amen.
Being able to come together in a virtual worship service, and connecting with so many people in different places through offering worship on-line is but one of the important blessings we hope to keep. Our Moment for Mission today is also about a young person who also discovered a new way to be connected, even during a global pandemic, as we’ll hear from Gina Yeager-Buckly from PC USA’s office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium
BACK TO CAMERA FULL, SOUND FROM PC
MOMENT FOR MISSION/OFFERTORY - Pentecost Offering Video
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE LORD’S PRAYER
AND NOW, GATHERED INTO ONE BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, LET US PRAY AS JESUS TAUGHT US:
GOD, WE THANK YOU FOR . . . .
WE ASK THAT YOU WOULD HELP . . .
WE PRAY THAT YOU SHOW US HOW TO . . .
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
CAMERA/slides @ CENTER CHANCEL; Headsets for Singers
CLOSING HYMN
Suggested Hymn: GTG #290 O Day of Joy and Wonder
CAMERA FULL
CHARGE AND BENEDICTION (montage of various youth who say:
Thank you once again for taking the time to worship with us as we strive to stay connected to you!
“And now, may you go out and
LOVE BUILD
LAUGH LEARN
GIVE BREATHE SMILE
GROW PRAY
TRY LEAD FOLLOW DANCE
DREAM SEE BELIEVE
RISE
TOGETHER
AMEN!!
NOTES - to do:
Record Sam and Braelynn recording: And now may you go out and
And RISE TOGETHER!!