Order of Worship

GATHERING
October 24, 2021, Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost.
Theme: Beyond the Offering Plate.
Welcome: comments from Rev. Susan Bresser.
Worship and Song Hymnal (green), #3001 - O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. Singing all verses.
Call to Worship: Reverend Greta Hietpas.

Leader: Come and worship Christ,
the visible image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of creation,
the eternal God
Pastor: the one through whom all things were created, and in whom all things are held together.
Leader: This is our God! Let’s worship together.
Hymn: United Methodist Hymnal (red), #87- What Gift Can We Bring, verse 2.
A Time of Prayer (with Lord’s Prayer): offered by Reverend Greta Hietpas.
Musical Response: You Raise Me Up, by Rolf Loveland & Brendan Joseph Graham.
THE WORD
Musical Setting for the Scripture - “Thy Word” –John Sheaffer on pipe organ.
The Epistle Lesson: Colossians 1:15-20 (the Message).

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
Contemporary Message: Reverend Susan Bresser:
Stewardship of Time.

Organ Transition.

RESPONSE

Stewardship Witness: Melissa Freiberg.

Ministry Moment: Reverend Greta Hietpas.
Prayer of Dedication: Receive these gifts, O Christ, as gratitude for all you have given us.
We pray that all we return to you will be used faithfully in ministry to the world. Amen.

Hymn: Worship and Song Hymnal (green), #3105 - In Christ Alone. Singing all verses.
Benediction: Reverend Susan Bresser.
Postlude: “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” by Ludwig van Beethoven, John Sheaffer, pipe organ.
Prepare for worship next Sunday: Genesis 1:26-28, and Deuteronomy 6:5.