October 30 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Flowers from Angela Baker

The choir warms up before worship

Myrle offers holiday fare

Fellowship fun!

Reformation Sunday

Today’s Meditation Verse: “Therefore let all who are faithful offer prayer to you; at a time of distress, the rush of mighty waters shall not reach them. You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with glad cries of deliverance.”  —Psalm 32:6-7

Welcome... Pastor Charles

Prelude... Lorie Courier / “This Is My Father’s World”

*Call to Worship... Bob Muckle

We have come to affirm our historic faith. To worship the God of our mothers and fathers. We have come to remember God’s benefits to us the living. To respond in thanksgiving to the mighty works of God in our lives. We have come to affirm our trust in the God of all futures, To whose name be blessing and honor, glory, and power forever and ever. Amen

—Ruth Duck, Bread for the Journey Pilgrim Press, 1981, p. 56

*Hymn... “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (UMH #117)

Affirmation of Unity... Bob Muckle

We share one faith, have one calling, are of one soul and one mind; have one God and Father, are filled with one Spirit, are baptized with one baptism, eat of one bread and drink of one cup, confess one Name, are obedient to one Lord, work for one cause, and share one hope. Together we come to know the height and the breadth and the depth of the love of Christ; are built up to the stature of Christ, to the new humanity; know and bear one another’s burdens, thereby fulfilling the law of Christ that we need one another and up build one another,     admonishing and comforting one another; that we suffer with one another for the sake of righteousness. Together we pray; together we serve God in this world.

—Nolan Palsma, “Prayerful Preparation: Living God, Renew Us.” The World Communion of Reformed Churches

*Offering/Doxology (UMH #95)

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer... Pastor Charles

Epistle Lesson: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 ... Bob Muckle

Choral Anthem... “Appalachian Psalm,” by Tom Lough, arranged by Jon Paige

Gospel Lesson: Luke 19:1-10... Pastor Charles

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Sermon... Pastor Charles / “Salvation has come hither”

(Zacchaeus was a wee little man)

*Hymn... “Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know” (UMH #163)

*Words for the Journey... Pastor Charles

Postlude... Lorie Courier / “Praise Him! Praise Him!”