I’ve really enjoyed the work of Aaron Niequist over at anewliturgy.com and decided to try and put together a similar style liturgy on the theme of God’s faithfulness and provision.  Note that I used a few prayers from his liturgies – so credit goes to him on those.  You could probably find a variety of songs to fit these themes – below are the specific songs we picked for that Sunday service.

On a side note, we kept the stage clear and moved band members to either the very edge to the stage or moved them just off the stage to the floor on the sides of the sanctuary.  I loved leading worship from the side of the congregation and not being up front and centre.  (Probably another blog post to come on that topic.)

THANKSGIVING

Yesterday, Today, & Forever

(We did our welcome time, announcements etc here)

THANKSGIVING – Prayer of Thanks

(A New Liturgy #5 – http://www.anewliturgy.com/05.html)

Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks
for all your goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory.

And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies,
that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise,
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
by giving up our selves to your service,
and by walking before you
in holiness and righteousness all our days;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit,
be honor and glory throughout all ages.
Amen.

Doxology

During the prayer of thanks above – we did a ‘building’ intro to an upbeat driving version of the Doxology.

Come Thou Fount

10,000 Reasons

LAMENT

Video Clip – Gungor talks about Lament

Gungor has a full concert video available on iTunes and at various times during the video he stops to share some of his thoughts.  We used one of his talks on the topic of lament to start off this section.  (Buy his video here – it’s incredible!! Let There Be on iTunes)

Reason To Sing

CONFESSION

Breaking Beauty

God we grieve the brokeness in this world.  And now we want to acknowledge any role that we have played in it.  Any way that we have added to the brokeness around us.  Any decisions we have made that made the situation worse.  Everytime we’ve been responsible for breaking the beauty…

 

1 John 1:5-7

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

The River

We did this song almost entirely accapella with a tenor and alto harmony – it worked really well.  I find our congregation sings this song really well and letting their voices carry it is really powerful.

Confession

(A New Liturgy #5 – http://www.anewliturgy.com/05.html)

Loving God, would You bring to mind a moment today where I fell short, where I sinned against You or someone else. Maybe it was something I did when no one was looking…something I said that was hurtful…something I thought…maybe I said something I said that was absolutely true but the energy powering it was ugly. Father, please bring my sin to my mind.

Lord God,
I have sinned against you;
I have done evil in your sight.
I am sorry and repent.
Have mercy on me according to your love.
Wash away my wrongdoing and cleanse me from my sin.
Renew a right spirit within me
and restore the joy of your salvation,
through Jesus Christ my Lord.
Amen.

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

We only did the first two verses and the chorus twice at the end.

COMMUNITY SHARING

Every week we do an open mic sharing time to give people a chance to share prayer requests and praise items.

It Is Well

MESSAGE

A Jar Of Manna

[haiku url=”https://www.rethinkworship.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Sept.-1-2013-Dan-Loewen.mp3″  title=”Jar of Manna (Dan Loewen)”]

RESPONSE

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Yesterday, Today and Forever