Dangerous Journey

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Daily Lent Devotions from Church Street UMC

Sunday, March 6, Morning

By Nancy Carmon

Dangerous Journey

Read Isaiah 43:1-3

My home devotion study recently was entitled “Dangerous Journey”. I assumed the writers were going to reflect on Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness. That was a dangerous journey. The landscape east of Jerusalem down to Jericho is barren, wild, arid, and rocky. Jesus would have been hungry and thirsty, and it certainly would have been dangerous wrestling with the darkest forces of evil. Or even Jesus’s last journey to Jerusalem, where according to the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus tells the disciples what awaits him there. That was a dangerous journey too! 

But the week’s readings were about the dangerous journey of faith. The “cost of seeking God and the danger of following Christ”. For Jesus, God’s call meant the ultimate sacrifice – the cross. For many missionaries serving in troubled areas, the call to service and faith may certainly be quite dangerous.

How can that be dangerous here in America where we have freedom of religion? Maybe the danger lies in what we choose. To say yes to God’s call requires saying no to our own voice, our self will, our own desires, and even sometimes to the voices of persons and things we love. Jesus tells the disciples that he has come not to bring peace, but a sword. A dangerous journey indeed.

A dangerous journey and a challenge for all of us this Lenten season is to step out in faith–out of our comfort zone: to be a greeter, to serve on a church committee, to write a Lenten or Advent devotion, to welcome a stranger sitting in our pew, to seek the consolation and power of prayer, to delve deeply into scripture, to join a Sunday School class, to fast and seek God’s call, to recognize our spiritual gifts and to use them for our church, our community, our world.

What can we expect when we say “YES” to God’s call? “I will be with you…for I am the Lord your God, the Holy one of Israel, your Savior.” Thanks be to God.

Prayer

Dear Jesus, open us to the possibilities of saying “YES” to you this Lenten season. We know that you will walk in faith with us on our “dangerous journey” of faith! Amen.

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Welcome

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Daily Lent Devotions from Church Street UMC

Wednesday, March 2, Evening – Ash Wednesday

By Steve Richardson

Welcome

Read Luke 15:20-24

“But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”

Lent’s nature of repentance and renewal brings to mind the parable of the prodigal son. This is a story packed with many different layers of meaning. One that raises reassurance is the unconditional “welcome back” response of the father.

At Church Street, The Welcoming Christ statue adorns the space above the chancel altar. What a comforting and appropriate symbol for everyone’s contemplation, whether seated or when approaching the chancel altar for sacraments and sacred moments.

This lime-wood masterpiece was not always there. Prior to September 1974, a beautifully-crafted statue of the archangel Gabriel occupied that space. Gabriel is still present in the nave in the narthex balcony. Like parishioners, Gabriel now gazes forward to Christ. As noted in Dr. Dwight Wade’s book, Unfinished Journey, The Welcoming Christ was sculpted by acclaimed Boston artist, Arcangelo Cascieri. (It’s hard to overlook the coincidence of his first name, considering that the statue of the archangel played a role in this project!) In remarks about The Welcoming Christ, Mr. Cascieri stated, “I have tried to capture a spiritual pleasantness, kindness and welcome.”

In our day and age of seemingly widening divisions in our society, the notions of “spiritual pleasantness, kindness and welcome” stir senses of solace, calm and relief. The depiction of Jesus with raised hands and compassionate demeanor reminds us that all are invited, desired and accepted. Jesus longs us for his loving embrace.

Christ welcomes us all, just as we are. Therefore, as his followers, let us welcome one another, just as we are.

Prayer

Triune God, we’re humbled and grateful to realize that we don’t need to wait for your welcome. Your loving arms are always open, always outstretched to accept and embrace us. May we be mindful to do likewise among others, as we strive to live in your image.

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The Gift of 40 Days

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Daily Lent Devotions from Church Street UMC

Wednesday, March 2, Morning – Ash Wednesday

By Dwight Wade

The Gift of 40 Days

Read Matthew 4:1-11

“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The Tempter came and said to him..” (please open your bible and read all 11 verses). 

How should I personally participate in a practice that Christians began over 1600 years before I was born? My Sevierville Methodist Church did not observe Lent when I was growing up. However, several decades ago, our denomination accepted this tradition, actually a rare gift, as we joined countless other Christians in this period of prayer, scriptural study, contemplation, confession, and the seeking of holiness. I was an adult before seriously asking myself how I might best honor this season set forth by the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

When I read the familiar first eleven verses of chapter 4 of Matthew’s gospel (Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days of fasting, prayer, contemplation, and Satan’s testing), I think of his prolonged time alone. Ancient scripture often used the number 40 to mean a significant period (i.e., the deluge upon Noah’s ark for 40 days, Moses in Egypt 40 years, on Mount Sinai 40 days, and the 40 years wandering in the wilderness, etc.)

For a significant time, the past two years and counting, we all are being thoroughly tested by a dangerous, virulent virus. Unfortunately, we have witnessed anger, fear, ungraciousness, and even shocking behavior played out on many levels. Still, the Lord has seen us through. I feel led to make thanksgiving, contemplation, and kindness my ultimate practices this Lenten season, and perhaps others may feel the same. I hope to join you on Ash Wednesday to begin our 40 days.

Prayer

God of Grace, we humbly come to you as children who would join others in this time of preparation for the coming Easter celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We give everlasting thanks for this, your gift to all believers. We ask that you speak to us, that whatever we undertake these days of Lent will reflect our devotion to you and our love and concern for others. Amen.

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Weekly Lenten Prayer – March 1, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of March 1, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Christ whose glory fills the skies, your mercies pierce the darkest morn and the most dreary night. As Jesus was transfigured on the mount, you transfigure everything you touch. Most Holy One, you remain our light upon the unknown path and shall keep us steady as we embark upon our own Lenten journey of inner transformation. And as we travel, help us unveil those secret sins we have hidden so long from view; may we discard them as worthless ashes along the way, especially these that weigh heaviest within us. . . . . . . . .  

Have you not planted seeds of hope and second chances within the most barren landscapes?  Just so, sharpen our inner eyes, we pray, that we might discover these sparks of wonder as we move forward, highlighting all that is worthy of revival.  All praises to you, for you are the Grace that breathes so quietly and steadily within the soil, far beneath the clamor of the world.

And believing you are that Radiant Friend who listens to the deepest sighs of our souls, and knowing you never leave us alone, we name all those things that tug upon our hearts this week:

  • Thanksgiving for Children’s Sunday and praise for our children and youth of our church and for their leaders
  • Grandparents celebrate recent visit with young granddaughter in Pennsylvania
  • Gratitude for prayers: Adult son recovering well from foot surgery
  • Members thankful for ministry of parish health team
  • Family overjoyed with recent birth of healthy son/grandson 
  • Friend offers gratitude for a smooth move and a house closing
  • Member celebrating first steps for reconciliation of relationship
  • Family grateful for safe travel to visit newborn grandson in California
  • Solace for friends and family of member who will be buried on Friday
  • Prayers for the people under siege in Ukraine, peace to prevail
  • Lift up all children trying to understand the horrors of war
  • Healing of daughter suffering from painful shingles
  • Prayers for cousin’s successful liver transplant March 8
  • Continued prayers for all ill with Covid
  • Healing prayers for bereaved family whose uncle died suddenly
  • Courage & calm for a young, anxious pregnant wife
  • All loved ones in assisted living situations their caregivers
  • Family grieving son’s sudden death; grace as they plan services
  • Prayers for healing: Member with severe anemia and GI problems
  • Guidance for family struggling to care for infirm adult sister
  • Direction & courage for friend divorcing, for his children
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer
  • School counselors working with children grieving the sudden death of classmate
  • Prayers for wisdom in regard to a home purchase 
  • A young professional searching for a position in athletics  
  • Hope and healing for young friend with metastatic cancer
  • Prayers for an 8-year-old’s emotional healing  

As people dependent upon your transformative power, we ask that you remold us, even as we praise your name and offer our prayers and petitions in the name of Christ, the True and Only Light who taught us these words:

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Weekly Prayer – February 23, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 23, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Scripture tells us your spark of divinity resides within each of us. And whatever  essence this spark is, we confess, such a notion of innate holiness unnerves us. Therefore, we have lacquered it over by our own illusions and self-interests.  We wear our masks of acceptability, hoping we will fit in with the culture. We scramble to acquire the newest baubles on the market, reach for the fleeting, and attend to the voices of promoters who promise lives of ease and tranquility.  Help us remove these barriers we have erected through the years that keep us from seeing ourselves as we really are, for we are children searching for the easy way.  Surely your prayers and ours are the same: That we might work, trusting in your mercy, to expunge each layer of falseness within us, till one day we stand before you as our unvarnished selves, with all are fallacies cast aside, with all our divine possibilities shining in brightness.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

A wise one once attested that “in the end, nature is enough.” How true it is that you speak to us, Holy One, through the language of the universe, in the dialect of love that is understood by every race and tribe.  The earth itself is your sacramental gift to humankind, and when we ignore it or mar it, it devalues your offering and pierces your heart.  Silence, we pray, all that muffles your daily call to your people throughout the world.  May we recognize your magnificence in the frame of the smallest leaf, in the glorious potential of the smallest seed, in the wind that calls forth the seasons.  Then may we bend the knee in homage to the One whose breath plants life wherever it passes and whose stillness is sufficient to saturate every soul.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

The present perils of the world weigh heavy upon us, O Lord. The thunder of tanks and vibrations of jets disclose the violence already at hand.  We pray for all the vulnerable ones in Eastern Europe whose lives and livelihoods are in jeopardy because of the menace of war.  May your word of peace ring out, we pray, to shatter the sword and quell the drug-related cruelty rampant in the Philippines, in Yemen, Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico. We lift up those affected by the deadly mudslides in Brazil, and all in developing countries where Covid rates remain high. Stand beside those persecuted ones everywhere because of their ethnicity, gender, or social class. Behind our posturing and claims of self-sufficiency, we are a frail people, dependent upon one another and upon your enduring mercy.  Strengthen our resolve, Good Lord, for whatever lies ahead.

Hope of the World, hear our prayer.

May our prayers mingle with all those offered for the suffering in every place; and we add these concerns and thanksgivings that are offered by our friends, your beloved ones, at Church Street UMC: 

  • Gratitude for new church members, that they may find a place of joyful service among us
  • Grateful for prayers: Two arrived safely to new home in Texas
  • Appreciation for prayers: Father in hospice is having good days
  • Thanksgiving for the blessing of our music ministry
  • Offering thanks for Stephen Ministry and blessings of all now in training
  • Thanksgiving for safe and meaningful Confirmation Retreat
  • Member thankful for steady healing following spinal surgery
  • Family celebrates birth of healthy first grandson Feb 20 in Colorado
  • Gratitude for a dear friend’s 98th birthday last week
  • Member sends gratitude for prayers – vastly improved from Covid
  • Prayers for cousin’s successful liver transplant March 8
  • Continued prayers for all testing positive for Covid
  • Healing prayers for bereaved family whose uncle died suddenly and whose wife remains ill 
  • Courage and strength for young pregnant mother
  • Strengthening of a Sunday School Class
  • Courage, healing for adult son with diabetes, as he faces amputations
  • Prayers for healing clergy person suffering from congestive heart failure
  • Upholding family of young serviceman who died suddenly last week
  • Prayers for all members adjusting to residing in assisted living
  • Guidance for family struggling with caring for infirm sister
  • Direction and courage for friend divorcing
  • Beloved cousin in treatment for ovarian cancer
  • School counselors working with children grieving the sudden death of a young classmate
  • Continued prayers for two families – wives caring for ill husbands
  • Comfort for all church families grieving losses
  • Prayers for healing for one suffering severe eye damage
  • For an open door of opportunity for a young man’s work  
  • Hope and healing for young friend with metastatic cancer
  • Prayers for an 8-year-old’s emotional healing  
  • God’s healing presence with sister following massive stroke

Hope of the World, we believe you have accepted all our prayers that are offered in earnest, and ask that your holy presence would surround and sustain us throughout life’s journey; for we walk day by day with Jesus, who taught us to pray:

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – February 16, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 16, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Awaken us, we pray, to your Spirit-filled blessings that encircle the quiet earth. In our quest to “do” we forget you have called us to “be.” We confess we walk about with eyes closed to your splendors, but you display them for us anew every day: from the dew-crusted grass to the robin nibbling berries on a holly, from the faint rustle of the evergreen to the blue-white peaks in the distance, from the evening shadows across the lawn to the familiar face that welcomes us home. Deserving of so little, you place riches on our doorsteps. Open not only our eyes, but our souls as well, to your grace overflowing.

Lord of All, we thank you!

We praise you, Architect of Faith, for our church, and for all who have gone out from this place to serve you throughout the world through the decades. Week to week you call your willing workers from within our congregation to serve their fellow human beings in this community. We marvel at their tenacity and dedication as they go out to share food and clothing, to tend to the sick, to provide emotional support for school children, to welcome the stranger to the table, to advocate for just and equal opportunity for all. These followers teach us that your work is not finished, Lord, and that there are many ways in which each of us may use our personal gifts to carry your banner of hope.

Lord of All, we praise you!

God of Healing, here in your presence, we cannot ask for assistance for ourselves without offering praise for your divine work as we have wrestled with the Corona virus and its variants. It is you who pointed the way to healing, who emboldened professionals to serve despite the risks, who stood beside each grieving soul touched by this devastating illness. You have brought us this far, Firmest Friend, and you will never leave us comfortless.

Lord of All, we honor you!

In all humility, we now pray you would be mindful of the needs of those who are closest to our hearts: . . . . . . . . . . ; and also of those special circumstances of our brothers and sisters in Christ here at Church Street:

  • Praises for those who are being called to join our church on Sunday
  • Thankful for friend’s miraculous healing from Covid
  • Daughter grateful for father’s recent health improvement
  • Thankful: Member improves daily following surgery
  • Member grateful for prayers for her wedding
  • Thanksgiving: All in one assisted living are negative for Covid
  • Prayers for those who have tested positive for Covid; prayers for relief from frustrations of rearranging family routines
  • One grateful for support during a family bereavement
  • Mother thankful that daughter does not need surgery
  • Prayers for a good position for a young professional
  • Prayers for proper caregivers to be found for infirm sister
  • Prayers for young friend in hospice care & her grieving husband, their friends and family
  • Prayers for elementary students grieving the death of a classmate and for the educators who comfort them
  • Guidance for care of sister who suffered massive stroke
  • Prayers for daughter beginning proton therapy
  • Family friend with cancer, for a route to healing
  • Continued prayers for infirm uncle
  • For an open door to healing within a broken family
  • Comfort for families of church families in mourning
  • Son thankful for successful heart procedure for his father
  • Prayer for a co-worker who has many family responsibilities and has tested positive for Covid
  • Prayers for adult children who are moving and settling into new jobs.
  • For a daughter-in-law who died from Covid and for her husband who is also suffering.
  • For a niece whose husband died after a fall.
  • Prayers for those beginning Stephen Ministry training
  • Thankful that one who had suffered for so long is now in God’s Eternal Love and Light
  • For a father who is near death
  • Prayers for a friend struggling with divorce amidst a change in job location; prayers for the children
  • Prayers for a cousin undergoing complicated liver surgery
  • Prayers for a daughter undergoing IVF procedures and for the grandparents who are so hopeful
  • Prayers for a beloved wife and mother in hospital
  • Prayers for healing after serious eye injury and extensive surgery
  • Prayers for a long-time employment who has lung damage from Covid
  • Thankful for a mother who is going home after a long rehabilitation; prayers for continued strength

We offer this prayer and the prayers that remain unspoken in our hearts in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and hear us now as we pray the prayer he taught:

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – February 9, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 9, 2022

Rev. Jan Buxton Wade

Tree of Life, thank you for rooting yourself within us. Though we may flirt with other codes and ideologies, chasing after hollow promises, seeking easier avenues of faith, we always return to you, our Holy Center. We honor you for your guidance that is unchanging, for your ancient promise that we have stood the test of time, for the saints whose lives have helped shape our own. Even here in the deep midwinter, we feel your divine energy surging through us. Hold us upright and steady, Lord, that we might resist the gusts of fear that drive us to doubt.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Forgive us, Empowering One, for our mulish ways. It is by your own strength embedded within us that we are able to accept the changes you offer; therefore, open the doors that have remained closed because of our stale routines and our old habits of eschewing the route to authentic growth. We confess we so often take the convenient path. Give us the wisdom to open your doorway of renewal, we pray, for you have graced us with spiritual gifts to carry out your dreams for your church and your people. Our passage may not be free of difficulties, but we remember that, though you are the same from age to age, you are also our Source who ever invites us into the fresh and new.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

We remember, Holy One, that our names are written in the palm of your hand. What joy to know that the Lord of the Universe will never forget us! We are counted among the saints! Indeed, it is a mystery too deep to fathom, yet one which calls us to keep you at the center of our being. In the solitude of these moments, we pause to thank you for our very lives . . . . . . . . . .  Glory to the One who has plans and dreams for us, who calls us blessed, and who catches us when we fall!

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Heart of Hope, you know every thought of every soul; therefore we need not list all the details of our joys and our cares.  Still, we whisper our most private petitions today in the silence of our hearts: . . . . . . . . . . ; and also turn to you with these sentiments offered by our church family.  May your gentleness enfold us all:

  • Prayers appreciated: a husband’s cancer is in remission
  • Grateful for prayers: clear cancer scans following surgery
  • Thankful: today’s spinal surgery was successful
  • One grateful for support during a family bereavement
  • Gratitude for one in ICU, now recovering in regular room
  • Thanksgiving for temperate weather
  • Prayers for a good position for a young professional
  • Prayers for members mourning recent death of beloved mother/sister
  • God’s hand in finding proper care for a sister who suffered a major stroke
  • Healing work within a family: sudden death of mother, caretaker of infirm child
  • Prayers for young friend in hospice care & her grieving husband, their friends and family
  • Healing for member with Covid
  • Family bereft following the sudden death of 7-yr-old daughter
  • Prayers for daughter soon to begin proton therapy
  • Comfort for widower who recently moved to assisted living
  • Dear family friend with cancer, that a route to healing may be found
  • Two couples adjusting to Parkinson-related challenges
  • Beloved father in hospice care
  • Continued prayers for mother, long-term battle with cancer
  • Continued prayers: ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid
  • Comfort for families of 3 church families in mourning

May our prayers be acceptable in your sight, and may our lives proclaim the changeless love of our Living Lord.  In Christ’s name we make our prayer:

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – February 2, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of February 2, 2022

Rev. Pat Clendenen

Loving and gracious God, in the quietness of these moments, speak to our hearts. We come to your house each week to offer our praise and thanksgiving with our words, our songs, our acts of commitment, and affirmations of faith.   We long to know you completely and fully; and yet, we live in a world that pulls us in so many directions, distracting us from our purpose as the Body of Christ. Even this day we remember all our fancy words and acts of service mean nothing if they are not infused and undergirded with love, the kind of love you revealed to us in Jesus Christ.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Wise and loving God, you have woven your creation together, using your relationship with us and ours with each other to give rich, intricate, and diverse patterns to all of life. We give thanks that you have created us for community, calling us into relationship with one another.  Forgive us for our internal conflict, and for our inability at times to see beyond ourselves. Teach us to love one another, even when we disagree, and to pour our energy into seeking understanding so that we may work toward the good of all your creation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Lord, you call caregivers to serve, and you give gifts to make their service possible. We thank you today for the willing and gifted hands and hearts in our Stephen Ministry. Thank you for our Stephen Leaders, who gladly serve to keep our Stephen Ministry flourishing. Thank you for our Stephen Ministers, who faithfully meet with their care receivers, extending the care of Christ to those who need it most. Thank you also for the support of our pastors and staff, and for all those who keep this ministry growing in our congregation. 

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

And because you have blessed our community here at Church Street, we who depend upon your love, mercy, and grace bring to you these prayers offered by our brothers and sisters in Christ: 

  • Celebrating successful February 2nd surgery
  • Gratitude for prayers: A transplant donor has been found
  • Appreciation for all church volunteers
  • Member grateful for negative cancer scan
  • Thanksgiving for all who are being called to join our church
  • Gratitude: all who have generously pledged for 2022 church ministries
  • Prayers for wife and mother recovering from February 2 surgery
  • Healing for one in ICU, Covid complications
  • One asks for prayers for her Sunday School class
  • Prayers for recovery: Church families affected by Covid
  • Comfort for widower who recently moved to assisted living
  • Dear family friend with cancer, that a route to healing may be found
  • Two couples who are adjusting to health challenges at home 
  • Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
  • Strength and comfort for family: Cousin died of a stroke last week
  • Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
  • Comfort for families of three church members who died last week
  • God’s presence with an uncle who is aging and infirm
  • Courage for brother in military who may be deployed to Ukraine

We are truly blessed as a congregation to have a multi-layered system of care, making it possible to serve the needs of all people. We give you thanks for the vision and wisdom of those who breathed life into each of these ministries – Congregational Care, Parish Health Team, and Benevolence Team – and for all who continue to make these ministries a vital part of our mission. May we never become complacent, thinking there is no need to expand our understandings of your longings for your creation. Surprise us with new visions, and give us the courage to follow the path you set before us, trusting that Christ is alive and goes before us to show and share what love can do.  

God of love and God of power, all our lives belong to you.

Remind us, O God, that, as we move in the world, though scattered, we remain the Church, the Body of Christ in action. Let us be workers together with you, performing deeds of mercy and kindness, and giving evidence of Christ’s love in all that we do, for it is in his name that we offer our prayer…….

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

Have a Prayer Request?

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Weekly Prayer – January 26, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of January 26, 2022

Rev. Catherine Nance

Loving and gracious God – we come today in praise and thanksgiving for you – the creator all good things. We remember that when you spoke the earth into being, you declared it good. As we stand on your earth and look up to the heavens and peer over vast waters and dig in the earth may we join in the chorus of, “It is good!” O God forgive us when we treat creation – your creation – as something disposable for our use. We confess we forget you called us to be stewards and not simply users of water, air, land, and space. Stir up in us a new commitment to work together to care about creation as an extension of our own bodies.      

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

O God who knit us together in our mother’s wombs, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Forgive us when we turn to advertisers and celebrities for images of what we should look like. Forgive us when we are ashamed of our bodies; instead, may we take care of ourselves and know that you desire good health for all people. Give us a new vocabulary of wholeness and beauty; forgive us when we describe ourselves or others solely in terms of how we look or how we do not measure up. May we see each other’s bodies as sacred gifts and honor one another with respect, for you have created us in your image. May we see your grace in each other.  

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

We thank you for the gift of your church and all the different ways the body of Church Street expresses itself. In each church there are members working together to proclaim your reconciling word and do your reconciling word; therefore we pray for all churches in our city and for all United Methodist churches, that our hearts may remain in communion with all, that that our voices might truly be pleasing to you as one song.   

God of all creation, make us one in the body of Christ.

God of All Creation, we feel you moving within us and around us, opening doors, tending us in our woundedness, and binding us together in love. In that spirit of togetherness, we lay before you the most recent celebrations and concerns of our community of faith.  As you wish the best for us, we leave all in your caring hands:

  • Thanksgiving for prayers: Infant in ICU now breathing on his own
  • Thankful for prayers: Safe travel to & from Houston & promising medical test results
  • Gratitude: Cousin in Florida overcoming severe Covid complications
  • Father grateful for prayers: has found a wonderful caregiver
  • Grateful daughter in rehab center is improving
  • Thanksgiving for meaningful weekend retreat for our Youth
  • Husband feeling prayer support during his divorce
  • Prayers answered: A house has sold
  • Gratitude: a father is much-improved following long Covid struggle
  • Thankful that meds are helping a member with memory loss
  • Prayers appreciated for a friend who died peacefully this week 
  • Gratitude for Church Street clergy who work with joyful professionalism
  • Prayers for a wife, mother, and community volunteer, for her safe & successful surgery on February 2
  • Healing for all church members suffering with Covid
  • Wisdom and guidance for one unsure of the future
  • Healing prayers for sons whose father died last weekend
  • Young woman in need of a transplant, for a donor to be found
  • Guidance for wife whose husband has memory loss 
  • Continued prayers for two members in cancer treatment
  • Prayers for cousin on life support following a stroke
  • Comfort and direction for all in mourning
  • Continued prayers: Ill adult daughter, severe effects of Covid 
  • Comfort for family of church member who died today
  • God’s work within family – three youngsters whose father died recently

We offer this prayer in a spirit of unity – acknowledging that we all have differences that you call good, and that your love draws us into one spirit and one purpose. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ whose life, death, and resurrection makes us one and who taught us to pray…

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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Weekly Prayer – January 19, 2022

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Weekly Prayers for the Church Street Family

Week of January 19, 2022

Rev. Tim Best

Gracious Lord, this week we remember the life and legacy of your servant, Rev. Dr. King, praying that your Spirit would continue to teach us the ways of peace. When we encounter hate; grant us the gift of love. Help us to recognize injustice in our world, our communities, and within our own hearts. Indeed, “even when pressed by the demands of inner truth” we struggle to oppose the status quo. Our own spirits may falter, and so we pray that you would give us wisdom and courage.

God of many gifts, make us one in your Spirit.

Lord of power and might, we recognize that power is a gift. With power we can create, make, imagine, and shape. We acknowledge that power is a gift that has been so often twisted, corrupted, and misused. We pray today for those who hold power and those who feel powerless. We give thanks for those leaders and servants who helped to safely recover all who were held hostage in Colleyville, Texas. Make us mindful of the power we hold in our communities and in the lives of others. As Jesus used his power to reconcile, teach, and to love, speak to those who hold authority in our world that they might use their power in the pattern of Christ. 

God of many gifts, make us one in your Spirit.

Lord, you gifted your apostles with gifts to heal and make whole. As our world finds itself again in the grip of another pandemic wave, we pray for all those who are sick. We pray for not just those with Covid, but those with cancer, those chronic illness, and those that have mental illness. Grant us compassion to care for those in need. Give us the resolve to tend the suffering of others. Give us confidence in the power of Jesus, the great physician, and in his victory of all death and sickness. 

God of many gifts, make us one in your Spirit.

God of Hope and Healing, you have called our church family together in your Spirit, that we might walk together in all seasons of life; therefore, receive these expressions of both joy and suffering from your people of Church Street.  May our prayers strengthen our bond with one another and with our Lord:

  • Thanksgiving for prayers: Ankle injury improving
  • Grateful for prayers: Niece’s husband died peacefully
  • Family celebrating safe birth of new grandchild
  • Thanksgiving for faithfulness and witness of Youth in our church
  • Family rejoices: Pregnant mom is now Covid-free
  • Grateful for miracle: Premature infant in ICU growing steadily
  • Daughter gives thanks for a loving father who died peacefully this week
  • Prayers appreciated: Recent cancer scans confirm healing
  • Member with ALS expresses deep gratitude for church support
  • Wisdom and guidance for one unsure of the future
  • Safe travel for family traveling M.D. Anderson for follow-up tests
  • Wife asks for direction as her husband’s memory loss increases
  • Pray that a donor may be procured for a much-needed transplant
  • God’s grace and comfort for family, sudden death of young father
  • Safety and guidance for lonely, infirm widower
  • Prayers for two friends in cancer treatment
  • Peace and support for family grieving brother’s death on Friday
  • God’s presence to surround daughter with Covid, great suffering 
  • Prayers for a husband with cancer
  • Sons who struggle with a father’s final illness
  • Upholding wife and mother struggling with cancer, for her family
  • God’s grace to surround all caregivers in their ministry
  • Two members with severe vision impairment and neuropathy
  • God’s work in the lives of two youngsters whose mother died recently
  • Peace and healing for husband with Parkinson’s and loss of vision; strength and wisdom for his devoted wife 
  • Friend now in labor delivering baby two months early

Lord Jesus, we praise you for the gift of your blessed church. We confess that often the church has fallen short and not lived up to the calling you have given. Yet, we know that through your faithfulness we see your love for all the world. Grant us, the people called to from many peoples and places, to be unified in our mission and ministry as the church. Empower your people that the church may be a gift for the world and a sign of your love and justice even in the midst of darkness. 

God of many gifts, make us one in your Spirit.

Join our prayers with those of the saints and all the company of heaven as we offer that prayer taught to us by Jesus our Lord, the giver of every good gift, praying: 

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 trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

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