Journey to Jesus: Walking with the Faithful: Rhythms of Worship

The kids have been baptized. They have been welcomed into community. They have been fed with the body and blood of Christ. But we still meet together three more times. The purpose of these last three meetings is to unpack a few significant practices that we engage in as a community: eucharist / communion / Lord's Supper, scripture, and witness.

Before we talk about any of these, we first discuss the rhythms of call and response that are interwoven into our worship service. Since they have participated in children's worship for some time (most of them for a few years), some of these rhythms are already familiar.

Our worship service is built on rhythms of call and response which form us into being a people who are responsive to God's voice all week long.

- We are called to be set apart and we respond by gathering together as a peculiar people.

- We are called to be reconciled to Christ and to one another and we respond by passing the peace of Christ, saying "The peace of Christ be with you," and responding with, "And also with you."

- We are called to be present to God who is present when his people gather and we respond in silence, letting go of our rush and hurry.

- We are called to open ourselves to the Holy Spirit and we respond by invoking / inviting the Spirit's presence among us.

- We are called to praise and we respond by singing.

- We are called to receive the word of the Lord in scripture and we respond with thanksgiving. After the reading of the gospel, the reader says "This is the word of the Lord." The congregation responds, "Thanks be to God!"

- We are called to engage our spiritual imaginations in the viewing of an icon / video and we respond by confessing sin, submitting to God, or affirming truth in a call and response litany.

- We are called to live into the kingdom proclaimed and we respond in praying together for the kingdom to come in our lives.

- We are called to offer ourselves and our abundance and we respond by giving our tithes and offerings.

- We are called to come to the Table and we respond by leaving our chairs and coming forward, taking, eating, remembering, and believing, and singing.

- We are called to be Spirit-empowered witnesses to the world and we respond by going and following the Spirit who goes before us into the world.

All of our worship leads us to the Table and flows out from the Table. It is at the Table where we remember who we are, what we are. It's this meal that shapes and forms us as the body of Christ.