Discipleship

Love Joy Choice (John 15:9-17)

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Love, Joy, Choice.
You have loved us since before we were born.
You have joy in us, each of us uniquely loved and cherished.
You chose us and we have chosen you.

Love, Joy, Choice.
As we love our children, you have loved us.
As we have joy in our children, you have joy in us.
As your chosen people, you have shared your teachings
and your love with us.
As your disciples on this earth, we, in turn, share your teachings
with others.
As your followers, we share your love with those around us,
and we use ourselves to fulfill your plan in this world.

Love, Joy, Choice.
You called your disciples your friends, your followers.
We have chosen to follow you, to be your disciples on this earth.
You found joy in your disciples.
We are the people of the resurrection,
and we share our joy with those around us.
We choose to follow you.
Our hands are yours to use to do your work.
Our feet are yours to walk in your desired path.

Love, Joy, Choice.
You love us completely as we love you.
Our lives give you joy and we celebrate the joy you have given us.
We choose to be here today, in this congregation, in this community of believers.
We know that you are with us, and we ask that you be with those among us
who need your strength and healing grace. ___

Love, Joy, Choice.
You have shared your teachings and your love,
and in love, and in joy, and with complete choice,
we lift our voices and our hearts to you, sharing the words that you taught us,
“Our Father….”

Imagining the Future (Luke 24:44-53)

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Jesus, you came to us as a baby,
a child of Mary and Joseph,
but also the Son of God.
As parents, we look at our children
and imagine their futures.
Mary and Joseph could not have imagined your future.
A child of man, a child of God.

Our church today, formed __ years ago,
was once an infant,
full of promise and potential,
full of hopes and dreams for the future.

Jesus, you came to us as a man,
a man who shared the teachings
and the love of his Father.
As your followers, we look to you
and imagine our futures.
Your disciples could not have imagined your future.
A child of man, a child of God.

Our church today has nurtured and taught us for the last __ years.
We celebrate the teachers among us, past and present.
We remember and honor those who saw the promise and the potential,
who faced their fears and set aside their own desires,
to fulfill their dreams of the future.
Could they have imagined the future that came to be?

Jesus, you were crucified and resurrected,
you left your disciples and ascended into the heavens,
changing our view of God forever.
As your followers, we know that it is up to us
to make your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
It is up to us
to share your love with those we meet,
to speak up for the voiceless,
to feed the hungry,
to share your teachings,
and to work for peace and justice in this world.

Father, we are your children.
Each of us uniquely cherished and deeply loved.
We are here in this place and time, by choice.
Our church has helped to shape us into the people we are today.
We celebrate one another and thank each other, and you,
for our history and for our future.

Our church today, formed __ years ago,
is still full of promise and potential.
We have hopes and dreams for the future.
We ask that you be with us to help us follow your plan,
your teachings.
We know that you are with us.
We know that you have shared our world
and that you know our pain and worries.
We ask that you be with ___ and
grant them your healing peace and strengthen them

As your followers, and as members of the body of Christ,
we lift our voices together using the words you taught us,
“Our Father…”

Do Whatever He Tells You to Do (John 2:1-11)

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Do whatever he tells you to do.
That’s what Mary told the servants to do at Cana.
Lord, help us to have the same faith and the same discipline.
Help us to follow you and to do what you tell us to do.
Open our ears to your directives.
Open our hearts to your love.
And, open our eyes to your plan.

Your mother, Lord, had faith in your ability to make a difference in this world.
You gathered disciples from unlikely candidates
and they also had faith in you.
They carried your story forward and have made disciples of us.

We are your followers, Lord.
We gather here each week
and make up the body of Christ in today’s world.
Strengthen us,
Use us,
Teach us,
Lead us,
We want to do whatever you tell us to do.

Remind us that there is abundance in this world.
As you changed over a hundred of gallons of water into wine for a wedding,
help us to see that we live in a world of plenty.
We may feel there is not enough, but you have given us more than enough.
Unclench our fists as we try to hold onto more than our fair share.
Encourage our generosity.
Open our eyes to the needs of those around us, locally and globally.
As you have blessed us, we need to also bless those around us.
As your disciples learned from you, help us to also learn your teachings
and help us to share those teachings with others.
As your community shared with one another, and supported one another,
we support each other.
We ask that you be with __ .

Do whatever he tells you to do.
That’s what Mary told the servants to do at Cana.
You have told us what to do.
We know what we are to do and we ask that you give us the strength to do so.
You have given us the words to say and we use those words today,
“Our Father…”

What We Share (Mark 6:1-13)

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Lord, we recognize that the person we see in the mirror
may not match the vision we have of ourselves
and does not match the vision our friends and families have of us.
The world around us focuses on the image, the perception,
but you taught us what we do and how we act is more important
than our words.

Call us to be the people you want us to be.
Send us out to be your face to the world.
Use our hands to do your work in this world;
use our hearts to share your love in this world;
use our voices to call for your justice in this world;
and, use our faith to help us discern your plans for this world.
We are your disciples in today’s world.
Send us out to be your face to this world.

Lord, we recognize that the person we see in the mirror
may not match the vision we have of ourselves
and does not match the vision our friends and families have of us.
As we look around this sacred place that we return to each week,
do we truly see the people who sit beside us?
Do we know the gifts and talents that you have given to them?
Are we helping each other to nurture and grow those gifts and talents?
Or are we shutting them down and failing to believe in them?
Help us to support and grow one another.

Call us to be the people you want us to be.
Let us start here, within this community,
but help us to move out into the world that surrounds us.
Help us to support one another, and to grow each other into your disciples.
Remind us to have patience with one another.
Remind us that none of us have all the answers and that we learn from one another.
Remind us that we are a community and we need to support each other.
While we focus on those within our midst who need our attention,
we know that you are always with us.
We ask that you be with ___, granting them your healing grace and providing them with your strength.

Lord, we recognize that the person we see in the mirror
may not match the vision we have of ourselves
and does not match the vision our friends and families have of us.
Many of the people that you have called did not feel up to the challenge that you set before them.
Help us to meet the challenges you set before each of us.
Remind us that we are your children, built in your image,
each of us loved and uniquely cherished, and given the gifts needed to meet the plans
you have set before us.

Call us to be the people you want us to be.
We give ourselves to you and offer ourselves to you.
Send us out in the world with only your teachings.
As your disciples, we know and use the words that your Son taught us,
“Our Father….”

Are We Acting as Your Followers? (Mark 8:27-38)

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Who do we say that you are?
What brings us here each week?
Where do we see you touching our lives?
When are we most like you?
How do we show that we are your followers?

Do we ever really think about these questions?
Open our eyes, Creator God, to your love and to our answers.
You sent your Son to us, as one of us, but also as part of you.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
separate but yet connected.
Sharing your Son with us was sharing your love with us
in the physical form.
Do we see your Son as love? as a teacher? as a prophet?
as a Savior?

We come here every week to this sacred place.
What brings us to this place, to this family of believers?

Open our hearts to your desires.
Help us to work together as your church
to fulfill your plan.
Help us to discern your plan for Church of the Apostles.

As your children, we know you are with us always.
Creator God, you see us as we are and how you would like us to be.
Open our eyes to the times
that you have tried to coax us to follow your teachings more closely.
Open our eyes to the times
that you have supported us in our times of crisis.
As we support each other, we know that you are with us and
we ask that you be with ___ in particular.

We are your children, Lord, and we try to follow your teachings.
As we look at our daily lives, open our eyes to when we are acting in ways
that are most like you.
Use us to fulfill your plan here on earth.
Remind us that we are your followers and it is up to us
to speak for those without a voice,
to listen for the unspoken needs,
to shelter the refugee,
to feed the hungry,
to teach those who cannot read,
and to love the discarded.
As we look at our personal lives, when are we acting most like you?
When are we acting as your disciples, your followers?

Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was.
Remind us every day who Jesus was and why we follow him.
And as we remember, we use the words he taught us,
“Our Father…”

Be The Church (John 18:33-37)

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You gave us the Lord’s Prayer,
a prayer we say every week,
perhaps every day.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Lord, you told Pilate that your kingdom
is not from this world.
You were right.
You came to us and shared our humanness.
Your kingdom did not come from here rather
you came to us to give us your kingdom.

Your teachings showed us that you are the way.
We are to make this world like your kingdom.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
The kingdom you sought to make here on earth
was not a violent world.
You taught us peaceful resistance.
You taught us to speak for the powerless and
to love the unlovable.
You taught us to care for the sick,
to strengthen the weak, and
to always speak the truth in love.
In your teachings, you showed love at all times.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us the courage to stand up for those without power.
Give us the wisdom to see the plans you have for us here on earth.
Give us the strength to follow your teachings and
to open our hearts to your love.
We have come together to make this your community.
We support each other and we know that you are with us always.
As your children, Father, we ask that you be with those among us
who need your support and healing grace the most.
We name __.

Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
This is your world, this is your kingdom.
Help us to make this world your world.
Help us to truly be your people,
to be your church in this world.
We use the words that you taught us, Jesus,
the words that make us your followers,
“Our Father…”