Sunday Pastoral Prayer (Jan. 26) Athens First UMC

[For “Ask the Pastor” Sunday, our Leadership Board chairperson, David Koonce invited me to respond to thirteen questions that were submitted by the congregation. For the questions and responses, click here. This is the two of us before one of the worship services. Since David is a graduate of LSU and Joe Burrow is from Athens, Ohio, we decided it would be appropriate to be dressed with purple/gold LSU colors. David also gave me a birthday present. See the picture below.]

O God of wisdom, we again place our trust in you especially when we feel like we have more questions than we do answers. Thank you for always inviting us to dig deeper in our understanding of your Word, to learn from one another, to gain new perspectives in our faith, and to remember that you call each one of us to always be moving onto perfection.

 

Move us onto perfection in living out who you have called us to be. Move us onto perfection in supporting your church with our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Move us onto perfection in showing patience with one another. Move us onto perfection in our mission of making disciples for the transformation of our community and world.

 

O God of wisdom, as we move onto perfection in all of these ways, help us to also be open to the lighter side of our faith, like this past week’s prayer chain that invited us to pray for our church furnace. All it needed was a new belt and a new filter. Thank you for answering our prayers.

 

You hear all of our prayers, the ones we think are silly and the ones that weigh heavy on our hearts. Hear our prayers for those who are in need of healing, for those who are grieving, for those who are without a loving community of support, for those who are in need of guidance and direction in life, for those who feel unworthy and excluded. O God of wisdom, we offer all of these needs and so many other concerns that are on our hearts and minds this morning. 

 

And thank you for this church in which we are so blessed. For music that makes our spirits soar, for our many ministries that help us to grow in our faith, for opportunities to bless our community, and for the gift of each other.

 

We offer this prayer in the name of Jesus who taught us to pray together saying, 

 

“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

[My new LSU dress socks given to me as a birthday gift by Leadership Board, chairperson David Koonce. We like to have fun at this church!]