A United Methodist Pastor's Theological Reflections

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory (nikos) through our Lord Jesus Christ." - I Corinthians 15:57


Monday, November 21, 2016

Pastoral Prayer (November 20) - Athens First UMC


[Yes, it was a multifaceted day of worship at Athens First UMC! We concluded our "Music & Faith" sermon series by focusing on rock 'n roll music. Click here for sermon. Some of our members dressed the part! A little Methodist gave Pastor Robert (or the more common spelling, Paster) a homemade Thanksgiving card. Our services were led by our Worship U praise band and we received six new members. Last, but not least, we enjoyed a wonderful church-wide Thanksgiving meal that included this awesome cake! Rock on, church! Rock on!]


Faithful and loving God, thank you for the gift of music. Help us to have a multi-dimensional faith that includes the beauty of classical, the creativity of jazz, the simplicity of country, and the high energy of rock and roll. Lead us to always be in rhythm with you and to sing the notes you want us to sing.

Thank you for hymn writer’s like Charles Wesley who have given us the incredible opportunity to sing with our lips what we believe in our hearts. We are so grateful for these hymns of faith. And we are also thankful for new melodies that help us to be in rhythm with you.

Dear God, on this Thanksgiving week, we thank you for mashed potatoes and gravy, cheesy potatoes, stuffing, baked corn casserole, turkey, sweet potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin pie, and lots of cool whip. Thank you for the feast that is being prepared for our church family today.

As we look back on our year together, we are thankful for the receiving of new members, for our Capital Campaign and the several building of improvements taking place that will help our church be more accessible and accommodating for the people in our community, for the launch of our Athens First Saturday community outreach, and for so many other ways that our church has been living out our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.

Lord, as wonderful as all of these blessings have been for our church this past year, we are mostly thankful for you. Thank you for what you have done, but even more importantly, thank you for all that is to come.

We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who taught us to pray together…


“Our Father, who art in heaven…”

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