A Call to Worship from Psalm 40 vs. 1-3
Leader: I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and heard my cry.
All: We wait on You, Lord, the one who hears the cry of the oppressed and the broken.
Leader: He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and the mire, He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
All: Rescue us God, from the mire of our own lives and our own failings. Set us upon You, the one true rock, that we may stand on a solid foundation.
Leader: He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
All: Let the joy of our salvation be a new song on our lips, that we may worship you with our lives and that many will come to know You.
All: We worship you now with all that we have to offer, our very best to you Lord Jesus. Amen
For my project with e*r I wanted to take something that I felt would resonate with our congregation and make it a format that would be different and maybe even challenging for them. Since we use a very contemporary worship style, responsive readings and the idea of a “formal” call to worship are not common practices. What is fairly common is the use of scripture to prepare and encourage the people in to the spirit of worship.
For this particular call I wanted to use a selection from the Psalms that reflected a sense of longing for the good things of God and the responsiveness of our Heavenly father to the cry of His children. The use of Psalm 40 in particular is one that we often use in worship gatherings so the language of the scripture would be something that the congregation would be familiar with while the response would be new.
As a call to worship I think that this responsive reading engages the mind to move past simply hearing the word but not having to engage it which in the simple act of response sets the heart and mind in a place where participation is happening rather than simply anticipating that worship is a consumer product. With our worshipping community I think that moving away from the consumer mindset is of real significance as that has been a historical mindset that we are trying to move away from.
Eric Barz 