Welcome & Announcements
Call to Worship (Adapted from David Tripp, England, 20th Century, United Methodist Book of Worship)
L: As we begin this time of renewing our covenant before God, let us prepare ourselves for worship with prayer.
P: O God, we are yours! We are your people. We are your children.
L: We come together to recognize you as Lord of our lives and to thank you for your Grace.
P: And we come today to recommit ourselves to our relationship with you.
L: Search us and know us.
P: Remove anything that holds us back from you.
L: May your Spirit be with us now, speak your Word to our very souls.
P: And have mercy on us, today and always.
All: We pray in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Intro to a Wesleyan Covenant Renewal Service
Today we will share in a Covenant Renewal Service together. While this type of service predates John Wesley and Methodism as we know it, it was implemented by the Wesleys as an integral part of Methodist Societies. It is a service that has traditionally been held on New Year’s Eve or Day. When held on New Year’s Eve, it will often go by the name Watch Night Service. While a Covenant Renewal Service is apt at any time in the life of a congregation, the start of the new year is a natural time to hold it. At the beginning of a new year, we often take time to take stock of our lives, evaluate what is important, and re-commit ourselves to those things. As Christians we recognize that there is nothing more important than our relationship, or covenant, with God.
Covenant is not a term we use very often in our modern society. In the simplest terms, it means agreement. The covenant through most of the Hebrew Bible is this, from Exodus 6:7: “I will take you as my people, and I will be your God.” This covenant still holds true. With the coming of Jesus, Christians add in the covenant made by his cross and resurrection, From Romans 8: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if we in fact suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” In both of these senses, our covenant with God can be used as a synonym for our relationship with God.
A Covenant Renewal Service seeks to remind us of the importance of covenant with God, of mutual relationship, and we therefore promise ourselves anew to be God’s people, adopted into the family of God through Christ.
In this service you will notice a mix of modern and traditional language. Much of the wording used today came from Wesley himself. The phrasing may seem odd to our ears but that’s okay - it reminds us that we are participating in an act that followers of God have done throughout the ages - recommitting our whole selves to God.
We will begin our service today by singing “Come, Let Us Use The Grace Divine,” a hymn written by Charles Wesley and traditionally used for Covenant Renewal Services. The hymn is based on Jeremiah 50:5:
“They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, and they shall come and join themselves to the Lord by an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”
And as we sing, we will also pass forward prayers, joys and concerns to be shared with the congregation, and we will collect the offertory. Thank you for all the ways you give that support the life and mission of our church.
Let us sing.
Opening Hymn with Offertory
Come, Let Us Use The Grace Divine, UMH 606
Children’s Moment with Sharing of Thanksgivings (Joys & Concerns)
The children and congregation will talk about the importance of starting with gratitude and thanksgiving. We will informally share things we are thankful for, along with prayer concerns for the day, and then pray for one another.
Hymn of Thanksgiving
Now Thank We All Our God, vs. 3, UMH 102
Proclamation of Covenant Renewal (Adapted from Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, United Methodist Book of Worship)
Siblings in Christ,
The Christian life is one that strives to love God and to love neighbor as self.
We recognize that, first and foremost, we belong to God.
We first entered into the Christian life through baptism,
Where we were adopted as children of God and heirs with Christ.
This is the covenant we made with God and
Christ sealed it in his death and resurrection, that it might last forever:
On the one side, God promises to give us new life in Christ,
the Source and Perfecter of our faith.
On the other side, we are pledged
to live no more for ourselves but only for Jesus Christ,
who loved us and gave himself for us.
From time to time we renew our covenant with God,
especially when we reaffirm the Baptismal Covenant
and gather at the Lord's table. Both of which we will do today.
It is fitting now, to join in the sacrament of Holy Baptism for NAME, as well as receiving new members into our midst.
The Baptismal Covenant
UMH 33
Baptism of NAME
Baptismal Remembrance Hymn
Baptized in Water, FWS 2248
Scripture Lesson
2 Chronicles 34:29-32
Gospel Lesson
John 15:1-8
Invitation to Renew Your Covenant with God (Adapted from Wesley’s Covenant Renewal Service, United Methodist Book of Worship)
Having given thanks to God, participated in the sacrament of Baptism, and heard the Holy Word, let us now prepare to recommit ourselves to Christ as his servants that we may be no one’s but Christ’s. That all will do will be for him - whatever he would have us do - that which we find an easy joy in doing and that which involves self-denial and humbling ourselves before God. There, let us pray to Christ, using the words of John Wesley:
Let me be your servant, under your command.
I will no longer be my own.
I will give up myself to your will in all things.
Be satisfied that Christ shall give you your place and work.
Lord, make me what you will.
I put myself fully into your hands:
put me to doing, put me to suffering,
let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you,
let me be full, let me be empty,
let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and with a willing heart
give it all to your pleasure and disposal.
Christ is the Savior of his servants. [edited]
He is the source of all salvation to those who obey.
Christ will have no servants except by consent;
Christ will not accept anything except full consent
to all that he requires.
Christ will be all in all, or he will be nothing.
Confirm this by a holy covenant. Amen.
John Wesley gives 5 admonitions or pieces of advice that we may uphold our end of our covenant or our relationship with Christ. The first is that we earnestly seek to spend time with God and in doing so realize how radically and wholly God accepts us; that we would search out hearts and our shortcomings; and that we would always carefully and prayerfully discern how God is asking us to live our lives.
Covenant Admonition Hymn
Take Time to Be Holy, vs. 1, UMH 395
The second is simply this: Always be in awe and wonder of how great God is.
Covenant Admonition Hymn
How Great Thou Art, vs. 1, UMH 77
Third, in order to uphold our covenant, rely fully on God’s strength and goodness above all others, including our own.
Covenant Admonition Hymn
Standing on the Promises, vs. 1 UMH 374
Fourth, now that you have given your heart to God, professed him with your mouth, and dedicated all that you have and are to God - hold fast to God, with God’s help, never go back.
Covenant Admonition Hymn
I Surrender All, vs. 1, UMH 354
And last, always be prepared to return to God. Know that God’s arms are always open, always waiting to receive you. Never hesitate to fall down on your knees in prayer and to renew your covenant with God.
Hymn of Invitation to Covenant
Are Ye Able, vs. 1, UMH 530
Covenant Prayer (At this time, any who are willing and able may come and kneel at the altar as they pray. Others may remain seated as they wish and assume an internal posture of prayer where they are.)
Holy God, see me as I come before you now.
Forgive any unfaithfulness in not having done your will.
I know you have promised to always be there for me and to always welcome me back with mercy if I but turn back to you with my whole heart.
And so:
I renounce all idols in my life - anything that I place before you - anything that keeps me from perfect love of God and neighbor.
It’s not what you want for me but I often mess it up - I fail to love as your love.
But while my love has failed - yours has always remained steadfast.
Be my God again.
I profess with my heart, and tongue, and my whole live that you are my God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and I give you all of me, body and soul, that I may be your servant and ever seek holiness and love all my life.
Jesus, I come to you, the Way and the Life, and I rejoin myself in covenant with you.
I renounce my own inflated ego, my own power, my own wisdom, and my own will.
In their place I take on the title of child of God in which my will is found. I take on your power, your wisdom as my only guide, and your will as my law.
Whatever comes my way in life, through your grace, nothing in life or death will separate me from you. May the rest of my life reflect you - my words, my thoughts, and my actions - that they would all be founded in your love.
You know my heart God, you know how much I mean these words, take me as I am again today. Glory be to you, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let the covenant I have made on earth be ratified in heaven. Amen.
Passing of the Peace
Hymn of Invitation to the Table
Here I Am, Lord, vs. 1 & 3, UMH 593
The Great Thanksgiving (Suggested The Great Thanksgiving for New Year, Epiphany, Baptism of the Lord or Covenant Renewal” (UMBOW 58-59))
The Lord’s Prayer
Holy Communion
Prayer After Receiving
Lord, may we who have renewed our covenant with you through Word and Prayer,
And who have strengthened that covenant at your table,
May we now live out that covenant with our lives and actions,
Being the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, for the world. Amen.
Closing Hymn
Blessed Assurance, UMH 369
Benediction
May we leave from this time of worship today with the assurance that we are God’s children, that God’s love never fails, and God’s covenant is forever and ever. Now go in peace, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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