A Prayer for Centre Grove UMC’s 200th Anniversary

Centre Grove United Methodist Church is celebrating its 200th anniversary on Sunday, April 19, 2015. I was honored to write the following prayer for the booklet we published.

A Prayer for Centre Grove

O God, thank you for loving the world so much that you gave your only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life! (John 3.16, CEB).

Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and empower us! “Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for, to be overcome by your presence, Lord!” (lyrics, “Holy Spirit”).

You are a great and mighty God. There is “nobody beside you; there will never be anyone anything like you!” (lyrics, “Glory is Yours”).

Thank you for revealing yourself to us, and for inviting us to follow you. Thank you for sending us into the world to be your hands and feet!

Thank you for your work in and through this community over the last 200 years. Thank you for all those who have gone before us!

We confess, O Lord, that we have not always gotten it right, and that, at times, we have missed the mark. So, we pray with the psalmist …

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (Psalm 139.23-24, New Living Translation)

Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love! Wipe away my wrongdoings according to your great compassion! Wash me completely clean of my guilt; purify me from my sin! … Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! (Psalm 51.1-2, 10, Common English Bible)

O God, give us hearts like yours. As we surrender all to you, please make us more and more like Jesus in every way!

Break our hearts for what break yours. Send us into this broken world with the hope, and the saving message, of Jesus Christ!

Do something unpredictable and uncontrollable for your honor and glory. We want your will to be done, not ours (Luke 22.42). May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6.10).

Please use us to make your name great. May Jesus be lifted high through us as we live out your mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for transformation the world!

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Stay humble. Stay hungry. Stay in tune with God.

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