20 Aug Worship Bulletin: 8/24/25
Welcome to Worship at the McPherson Church of the Brethren
We invite your active participation in the life of this congregation, as together we continue to grow in grace and seek justice for God’s creation.
Sunday, August 24, 2025 @ 10:15 a.m.
Welcome Video
♫Gathering Music | “Variations on What is this Place” | arr. James E. Clemens
Nancy Miner, piano
Sharing Time – Joys and Concerns | Ann Stover
♫Centering Music | “Praise, I Will Praise You Lord” | #76
Melia Dell Jones, Deb van Asselt, vocals; Jean Hendricks, piano
Please sing along!
Responsive Opening Words | Psalm 108:1-8
A psalm of David
ONE: My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul.
Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.
ALL: I will praise you, God, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.
For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
ONE: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.
Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.
ALL: God has spoken from God’s sanctuary:
“In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of [Sioux-cot] Sukkoth.
Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah is my scepter.
♫Opening Song | “You are Exalted”
sing twice
(He is Exalted by Twila Paris)
Melia Dell Jones, Dan Lichty, vocals; Jean Hendricks, piano
Message for the Kids | Dawn Hoffman
Third Graders Receive Bibles Collier Bean, Laekyn Pfeiff, Thea Schoming, Ritter Lange Faith Formation
Invitation to Give Video
Give online or send a check made payable to “McPherson Church of the Brethren,” 200 N. Carrie, McPherson, KS 67460
♫Musical Offering | “Only Hope” | Foreman/arr. Shaw
Dan Lichty & Lara Schoming, vocals; Jean Hendricks, piano
Verse 1
There’s a song that’s inside of my soul, it’s the one that I’ve tried to write over and over again.
I’m awake in the infinite cold but you sing to me over and over and over again.
CHORUS
So I lay my head back down and I lift my hands and pray to be only yours,
I pray, to be only yours. I know now, you’re my only hope.
Verse 2
Sing to me the song of the stars, of your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far, sing to me of the plans that you have for me over again.
CHORUS
BRIDGE
I give you my destiny. I’m giving you all of me. I want your symphony;
singing in all that I am. At the top of my lungs, I’m giving it back. CHORUS
Scripture Focus | Luke 13: 10-17 | Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman on the Sabbath
10 On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues,
11 and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years.
She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her,
“Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”
13 Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people,
“There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”
15 The Lord answered him,
“You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water?
16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years,
be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
17 When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated,
but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.
♫Scripture Song | “Healer of our Every Ill” | #377
Message | “When Religion Gets Stuck” | Jerry Bowen
♫Sending Song | “Move in our Midst” | #418
Sending Words
♫Sending Music | “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40” | L. Tourjee/arr. M. Ham
Jean Hendricks, piano
Videography and Editing: Eric Goering
Music Coordinator: Ellen Gilbert
Choir Director: Becky Snell
Technical Crew: Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Shane Kirchner, Steve Lolling & Chris Whitacre
Chancel Decoration Team: Jill Brax, Colleen Gustafson, Michele Johnson, Shane Kirchner & Lara Schoming