A motley crew of oneness.

A call to worship.

Themes

One body • One Spirit • One glorious hope • One Lord • One faith • One baptism • One God and Father • Kingdom behaviors • Oddness • Imagination • Unity • Diversity • Courage

Give us the imagination to find the ways that will strengthen our unity.

Loving God, thank You for the widely different people You have called together to be your assembled people.

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Scripture reading

Ephesians 4:3–6

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This call to worship¹ is about being one.

Make every effort 
to keep yourselves united 
in the Spirit, 
binding yourselves together 
with peace.

For there is one body 
and one Spirit, 
just as you have been called
to one glorious hope for the future.

There is one Lord, 
one faith, 
one baptism,
one God and Father of all,
who is over all, 
in all, 
and living through all.

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Prayer

Loving God, 
thank You for the widely different people 
that You have called together 
to be Your assembled people. 

Thank You for the variety of ways 
faith gets expressed here, 
yet it is one faith, 
one hope, 
in Jesus Christ. 

Some of us appreciate 
beautiful cohesive creeds 
and nuanced expressions 
of Your character and work, 
and the consistent ways 
these direct our lives. 
Others of us seem to meander 
through innumerable questions, 
and experience what others 
would call doubt, 
yet we follow You faithfully nonetheless. 

Some of us appear to have 
a profoundly simple, 
unhurried and unworried faith, 
while others of us 
wrestle and wrestle, 
never finding sufficient words for You, 
yet we’re both constantly renewed 
by Your grace. 

Father, as our motley crew of oneness 
gathers this morning, 
we gather as one, 
gathered around the same one person — 
Your Son, 
our one Lord, 
our one head. 

Thank You for Your Spirit, 
who works to make us one, 
as we practice together now 
Your kingdom behaviors. 

Give us grace, Lord, 
to love together, 
to treasure each other 
with all our oddness. 

Give us imagination this morning 
to find the ways 
that will strengthen our unity 
and yet enable us to minister 
to yet even more diverse people. 

Give us courage 
to walk forward together 
and to carry out Your plans 
for us together. 

And Father, 
in whatever strife we do have, 
empower us to work through it 
in ways that demonstrate 
that You are our one God and Father, 
that Jesus Christ is our one Lord, 
that we are one Body, 
called by one Spirit 
Into one glorious future,
Amen

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1. This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered in Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on April 18, 2021.