(For use in opening a church board meeting. I recommend asking different members of the board to serve as each “Leader”.)
Leader: Lord, we come together today as a group of your children. We come from days that have been busy and full of people. We come from days that have been quiet and lonely. We come tired and ready to be finished. We come energized and excited to contribute. We pause, here at the beginning of our time together, to center ourselves on You.
We are an organization, but we are first and foremost a community of lives and homes being transformed and renewed in Your Love – for Your purposes in our neighborhoods and world. We pause to be thankful – for it is a holy gift of Your grace that we are invited to serve with You in these Loving ways.
ALL: Lord, come unite and minister to our hearts in Your presence.
Leader: We are gathered here, representing different parts of this local body of Christ. We confess that we know our own parts intimately, but must humbly depend on one another to come to full knowledge of the body as a whole.
ALL: Father, help us to listen to all areas of the body. Even those not represented here.
Leader: Even more than we listen to the parts of the body, Holy Spirit we want to listen to your voice. Sometimes you will speak through one of us. Other times you will speak in the silence, or in the discomfort. Help us to hear you, and to respond.
ALL: Holy Spirit, guide us by Your presence and in Your Loving Wisdom.
Leader: We come to approve reports and budgets that represent ministry that can never be fully measured, and yet we have been entrusted with this holy task of being faithful with all we’ve been given. We also recognize that “being faithful” is measured differently in Your Kingdom, than by our worldly measurements.
ALL: Jesus, we offer all these things to you. We confess that our own abilities, perceptions and measurements fall short of Your wisdom and power.
Leader: We have visions, and dreams, and other things we imagine for the sake of this local church and our impact out in the community and world. Yet even the best of these things are not seen with Your Vision, nor are they of any value without Your Loving presence. We come together excited with our ideas, but holding all things loosely for the sake of following Your heart, Lord.
ALL: God, come and have Your way. We invite You to have these moments, and have this community for Your purposes now, and for tomorrow. Amen.
words from wick 