Hybrid Worship
29 August 2021
Good Morning - Welcome to Worship!

We're continuing with a single service at 10:15 am, in the sanctuary, on Zoom, and streaming live to YouTube.

Whether you are getting ready to come to the campus or you're preparing to participate online, you are loved!
We Covenant One With Another
Spiritual Formation
Spiritual Formation (adult Sunday School) is on hiatus through August and will return after Labor Day. Our first topic is "Wading Into Theology," informed by Elizabeth Johnson's Quest for the Living God.

Later this afternoon, we welcome new students to Our Whole Lives for a kick-off retreat. Please continue to hold Our Whole Lives parents, teachers, and facilitators in your prayers.

Prelude

Greeting and Announcements
No matter who you are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here!

Get ready to share celebrations and prayer requests. Zoom worshippers can unmute and share when invited to do so or use the chat function anytime. All congregants can text Pastor Ken at 480-263-3308. In-person worshippers can also write a card with their celebration or prayer concern.

For All Things Shadow Rock, check out our weekly e-newsletter, Rock the Week. If you're not getting Rock the Week, email the church staff to subscribe.

Invitation to Worship

We receive fragments of holiness,
glimpses of eternity,
brief moments of insight.
Sometimes it is just enough, and sometimes we want more.

Let us gather them up for the precious gifts that they are
and, renewed by their grace, and strengthened
by each other’s company, move boldly into the unknown.

Musical Call to Worship - The Gathering of Spirits

Opening Prayer

Meditation borrowed from Alexandra Elle

I deserve to see myself in the same warm glow
that I see in others.
My light is abundant. My joy is important.
I deserve to take up space.

Loving yourself is not always a beautiful process.
It is hard. It can break you open. It can wear you down.
Self-love is birthed in the trenches of our darkest moments,
That is why the light feels so good when we finally find it.
I have the strength to touch where it hurts.
I will tell my pain it is safe to heal.
In the throes of healing, I may break open time and time again to learn that the the things I thought I healed from still need nurturing.

Explore your first memory of loving yourself -
or struggling with how to.
Who taught you what you know?
What do you need to learn or unlearn?
Unfold the layers of your story and find the root of your 
self-love process.

Celebrations and Prayer Concerns

Celebration Song -
Celebrate Your Heart and Your Spirit
Perceiving and Responding
Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Response
"Sanctuary" by Carrie Newcomer

Stewardship Moment and Offertory
Thank you for your faithful support for Shadow Rock's ministries of care. Our ultimate stewardship is our care for each other.
Balancing Word and Deed
Word About Life for Today ~ Ken Heintzelman
Every Hill Has a Story - Connected to all Creation
Isaiah 55:12-13
For you shall go out in joy,
  and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
  shall burst into song,
  and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
  instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
  for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Mitakuye Oyasin
(poem by Peg Heintzelman, in gratitude for the Lakota People of Cheyenne River Indian Reservation)
 
I feel the air around me,
It swaddles me in its welcoming embrace. 
I imagine it is alive, its touch tender and familiar.
I breathe in the air and exhale myself;
We are one.
 
I feel the ground beneath my feet,
It nurtures me, feeding my body and soul.
I know the Earth is alive and Mother of all things
She birthed all livening things and me,
We are one.
 
I consider the sky; far above me,
It sustains me, delighting my senses.
I believe the cosmos is alive; sun, moon and stars,
They impart exquisite DNA to myself and the world,
We are one
 
I am not separate from any part of life.
From the minuscule to the mighty
I feel the world is alive and waiting to be celebrated
I am a unique piece in the magnificent puzzle of life
We are one.
 
Each moment holds the possibility of celebration
Life, love and joy surround me
As sister to all things, it is mine to share,
Gifts abound, air, Earth and sky
We are one.
Mitakuye Oyasin, we are all related.

Sending Forth
One: May you know fully and deeply the blessings
of each of your heart's seasons.
The inward turning of Winter
Springtime's lush renewal
The effortless, steady growth of Summer
And Autumn's rich harvest.
May your passage from season to season be blessed—
Eased by hands to hold,
and by the light of love to guide you on.
These are the times!
All: We are the people!
One: All of Creation is blessed!
All: May we love all and serve all!
One: God be with you. 
All: And also with you.
One: Amen.
All: Amen.

Sending Forth - Trees of the Field

Postlude