He’s still holding a towel.

A call to worship.

Themes

Incarnation • Divine nearness • Servanthood of Christ • Union with Christ • Self-giving love • Ministry of the Spirit • Intercession • Witness • Costly discipleship • Communal life • Ministry of deacons • The ongoing ministry of Christ • Christ-shaped service • Resurrection • Redemption • Gospel faithfulness in a secular age

God has called us to serve in His name, not from our strength, but from our weakness, from our union with Him, from our lives laid down in love.

Still, Christ takes up a towel. Still, He washes our feet—through the hands of His people, through the life of His Body, through the quiet work of the Spirit.

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Scripture reading

Philippians 2:5–8
John 13:12–15
2 Corinthians 5:18–20

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This call to worship¹ centers us on Jesus and the kind of servant He was.

To the Philippians, Paul wrote about the shape of Christ’s life—humble, obedient, and poured out in love.

In your relationships with one another, 
have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage;
rather, He made Himself nothing 
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!


John wrote about the example that Jesus Himself gave us. John wrote:

When He had finished washing their feet, 
He put on His clothes and returned to His place. 
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” He asked them. 
“You call Me ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, 
for that is what I am.
Now that I, your Lord, have washed your feet, 
you also should wash one another’s feet. 
I have set you an example 
that you should do as I have done for you.


And Paul wrote to the Corinthians that we all now share in the ministry of Christ. He wrote:

All this is from God, 
who reconciled us to Himself through Christ 
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, 
as though God were making His appeal through us. 

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Prayer

Father in Heaven,
You have not left us to ourselves.

You have not required 
that we first find a way to love You.
Rather, You have stooped low in Jesus Christ—
stooped into the depth of our fallenness,
into the depth of our alienation,
into the deep brokenness of our condition.
You were not a distant helper,
but came instead 
as the Incarnate Servant.

In Him, You have joined Yourself to us.
And in Him, You have served us—
not merely offering gestures of kindness,
not simply providing a moral example,
not a generosity that stays clean and keeps a distance,
but with the nearness of self-emptying love:
a love that knelt to serve us,
a love that washed our feet,
a love that carried our pain,
a love that fed us when we were hungry,
a love that touched us when we were unclean,
a love that endured the cross,
that emptied Himself,
that died in our place—
the very life of the Son, 
poured out for us. 

You have never loved us from afar.
You have never remained at a distance.

In Your Son, You came near—
and through Him, You stooped to serve us
from within our very condition.

He took our flesh.
He bore our sin.
He shared our death.
He became our resurrection.

And even now,
Your mercy still comes to us. 
You are, even still, not far off.

You are still here, 
in Jesus Christ, 
in the midst of us.
He lives,
he intercedes,
he dwells among us
—Christ’s own Spirit in us—
continuing His ministry even now
—personally and actively.

Still, He takes up a towel.
Still, He washes our feet—
through the hands of His people,
through the life of His body,
through the quiet work of His Spirit.

You call us 
to share in that same self-giving love—
to serve in His name—
not from our strength,
but from our weakness, 
from our union with Him,
from our prayers,
from our intercessions,
from our witness,
from our lives laid down in love.

And today, Father,
as we install two new deacons,
we recognize Your call that summoned them,
that formed them,
and that is now sending them.

Their service is not theirs alone.
It is Yours.
They’re not here today to be admired,
but to be hidden in the mercy of Christ,
to be clothed with the needs of others,
to carry the burdens of this body,
to walk alongside the lonely,
to intercede,
to reconcile,
to bear witness, 
in word and deed, 
of the One who was Crucified. 

We are Yours.
And in You, we all serve.
Let us not seek power or prestige.
Let us not retreat into privacy or fear.
Let us not adjust Your Gospel
to fit the measure of our culture’s expectations.
But instead,
enable us, Father,
to offer You the worship of intercession for others,
the worship of bold and costly witness,
the worship of a reconciled life—
a life that matches the message we proclaim.

Conform us to the posture of Jesus,
whose whole life was service,
whose whole being was for You,
and for us.

Make our witness faithful.
Make our intercession fervent.
Make our communion with you deep.
Make our community whole.
All so that the world may see,
in the weakness of our love,
and in the simplicity of our service,
the glory of the Crucified One.

In the name of Jesus,
the Servant enthroned,
the Intercessor who lives,
the One whose life of service now shapes our own,
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 July 27, 2025.