When the world tilts.

A call to worship.

Themes

Gospel • Grace • Faith • Love • Hope • Suffering • Endurance • Spiritual formation • Repentance • Resistance • Nonconformity • Vulnerability • Witness • Discernment • Justice • Courage • Creativity • Presence • Gratitude • Perseverance • Hostility • Fear • Dissatisfaction • Attentiveness

In the moment of our last breath, the Gospel will be the only thing that really matters.

Give us the appropriate measure of restlessness—the right longing for what we know we cannot find here.

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Scripture reading

John 3:16
1 Thessalonians 1:2–5

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This call to worship¹ addresses our shifting world.

The world is shifting. 
Yet the gospel shines bright.  

One particular religious leader, for fear of the world in which he lived, sought Jesus out at night. And Jesus spoke these words to him:


For God so loved the world, 
that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believes on Him 
should not perish, 
but have eternal life.


Paul wrote an encouraging letter to a group of his friends—a group of people for whom he had deep affection, care, and respect.His friends were living in fear and uncertainty, and amongst hostilities and persecution,and were facing social pressures and marginalization. And Paul wrote this to them:

We give thanks to God always 
for all of you, 
constantly mentioning you 
in our prayers, 
remembering 
before our God and Father 
your work of faith 
and your labor of love 
and your steadfastness of hope 
in our Lord Jesus Christ. 
For we know, 
brothers loved by God, 
that He has chosen you, 
because our gospel came to you 
not only in word, 
but also in power 
and in the Holy Spirit 
and with full conviction.

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Prayer

God in heaven, 
Your gospel is rich beyond measure. 
It is decisive. 
It is clear. 
It is precise. 
It is inclusive — 
it is to whosoever. 
It is exclusive — 
it comes only from You 
and is only through Jesus Christ. 

In the moment 
of our last breath, 
Your gospel 
will be the only thing 
that really really matters. 

As those who have embraced Your gospel, 
enable us to become a people 
more and more shaped by it.
Enable us to become a more 
Christ-centered, 
Spirit-formed, 
gospel-shaped community.
Help us to live life together more faithfully.
And enable that living to spiritually form us.

Help us this morning, 
in and through worship, 
to become more convinced—
more convicted—
to act and to speak 
of Your gospel.

Open our eyes 
to the ways we are collaborating 
with social trends 
and with cultural movements 
and with the self-focus and selfism
of our age. 
And then reform us 
and teach us 
and empower us 
and embolden us 
and set a fire within us
to offer Your resistance. 

Out of our acts of worship 
this morning, 
reshape the way we live 
in the world. 
Give us a way of living with others and in the world
that is theologically grounded 
and spiritually creative. 

As we move through this moment — 
this politically, 
spiritually, 
socially, 
culturally 
charged moment,
teach us how to engage, 
teach us how to be present,
teach us to suffer
in the right way—
a way in which we
properly bear the weight 
of our ultimate destiny — 
the weight of glory.

Give us watchful waiting endurance. 
Give us an active, 
anticipatory, 
and welcoming responsiveness 
to the world — 
a responsiveness 
that is shaped by faith, 
and by love, 
and by hope. 

Order our desires 
according to faith, 
love, 
and hope. 
Enable faith, love, and hope 
to discipline the dispositions 
we hold toward others. 

And through faith, love, and hope, 
teach us to be 
properly vulnerable 
to Your grace, 
and vulnerable 
to Your presence,
and vulnerable 
to the presence of others 
in ways that change us — 
in ways that make us holy. 

Help us to see the gift of time 
You have given us. 
Teach us to take time, 
to be patient with time, 
to fully inhabit this time. 
Keep us from the temptation 
of immediate gratification—
from the fleeting satisfaction 
of groundling our identity 
in this world.

And instead, 
teach us to long for the right things — 
the truly impossible-to-acquire things.
Give us holy longings. 
For we ultimately seek a goal 
that is unattainable in this world. 

So cultivate in us 
the right dissatisfactions. 
Give us the appropriate measure 
of restlessness — 
the right longing 
for what we know we cannot find here — 
and give us the wisdom 
and the strength 
to refuse the false idols 
that are offered as distractions. 

Keep us from accepting this world; 
help us to rightly not like it here.
Keep us from finding ourselves 
fully at home here. 
Keep us from no longer longing for Your kingdom come. 
Keep us from no longer enacting Your coming kingdom now, 
within our families
and with our workmates and schoolmates. 

Give us peace — 
not complacency. 
Give us Your grace 
to live here, 
for in this life, 
justice lies in the forgiveness of sins, 
not in the perfections of virtue, 
whatever ones are popular right now. 

When your creation fell 
and became “the world,” 
it became less than it once was, 
less than what it should be, 
less than what it will be yet again. 

And now, 
inside this deeply compromised world, 
you have recreated each of us 
to be the foremost exemplars 
of what was once great about it. 
Keep us from seeing this place 
as the home we long for, 
for it is far from that. 

Keep our hope 
from becoming silent. 
Instead, 
enable us to feel the full force 
of our hope in You 
and in Your coming kingdom 
so that we do not dull it 
with the false consolations of our culture. 

You have deferred the satisfaction of our hope 
to a time beyond the age of this prefab world. 
In the meantime,
we must deal with our passions 
and our sufferings. 
And You have given to us a Christian faith— 
one that offers structure for our sufferings, 
but not an end to them. 

So, enable us 
to be attentive and wakeful, 
patient and long-suffering.  
And enable us to live in this world 
without accepting it.

May our worship today 
cause us to live 
in the hope of a coming future — 
Your coming kingdom. 

In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen

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Inspiring resources

A call to worship creates wonderment, amazement, curiosity, yearning, captivation, provocation, hopefulness, thankfulness, affection, rapture, delight. As these mix together, the response is worship.

If this call to worship leaves you wondering or curious or provoked or hopeful, consider diving into this awesome book.

1. This call to worship was given to the small assembly of Christians that gathered at Pathway Church, Beaverdam, Michigan, on Sunday, November 20, 2022, and Sunday, September 28, 2025.