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 profound. 
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 matters. 

As those 
who have embraced Your gospel, 
as those 
who believe, 
enable us 
to become 
better Christians, 
enable this church 
to become 
a better Christian community— 
one that increasingly participates 
in this life 
as a means 
of our own 
spiritual formation. 

Help us this morning, 
in and through worship, 
to become more convinced 
to act and to speak 
of Your gospel
in explicitly faithful ways.

Open our eyes 
to the ways we are collaborating with social trends 
and with cultural movements 
and with the therapeutic ethos 
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 each of us, 
and give this church, 
a style of engagement with others, 
and with the world, 
that is theologically grounded 
and spiritually creative. 

As we move through this moment— 
this politically, 
spiritually, 
socially, 
culturally dark moment— 
keep us from merely
gritting our teeth and bearing it. 
Teach us to suffer in the right way — 
a way in which our whole person, 
our whole body, 
our whole spirit 
properly bears 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, 
love, 
and 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 accept 
Your gift of time. 
Teach us to take time, 
to be patient with time, 
to fully inhabit this time. 
Keep us from the temptation 
of immediate gratification, 
whether it be the gratification 
of our physical appetites 
or the gratification 
of finding who we are 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.
Otherwise, 
we’ll find ourselves 
fully at home here, 
and no longer longing 
for Your kingdom come 
and no longer enacting 
Your coming kingdom now, 
within our families, 
within our communities, 
and with our work- 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 satiate 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 
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.