Worship Resources for Use in Local Churches:

Celebrating Back Bay Mission’s Recovery & Re-dedication of the BBM Campus

 [Note:  The following liturgies will be used during the course of a weekend of events at Back Bay Mission October 2-4 in a program of dedication and a worship service, and have been adapted for your use in local congregations.  Feel free to adapt them further as you wish, and include them in your own worship service on October 4 or any Sunday you wish  as a way of lifting Back Bay Mission up in continued prayer.] 

Call to Worship                                                                      

One:     Sisters and brothers, rejoice!
We live sustained by God's presence and empowered by God’s strength.

Many:   Thanks be to God!

One:     When disaster befalls us and the future is uncertain,

Many:   God makes a way out of no way.

One:     When all is lost and we are tempted to give up,

Many:   God draws near to renew and redeem.

One:     When we feel all alone and our gifts seem too little,

Many:   God grants gifts and companions sufficient for the task.

One:     Sisters and brothers, rejoice indeed!  We stand here today, witnesses to the truth,

Many:   Nothing is impossible with God!

All:        Let us worship our God through whom all things are possible….today, tomorrow, and forevermore! Amen. 

Prayer of Confession (unison)                                                 

Almighty God, you have called us into your church to be your servants in the service of others.  Forgive us when we harden our hearts to the need of others and fail to be compassionate.  Have mercy on us when our charity falls short of justice, when our selfishness overwhelms our generosity.  Expand our love, increase our courage, renew our vision.  Make us and all who are your Church more nearly what you have created us to be.  Amen.  

LITANY OF THANKSGIVING

Leader:God’s wondrous miracles are still at hand!  The story of Back Bay Mission bears witness!  God has wrought new life from devastating loss, transforming ruin to wholeness, uncertainty to possibility, and hopelessness to hope.  For all those whose time and talents and treasures were vessels for God’s redemptive work…

 People:  ..we give thanks!  

Leader:  For members of the Mission’s Board of Directors and for the Mission’s staff, who resolved to move forward when the way was not clear.  For their commitment to this ministry and to this community, for their vision and their faith, for the generosity of their time and the wisdom of their work…  

People:  …we give thanks! 

Leader:  For all whose labor and discipline created and restored Back Bay Mission’s new campus, facilities for ministry.  For architects and builders, for electricians and plumbers, for painters and steel workers and concrete pourers, for communications and security companies and interior designers and stained glass window creators…

 People:  …we give thanks! 

Leader:  For all those who so passionately believed in the future of the Mission, whose prayers and gifts and presence made fervent hope a reality and renewed ministry a certainty.  For all whose persevering love for Back Bay Mission was a healing balm and resurrecting power…

 People: …we give thanks! 

Leader:  Let us pray…. 

People:  Creator and Creating God, we thank You for all that the Mission has meant to so many, on the Gulf Coast and throughout the United Church of Christ.   In blessed memory, we rejoice at the lives that have been changed there, the neighborhoods that have been healed there, the justice that has been done there. Look upon Back Bay Mission this day with tender grace.  Bless them as they re-consecrate the work of Back Bay Mission to Your will, and dedicate their new facilities to Your purpose.  May all who pass through their campus discover there a glimpse of Your Kingdom and Your mercy freely shared.  And from that place, may justice flow like water and integrity like an unfailing stream.  In Jesus’ name we pray it.  Amen.