Teach Us To Wait

Lord of every season,

You are never hurried.

Never late.

Never absent.

You hold time in Your hands,

and yet we confess how hard it is for us to wait.

We want quick answers, instant healing, immediate change.

But You invite us into a slower way.

A deeper trust.

A waiting that is not wasted.

So we pray:

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

When trials weigh heavy and the nights feel long,

teach us to trust that suffering produces perseverance,

perseverance produces character,

and character produces hope.

Let our waiting be more than empty time —

let it be holy ground where You are forming us.

We lift up a world in waiting.

We pray for peace in places torn by war.

We pray for justice where oppression still reigns.

We pray for food and water in lands of deep scarcity.

We pray for reconciliation in communities divided and in hearts grown cold.

Remind us, O Lord, that You are present in every place,

at work in every story,

and faithful in every waiting.

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

We lift up Your Church —

This community, this family, this people You have called to be strong and courageous.

We thank You for the Body of Christ at The Woodlands campus, the Montgomery campus, the Creekside campus.

We give thanks for Church at Woodforest, and for the churches beyond our walls —

For Connect Church, Restoration Church, Hope Church,

and all the congregations who proclaim Your love and walk in Your way.

And now, Lord, we pause to lift before You those we love —

family, friends, neighbors, coworkers —

each one in their own season of perseverance, their own refining, their own story.

For those waiting for healing…

For those waiting for hope…

For those waiting for answers…

For those waiting for peace…

Be their strength.

Be their sustaining grace.

And for us, Lord, in every delay, in every unanswered prayer, in every weary hour,

make our waiting an offering to You.

Shape it into trust.

Shape it into surrender.

Shape it into worship.

Teach us to wait, Lord, until waiting becomes worship.

And now, with faith in Your promises and hope in Your timing,

we pray together the prayer Jesus taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,

and the glory, forever. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer, August 29, 2021

O God of Wonder, we are grateful for those moments when we experience the incredible splendor of being alive – especially for this morning’s stillness, where all of creation seems to stir, shake sleep away, and awaken to a fresh day of promise. It is in those seconds of grace-filled awe that we find ourselves grateful – and we are led back to You.

Thank You for helping us to make the shift from rushing to make it here on time to simply being here - present and abiding with You and our community. When we discover the delight of resting in sacred space, surrounded by others who desire the same thing, we understand Your words in a richer way – where two or three are gathered, Your presence is known in a mysterious way..

Thank You for weekly gifts of worship together, where Word and silence and melody spill into our souls, bringing us a taste of the abundance of life with You. Center our hearts and remind us again that we sense Your presence when the clutter of our minds is cleared and when simplicity of heart reigns in us.

Holy One, we seek to be honest with You and with ourselves. We have tucked away some things in compartments of our minds – where we replay anger and hurt and resentment. We cling to them because we don’t know how to let them go. Yet, we know that they are leaching joy and purpose from our lives. Empower us, O Lord, to release them, as we trust that You are clearing out anything that is an obstacle in our lives.

When we pause to be still, we think of all who need Your compassion – for those who are enduring a health crisis, for those who have reached the end of their resources, for those bracing for the hurricanes of life. We confess it is much too easy to be complacent – so, we ask You to open our hearts to the suffering in our world today.

We remember the ones whose lives have been torn apart by violence, either in word or in action. We beg mercy for those facing the onslaught of the storms and earthquakes, and for the countless refugees who are living in fear today. With open hearts, we lift each one into the safety of Your grace and ask You to hold them there. 

In this community of faith, we pray for those who are deployed and serving our country:

· Tom Cavert
· Trinity Edwards
· Carson Huckaby
· Kelly Irvin
· Caleb Lee
· Kyle McCotter
· Scott Silberbauer
· Brian Smith
· Tommy Vailes
· Hayden Viskozki

And we pray for Your compassion to anoint the families of the 13 service members who gave  their lives this week in Afghanistan. May Your Presence bring comfort in the midst of so much grieving.

We also lift to You, O Great Physician:
Julia Ann Andress, Carolyn Hudson, Ann Rogers, and Cliff Gullett, who are in the hospital,  and Bill Newnam, Nelva Odell and Fred Dozier, who are continuing their recoveries at home.
Grant them the healing power of Your presence and Your love. And may our hearts embrace those who are hurting and those who are healing.

O God, untangle our lives and turn our focus towards You. Grant us simplicity in our speech, simplicity in our time, and simplicity in our priorities. Might we be a people of courage and hope, standing in faith together, as we pray in the name of the one who gives us life, Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray by saying these words together:

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, 

as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Easter Sunday Pastoral Prayer: April 4, 2021

O Good and Gracious God,
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End:
It doesn’t seem so long ago
that we gathered together
to celebrate the birth of Christ
and reflect on the mysteries of the incarnation —
how He became the fullness of humanity,
with all of our joys
and all of our sorrows,
yet at the same time
perfectly reflected Your image.
Through the muck and the mire,
He proclaimed the Good News of Your love,
even in the most hopeless of places.

In this past week, we have remembered
the worst of humanity:
the rejection of Your gift of hope,
putting Christ to death on the cross,
and the attempt to deter the emergence of Your kingdom.
But through the resurrected Savior,
the rush of Your Spirit erupted into the world.
When everything was dark,
Your love broke through.
Your love was too strong, too wide, too deep for death to hold.
You have rolled away the stone, O God,
and Your light has pierced the darkness of the tomb.
The sparks cast by Your love
dance and spread and burst forth with resurrection light.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!

On this day,
we know that many of us still experience
darkness in our lives;
these struggles don’t simply go away
in the joy of this day.
But we are renewed in faith
and strengthened in hope.

Even more, we have been reminded
that the promise of Easter
is not just an idea
that we sing, pray, and preach.
Christ is alive and lives among us today.
Your real presence
is more than something we hope for—
You are with us, here and now.
We know You in the love we share for each other,
the love that binds us all together as one.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours,
and grant that we may serve Christ in them,
and love one another as He loves us.
Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit,
especially those in our faith family who are in the hospital:

And those who are continuing their health recoveries at home:


May we also walk the journey of grief with those who have lost loved ones:

We hold each of these faithful servants, those we have named,
and those unnamed, in the Light of Christ.
Grant them courage and hope in their troubles,
and anoint them the joy of Your salvation.

O Lord, encourage our community,
as we form and re-form ourselves as Your Body.
Just as the revelations of Easter
energized the first disciples,
may we be energized to dream new visions
and be open to new risks
and to the unknown.

On this day, O God,
Christ’s resurrection gives us hope that nothing —
no tragedy, no mistake, no sin, no evil —
is beyond the redemptive power of Your love.
This is the truth of Your kingdom,
a kingdom we long for,
and a kingdom for which we now pray
using the words the living Christ has taught us:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. 
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Good Friday Pastoral Prayer

God of mystery and wonder,

because we know the ending of the story,
it’s tempting for us
to ignore the darkness of this day.
It’s tempting for us
to go about our business as usual.
It’s tempting for us
to move too quickly
to the dawn of light on Easter morning.

But we draw upon Your grace
to give us courage and strength
to live for a while in the darkness,
to set aside comfort and pleasure,
to feel the darkness
in which so many of Your children dwell,
the darkness into which Your Son Jesus entered.


Lord Jesus, we remember today that it was
one of Your own familiar friends who betrayed You,
and we know that there is nothing that so breaks the heart
as the disloyalty of one whom we call friend.

Save us:
From the cowardice that would disown You
when it is too hard to be true to You;

Guard us:
From the disloyalty that betrays You in the hour
when You need someone to stand by You;

Prevent us:
From the fickleness that blows hot and cold in its devotion;

Avert us:
From the fair-weather friendship that,
when things are difficult or dangerous,
makes us ashamed to show whose we are and whom we serve.


As we reflect on the frailty of Christ,
remind us of the frailty of all life.
As we cringe at the suffering of Christ,
make us mindful of suffering throughout the world.
As we witness the death of Christ,
bring us back full circle to the beginning of Lent,
to the wisdom of Ash Wednesday:
the awareness of our mortality
and the mortality of those we love.

Gracious God,
deep in the human heart
is an unquenchable trust
that life does not end with death.
Like a seed,
which is buried
in order to bring forth life,
Christ goes to the tomb
to usher in new life.

We trust that we, too, will be raised to new life,
in this world, here and now,
and in the mystery of what lies beyond physical death.
We trust that the all the world will be born anew,
that Your kingdom is coming,
as a new heaven
and a new earth.

On this day of darkness,
it is for this kingdom that we boldly pray,
with the words that Jesus so graciously taught us to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. 

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer: February 7, 2021

Good morning, Church! Let us quiet our hearts and go to the Lord in prayer:  

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know that. 

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

 

O Good and Gracious God,

we love You.

Yes, Lord, we love You, 
for Your love is so pure, so divine.

Your love transforms our souls and minds. 

Your love has the power to bring new hope

in to our lives. 

Your Scripture encourages us, molds us, and teaches us, 

and Your most significant instructions center on the gifts of love.

As You have loved us so deeply, 

so must we also love one another. 
This is a privilege, to love and to love well.  

 

As we seek to obey this great commandment, 

we call upon You to lavish Your love and healing 

onto members of our faith family,

John Liles and Ernie Dunham, who continue their journeys of healing. 

 

We mercifully seek Your Presence to remain with

Paul Cooke and Suzanne Pace, 

as they continue their recoveries at home. 

 

We mourn with Don Olson, as he grieves the loss of his brother, Stewart Terry, 

and with John Mark Wilcox in the death of his brother, Paul Wilcox. 

 

And, Lord, we celebrate the creation and birth of Jackson Troy Alexander Hitt.

We pray for rest-filled nights for Troy’s parents, Cody & Cara Hitt, 

and we gleefully rejoice with Troy’s grandparents, Paul & Mary Koerner. 

 

O Lord, continue to teach us 

how to love one another, 

and care for one another, 

as we walk through painful seasons 

and joy-filled milestones together. 

To all those who are hurting, 

to all those who are away from their families, 

may Your love and our love be a balm for their souls. 

 

O, Lord, as we prepare our hearts and ears 

to hear today’s message from You through Dr. Bell, 

we are reminded our hope and our victory is in YOU. 

 

Through the wisdom and knowledge that comes from You, 

we know that we shall be truly free. 

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, 

but the ability to do what we ought. · 

Without Christ, we are slaves to sin, 

unable to do what is right. 

Jesus has liberated us to walk in right relationship with You, O God, 

and to be the kind of people You created us to be. 

 

And so we call upon You, O Mighty One, to:

bring life where there is death, 

bring hope where there is fear, 

bring freedom where there is bondage, 

bring the sweet aroma of life 

where there is the stench of death.

 

Loving God, re-form and re-shape us 

in all the places in our lives that are not conformed 

to Your purposes and intentions. 

Guide us in the way that leads to life. 

And remind us of who we are because of Jesus. 
May we fight the lies and wanderings surrounding our hearts, 

and rely solely on Your strength. 

Break us from the chains of fear that hold us hostage. 

As we dwell in Your Word, 

as we make a home in Your Scriptures,

as we learn from You and grow in grace, 

may our hearts come to know Your truth, 

and may that truth set us free from the bondage of sin – 

a freedom that only comes as we continuously and enduringly abide in You.

 

We pray this is the name of Jesus, 

the ultimate bondage breaker, 

who taught us to pray as one by saying these words... 

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Pastoral Prayer: January 31, 2021

Good morning, Church! Happy Sunday! (AND HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Christopher!)  

It’s good to be back with you this morning. Last Sunday, I was in Haiti, preaching on the very verses that Dr. Bell has chosen for our memory verse this week: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Before I left Haiti, all of the children said, “Tell the Church in Louisiana, we LOVE THEM!” There is something special about having a group of children hold your hands and pray for you and your church. Indeed, let us love one another as Christ has loved us.

 

You’ve heard me say often before the pastoral prayer, “Let us quiet our hearts and go to the Lord in prayer.” That’s a Quaker saying! Imagine that! It’s the process of breathing out all distraction, and breathing in the Spirit of God to rest upon your heart. Now, I have a lot of energy. Sometimes it’s a little hard for me to focus and quiet my heart, even while I’m sitting in a worship service! One of the practices my Quaker mentor taught me was to take the words from Psalm 46 and recite them over and over, each time taking away one word. I’d like for us to do that now, as we prepare to lift up our joys and concerns to God…

 

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know that. 

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

 

God of love,

God of benevolence,

God of grace,

God of mercy,

God of persistency,

 

We look to You, not only as our great example, 

but also as our constant companion.

When we cannot see beyond the mundane, 

when our future looks bleak, 

and in those moments when we find ourselves paralyzed 

by situations that are life depleting, 

You remind us of Your preferred future for our lives 

– a future filled with hope, abundant life and love.

When we feel lonely, 

when our human interactions produce pain, 

and when we find ourselves at our most unlovable, 

You remind us that we are Your children, 

and the recipients of Your unconditional love and abiding presence.

 

As Your beloved, we yearn to be a loving people 

– a people who are known for the two most important things –

our love of God and our love of neighbor.  

As such, this morning, we seek to come alongside 
those we know to be in need.  

 

This day, we lift in prayer those on our congregation’s prayer list, 

especially those in the hospital: 

 

·      John Liles 

·      Ernie Dunham

And those recovering at home: 

·      James Potter

·      Janie Beck

 

May the healing mercies of our Great Physician overwhelm our friends.

 

We also grieve with those who grieve, 

especially those in our family who have recently experienced loss, including:

 

·      Cindy Fortson in the death of her brother, Jere Kendrick

·      Tami White in the death of her mother, Betty Vickers

·      Nina Parault in the death of her brother, Walt Oliver

·      Ryan Palmer in the death of his father, Tommy Palmer 

·      The family of Joanne McGriff Eck 

·      Vickie Mashburn in the death of her mother, Rosario Gomez Valdez

 

And we continue to remember those who are far away from their families 
and serving our country overseas, especially: 

·      Trinity Edwards

·      Carson Huckaby

·      Jamie Irvin

·      Kyle McCotter

·      Brian Smith

 

O, Lord, each of those we have named are 

people You love and people we love. 

Bless these members of our faith family with 

Your abiding presence and loving compassion. 

 

As we look to You, Holy God, we remember our priorities. 

We remember the image of Christ, 

who called us to love one another, 

even our enemies, with a love that transforms. 

Because You are love, 

we must be love also. 

We hear the endless call to love as Christ loved, 

to serve as Christ served, 

to grow more fully and deeply into the image of the One, 

who perfectly lived and loved, 

so that all may live fully. 

We seek to learn from Christ’s example 

and to live with purpose in this complicated world. 

Remind us to grow into our calling – 

to live lives that exemplify You, O Lord, 

through our worship and our care for our neighbors. 

We yearn to be the flock of the faithful shepherd, 

and we commit to do as He commands, 

for His commands are not burdensome, but joyful. 

 

Loving God, we pray all these things in the name of the One, 

who gave all in love for us, and laid down His life for us, His friends, 

Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray as one by saying these words... 

 

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

 

 

OFFERTORY PRAYER

 

Friends, God has given us the gift of generous love. 

May we respond to God’s generous love, 

by loving one another as God has loved us. 

Let us do so now by committing our tithes, 

which go to support so many local and global missions, 

and by committing our lives, to love by serving.

As always, you are welcome to leave your offering 

in one of the baskets by the door, 

by giving online, or by mailing your offering to the church. 

 

Let us pray:

 

Loving God,
you have given us the task
to love one another.
May the gifts we offer
bring love and life to others.
May the love we share
bring hope to a world. 

May the words of our mouths

and the meditations of our hearts, 

and the offering of our lives

be pleasing to You, O Lord.

Amen.