BETHEL COLLEGE MENNONITE CHURCH
March 9, 2025
First Sunday of Lent
 
Christ Candle Lighting
 
Centering Music—Thou True Vine That Heals the Nations (arr. R. Haan)
—Will Wiebe-Friesen
 
Welcome & Prayer
Leader:  Welcome, all wandering hearts.
 
All:         We come greeting friends and meeting strangers,
               Wearing our joy and bearing our grief,
               Sighing our questions and trying our faith
 
Leader: Welcome to the wilderness of Lent–
 
All:         where pretense is laid down;
               Where grace abounds;
               Where home is found.
 
Leader: Welcome, all wandering hearts, to worship.
                                               
*Hymn—The Glory of These Forty Days—VT 305
           
Children’s Conversation—Joanna Harader
 
Worship Music—Cantique de Jean Racine (Gabriel Faure)—Chancel Choir; Joel Garber, director; Will Wiebe-Friesen, accompanist
 
Scripture Reading—Genesis 16:1-15—Al Peters
 
*Hymn—The God of Sarah Praise—VT 190
 
One-Minute Meditation
 
Sermon—Streams of Mercy—Joanna Harader         
 
*Hymn—Fill Us with Your Feast—VT 309
 
Communion— Pastors
 
Prayer of Confession
Leader: For the violence we enact and the violence we allow,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: For the ways we limit the freedom of others,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: For our failure to fully live out the freedom you give us,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: In the moments we run away,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: In the moments we settle in,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: When we cannot bear to watch others suffer,
All: God have mercy.
Leader: And in you mercy, God, let us find our home in you,
All: Wherever we may wander.
 
Assurance of Pardon
Sharing the Meal
Prayer of Thanksgiving
 
Prayers of God’s People         
 
*Hymn—Come, Thou Fount—VT 563
 
*Benediction    
                                                  
Postlude—Come, Thou Fount (arr. J.R. Martin)—Will Wiebe-Friesen          

* You are invited to stand
VT—Voices Together
Keyboard- Will Wiebe-Friesen
Audio visual—Ben Lichti