Pastoral Prayer
Broadway Baptist Church, 9/27/15
Rev. Chris Caldwell

Thank you, God, for the good things you do through this your church, where
- beautiful music is sung each Sunday
- children are taught the path of faith
- youth find friendship and support during an awkward stage of life
- older people find comfort amid grief
- encouragement amid sickness
- where….
- people have remained friends over five decades
- and where people began making new friends five minutes ago
- 75 people served our community last Saturday
and where 45 people sent to an African American church this past Wednesday.
- For the good things you are doing through your church we offer you our thanks
- And for the not-quite-so-good things, we offer you our confession
- for the times when we don’t fully live out on Monday what we proclaim on Sunday
- for the times we are stingy with our forgiveness and tight with our money
- for the times we lean too completely upon our own understanding, and too little on you
- for the times we are lackadaisical when we come to church, assuming that not much is going to happen
- Forgive us, loving God, for the times we have fallen short
And guide us as we try to sort things out
- guide us as we try to find our way through conflict in our families
- guide us as a church as we wrestle with difficult issues in our culture and our world
- lead us as try to follow you on the paths we believe you have chosen for us in the coming years:
  - Growing younger populations at Broadway
  - Ministering outside the walls of the church
  - Being more diverse in our ministries
  - And finding a dynamic balance between the old and the new.
May you walk, O God, with those in our church who are stumbling
- Those faced with a failure at work or at home
- Those faced with sickness of the body or mind
- Those who are not here today, who are finding it hard to muster energy for the life of faith
- Those who are grieving the loss of a friend, or of a parent, or of a child or grandchild
Bless us now as we continue to worship
- May you grow within us a deeper faith
- May you nurture within us renewed hope
- But after we worship, may you lead us to live out the greatest virtue of all: lead us to love.