From the lips of children and infants, You have ordained praise.

For the past couple months, I have been discussing American Reformed's liturgy on Sunday mornings with our church's 2nd-5th graders.  Every week, during our church worship service, we go through a communal liturgy as a congregation.  There are four parts to this liturgy: Call to Worship, Prayer of Confession, Words of Assurance, and Instructions for Living.  As the children studied each part and why we do them, I had them write their own liturgies.  On May 1, these 2nd-5th graders will be leading the congregation as "liturgists," using the very same liturgies that they have written themselves.  I have been SO blessed by their beautiful words of TRUTH.  I wanted to share them, so that you too could be blessed by these young Christ-followers.  These words and scripture selections are 100% the work of the children.  Here is the first draft of their liturgy:

CALL TO WORSHIP

Psalm 146:1-2

Leader: “Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord, my soul!  I will praise the Lord all my life.  I will sing praise to God for as long as I live!”

People: You are the only god worthy of worship.  We love you very much.  Come and worship, people of God.  Come and praise the Lord.  For God loves us and made us.  He is our ruler, helper, and healer.  God, you deserve our praise!

CONFESSION

(Silence)

People: We confess that we sin, O God and confess we haven’t listened to you.  We love you with all of our hearts and all our soul.  You do great things for us and we don’t see that.  Please forgive us.  We need you to help us in life.  You are amazing.  We thank you for being our God and dying for us.  Please show mercy to us.

WORDS OF ASSURANCE

Leader: Jesus Calms the Storm – Luke 8:22-25

 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.

In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

Jesus assured his disciples that they would be okay during the storm.  He told them he would calm the storm.  This helps us know we can trust in Jesus to forgive our sins.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIVING

Leader: God tells us to take his advice and love him with all our hearts.  Follow the 10 commandments.  Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances.  This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus.