This litany is for use in a small group or corporate setting.  Feel free to use this, as long as Everyday Liturgy is acknowledged. 

Responsive Reading

John 15.8-11; Luke 14.27-32 ;Matthew 28.16-20

L: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

All: By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

L: If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

All: These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

L: Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  

All: Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.' ... more

This is the last part of a two part discussion on age relations in the church.  The first part was Elder Not Old.

If young people continue the way they are we are all going to end up like Icarus, our potential melting away as we crash land and smash our lives to pieces.  In Elder Not Old I examined how older folks need to step up and become elders, and not just fade away in grumbling and apathy.  The same needs to happen for the young folks who are part of many congregations: after college they are going to church because they want to be there, and not because of any societal or cultural obligations, which do not exist anymore. 

It is crucial for the young folks in the church today to stay young, to change, to move with the Spirit, but all to often that is interpreted as being the perpetual follower.  Follow the new leader from sermon to sermon, follow the new praise songs from service to service, follow the new programs from day to day, follow the cool people from church to church.  I have not seen a lot of old folks church-hopping, but I see middle-aged persons on down doing it consistently within Protestant circles.  ... more