Witnessing to the World

God of Grace

H.E. Fosdick/G. Yoder 
Song Perspective: Corporate
Optimal Keys: Bb, C, D
Licensing Coverage: Used with permission
Chart/Lead Sheet: Compelling Worship
Recording(s): Compelling Worship (Towel and Basin Worship Collective)

Let Us Be Known (Por la Gloria)

M. Armstrong/M. Massey/N. Moore/R. Flanagan
Song Perspective: Corporate
Optimal Keys: F, G, A
Licensing Coverage: CCLI
Chart/Lead Sheet: CCLI, Compelling Worship
Recording(s): Crumbs (Liturgical Folk), Neighbor Songs (Porter’s Gate)

Jesus Christ

B. Lawley
Song Perspective: Corporate
Optimal Keys: E, F, G
Licensing Coverage: Used with permission
Chart/Lead Sheet: Compelling Worship
Recording(s): Compelling Worship (Encounter Church Worship)

This Little Light of Mine

Traditional
Song Perspective: Personal
Optimal Keys: E, F, G, A
Licensing Coverage: Public Domain
Chart/Lead Sheet: Compelling Worship
Recording(s): Compelling Worship (Towel and Basin Worship Collective)

You Are Good/Eres Fiel

I. Houghton
Song Perspective: Corporate
Optimal Keys: G, A, Bb
Licensing Coverage: CCLI, Multitracks.com
Chart/Lead Sheet: CCLI, praisecharts
Recording(s): Decades (New Breed), Cosas Poderosas (En Vivo)

Additional Songs

Hear the Call of the Kingdom (Getty), Holy Ground (Joel Payne), Jesus Shall Reign (#276 HPW*), I’ve Witnessed It (Passion), On a Hill (Chris Moss), Psalm 126 (Isaac Wardell), Será Llena la Tierra (Juan Salinas), The Earth Shall Know (Porter’s Gate).

*Hymns for Praise and Worship © 1984 Evangel Press

Take your prayer to the streets!

Prayer is not limited to the interior of a church building. Take your prayer to the streets! Teach your congregation how to participate in a parish pilgrimage. These intentional, guided journeys allow us to see the neighborhood as a place of sacred significance.

Building on the work of the Parish Collective, invite groups from your congregation to a Parish Pilgrimage where people walk, listen, and pray together. Parish Collective suggests that pilgrims consider these questions:

• • Where do you see threads of Shalom?
• • How is the church collaborating for renewal?
• • What might this place teach us about faithful presence?

As groups spread throughout the neighborhood, provide prayer guides to help focus prayer on:

• • Families living in the homes you pass
• • Businesses
• • Schools
• • Local government
• • Healthy relationships- especially praying against domestic abuse
• • Physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual health for those you pass
• • Peace to invade situations filled with conflict
• • Jobs/provision/material needs for those struggling
• • Churches to be united to be a light in the community

Combine different ages in the groups so that younger people can learn from experienced prayer warriors. Encourage natural speaking with God as each group moves through their area, and also reinforce how important it is to connect with those individuals the groups will pass as they pray. Friendly greetings and even small conversations with those you pass are not an interruption to prayer- they are opportunities God is providing for blessing people and connecting with the community.

Gather together when everyone returns, and share stories of how God spoke to your heart.  If new areas of focused ministry come to mind after this experience, share ideas together of how God can be glorified through your church family serving your community.

Worship can remind us of the call of the Great Commission on our lives.

We are to witness to our own communities, and to the ends of the earth. Here are some practices that encourage us to leave our comfort zones and to be reminded of the many cultures that God wants to redeem in this world:

1. Incorporate worship songs in different languages and in styles that represent the community around you. Invite musicians from other local churches to help you lead songs that are in an unfamiliar style or language.

2. As your church prays for those working in different cultures, ask those workers for some of their favorite worship songs in their context, and introduce a song as you encourage the church to pray for that culture or area of the world.

3. If there are different languages represented in your church family, create opportunities to worship in their heart language and to share something about their culture to their church family. Read Psalm 100:1 in multiple languages to remind everyone that God is worshiped in the nations in countless languages.

4. On a bulletin board, place a map with pins in all of the places where your church has sent people, where people have immigrated from, or where your church is supporting someone in prayer. Highlight a different region of the world each month. Share about those you know who are serving, invite people to pray, and share either a video or part of a prayer letter before having the congregation pray together.

5. Incorporate worship practices from other cultures in your corporate worship from time to time, and explain why these practices are important in other cultures. For example, put the offering basket in front of the church, and make sure everyone has something to add to the basket. Gather the offering with an upbeat song that requires getting out of one’s seat and moving to actively give.

6. Choose a song to be your “going to all the world” missional song. Choose a song that is simple, such as “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”. Every time you highlight a region of the world for prayer, sing that song after the prayer with a substitution of words such as “He’s got the people of Thailand in his hands… He’s got all the refugees in his hands…”. You can use this song/prayer as a reminder of the call to be missional in your own communities as well.

7. Visit a local church that worships in a different language and build bridges between cultures.

8. Prepare a small group or choir to practice a song in a different style or language, then have the small group teach it to the congregation. Here are some suggestions:

• • Siyahamba
• • Alabaré, Alabaré
• • Thuma Mina
• • Revelation 19