Incorporate the #BeUMC campaign into worship services with the help of this sermon series developed by Discipleship Ministries.
Based on the General Rules and Wesley's conviction that the world is our parish, this series reminds our congregations of who we are as United Methodists: a people who do no harm, who do good, who attend to the ordinances of God, and for whom the world is our parish.
Read more below and find planning ideas, Scripture, preaching notes, prayers, resources and more.
Introduction
What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8 NRSV)
And are we yet alive,
And see each other's face?
Glory and praise to Jesus give
For His redeeming grace.
(“And Are We Yet Alive?” verse 1, United Methodist Hymnal #553)
Perhaps Charles Wesley’s question is especially appropriate for such a time as this. Often used as a way of gathering for Conference — whether Annual, Jurisdictional or General — the hymn is designed to be a way of celebrating both the uniting power of Christ and the covenant we share as members of one body, the church we call United Methodist.
What troubles have we seen,
What conflicts have we passed,
Fightings without, and fears within,
Since we assembled last. (verse 3)
It is an honest hymn, a confession that it has been, continues to be, always is a struggle to maintain the unity that Christ calls us to. But here we are. Still the church, still doing ministry, still engaged in the worship of God through Christ, still carrying on the social witness and transforming disciple-making that seeks to resemble the kin-dom that Christ proclaimed.
Let us take up the cross
Till we the crown obtain;
And gladly reckon all things loss,
So we may Jesus gain. (verse 6)
There is a call in this hymn, a reminder that no matter the institutional question that might surround us, there is a higher obedience and a larger proclamation to be made. Even while we sort out our current debates, we can lift our eyes to a wider horizon and continue to be at work in the vineyards of our Lord as we seek to serve, to bring to salvation and to welcome the outcast, to bind up the broken and feed the hungry. We are not waiting for decisions to be made before we can be the church. We are the church at work in the world. We can celebrate our heritage, our unique way of working and being as a part of the Wesleyan tradition and embrace what God has done and is doing through The United Methodist Church even today.
That is what is behind the People of God / #BeUMC campaign coordinated by United Methodist Communications (UMCom). Discipleship Ministries has chosen to contribute to the campaign by providing this four-week worship series. As with our Lectionary Worship Series, this is designed to be a seed planting for you to shape to fit your setting. We begin with planning notes to help you think about the worship service as a whole, with suggestions for the setting and the mood, visuals and other worship elements. Then there are preaching notes to give the preacher a head start on putting the themes and chosen texts into sermon order. We also include music notes to help with congregational or choir and ensemble singing, liturgical resources, and even suggestions for children, worship and small group tie-ins to the main theme. The graphics for this series come from UMCom and can be accessed here.
In addition to the selected texts, the series is guided by two elements from the People of God / #BeUMC campaign. The first is a series of words that help capture the essence of what it means to be a part of our tradition. These words are: Resilient, Committed, Faithful, Jesus-seeking, Connected, Spirit-filled, Deeply rooted, Missional, Disciple-making, World-changing, Diverse, Generous, Justice-seeking. The campaign features one of these words each month in 2022 and provides appropriate graphics and descriptions.
The second element borrowed from the campaign is the campaign's messaging, called “key messaging themes." These key themes are: 1. Disciple making; 2. Belonging and Inclusion, 3. Influence, Connection and Impact; and 4. Experience of God through The UMC. You can read a more complete explanation of the key messaging themes here.
For this series, we divided up the words and assigned them to different weeks. It is possible, however, to switch them around if you can make them fit in different ways. We provide suggestions and reasons for the chosen selections, but you might see different connections and are free to make them.
The four themes, however, are the framework for each week’s worship experience. While some may be more prominent than others, the intention is to let the four dimensions become the poles around which the sermon in particular, but also the whole worship service, is built. This means there will be some repetition, but that helps worshipers see the pattern and lean into the experience of the theme.
The General Rules of United Methodism form the other frame around which this series is built. These rules are both simple and profound. The simplicity is in the statement, the profundity is in the living out of each. What could be simpler than “Do Good”? Yet, what could be more complex than attempting to live that rule every day of one’s life? That is the call of the people called Methodist, however. This series is designed to help us celebrate how we do live that call as communities of faith around the world and to challenge us to go further, go deeper in our expression of faith in daily living.
As a companion to the rules, we set the guiding verse for the whole series as that famous statement from the prophet Micah, sometimes called the “great requirement” in Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” Do no harm, do good, and attend to the ordinances of God. Simple, yet profound.
But wait, there are three general rules, and it is a four-week series, how does that work? The series concludes with a reminder that while our arena of action may be our local communities, our vision is always to transform the world. Thus, the vision statement of The UMC is one of the texts we will use in week four, “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” as we recall that statement from the journal of our founder John Wesley, “I look upon all the world as my parish.”
We invite you to consider celebrating who we are as United Methodists and participate in the campaign to proclaim #BeUMC.
Week 1: The People of God Who Do No Harm
Core values: Resilient, Diverse, Justice-seeking
Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you. Do not quarrel with anyone without cause, when no harm has been done to you. (Proverbs 3:29-30 NRSV)
PLANNING & PREACHING NOTES
Week 2: The People of God Who Do Good
Core Values: Missional, Committed, Connected, Generous
And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 NRSV)
PLANNING & PREACHING NOTES
Week 3: The People of God Who Attend to the Ordinances of God
Core Values: Faithful, Spirit-filled, Deeply rooted
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. (1 John 5:1-4 NRSV)
PLANNING & PREACHING NOTES
Week 4: The People of God For Whom the World is Our Parish
Core Values: Jesus-seeking, Disciple-making, World-changing
In days to come the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:2-4 NRSV)