worship at upRising
what are worship services like?
Worship is the heart of our community. Every week we gather to share the Good News of God’s unconditional love for all creation. Every week we remember and celebrate God’s promises fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Our congregation is rather evenly divided among people from Baptist, Catholic, mainline Protestant, or Pentecostal traditions. We work hard to create worship services that are relevant, reverent, and uniquely MCC while still offering people liturgies, ritual, and music that they value from those traditions. On any given Sunday you might sing a hymn you remember singing in your grandparents’ church, hear a sermon that weaves together ancient texts and current events, and clap along to a contemporary praise song accompanied by drums and guitar. Several times a year you’ll experience services that are uniquely MCC Austin, like Fat Sunday or our summertime Bible on Broadway series.
Every time we worship, we gather at the communion table. We find inspiration in the reminders of Jesus’ life and teachings, and hope in the assurance of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. The Presider offers an invitation to all present, then shares the words that we believe Jesus spoke at his last meal with his disciples. After that, the Presider states that at MCC Austin, like at MCC Churches all over the world, you do not have to be a member of this church or any church to share the communion meal. You may come to the table by yourself or with friends or family, and you will be offered a communion wafer dipped into grape juice along with a brief blessing.
who taught you to pray?
Someone may have taught you prayers like “Now I lay me down to sleep” when you were a child, but beyond that, it’s possible no one else taught you to pray.
For most of us, what we have learned about prayer comes from hearing others pray. And because we aren’t often invited to listen in on private prayers, many of us learned to pray from prayers we hear in church.
Richard Rohr, spiritual guide and author, tells us plainly, “When the church is no longer teaching the people how to pray, we could almost say it will have lost its reason for existence.”
During our worship services, the person serving as the Intercessor offers both the Community Prayer and a Prayer of Thanksgiving after we have received the offering. During communion and then again after the service, our Deacons are available for personal prayer or anointing. Anyone who would like to is welcome to ask the Deacons for prayer.
We also invite you to write your prayers in our Prayer Book prior to the service if you would like to. The Prayer Book is brought into the sanctuary prior to the service and placed on the Communion Table so that the prayers written there are symbolically included in the Community Prayer. You are also invited to write your prayers on the back of your Connection Card. When you write your prayer concerns on the card, the Deacons and Pastors pray with you and for you throughout the week.
We have a prayer wall at the rear of our sanctuary where you can write your prayers on strips of paper and place them in the wall.
You can also call the office at 512-291-8601 if you are in need of prayer. Your call will be returned within 24 hours.
COMING SOON…
listen to past sunday sermons
Sept. 3 — The Sermon on the Mount: Prayer and Fasting
Sept. 10 – The Sermon on the Mount: Don’t Worry
Sept. 17 — Sermon on the Mount: Do Not Judge
listen to archived sermons here
“Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter.
Week after week, we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens.
Week after week Christ washes the disciples’ dirty feet, handles their very toes, and repeats, ‘It is all right, believe it or not, to be people.'”
– Annie Dillard
