8/30 - The Wesleyan Way of Evangelism

Church Family, 

This Sunday, our worship brings our Evangelism series to its final movement, not with a strategy or program, but with a way of life. Jesus tells us that the heart of our faith is love: to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the Wesleyan tradition, we understand that love as a movement of grace. God’s grace awakens us, forms us, and then moves us into the world. Our music will carry that movement from the first note to the final sending.

Opening Hymn: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing - Love Awakens
We begin with Charles Wesley’s exuberant proclamation of what happens when God’s grace awakens the human heart. We do not begin evangelism with a sales pitch or a perfect answer. We begin with praise. The God who has loved us first gives us something worth singing about.
As we sing verses 1, 2, 3, and 5, notice the movement. Praise becomes proclamation, proclamation becomes transformation, and transformation becomes invitation. We are not simply singing about evangelism. We are asking God to give us the courage and grace to proclaim Christ through the lives we live.
Centering Song: You Are Welcome Here - Love Forms
Having awakened to God’s love, we allow that love to form us. You Are Welcome Here turns our attention from what we believe to how we embody the welcome of Christ.
As we sing, imagine the people who will cross our paths this week: the neighbor who feels forgotten, the person who wonders whether there is a place for them, or the stranger who is not sure they belong. We sing not merely as a congregation welcoming one another, but as people being formed into a community where God’s welcome becomes our welcome.
Choir: 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) - Love God
The heart of evangelism is not simply getting people into church. It is falling so deeply in love with God that praise naturally spills over into every part of our lives. 10,000 Reasons gives voice to that posture: Bless the Lord.
As the choir sings, let the congregation listen as worshipers, not spectators. Let the song remind us that before we can invite others into a relationship with God, we ourselves must continually return to the One who gives us every reason to sing.
Sending Hymn: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - Love Moves → Live Love
Finally, we are sent. Charles Wesley’s Love Divine, All Loves Excelling is more than a beautiful closing hymn. It is a prayer for God’s perfecting love to take hold of us. We leave worship asking not simply to know God’s love, but to be formed by it and filled with it until that love is visible in the way we live.
The service begins with O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing and ends with Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. We begin by finding our voice in God’s grace and end by offering our whole lives to God’s transforming love.
The Movement of Worship?
Love Awakens: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
Love Forms: You Are Welcome Here
Love God: 10,000 Reasons
Love Moves: Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
This is The Wesleyan Way of Evangelism: God’s grace awakens us. God’s love forms us. God’s Spirit moves us. We love God. We love our neighbor. We live love.
And when we leave the sanctuary, the worship does not end. It becomes our witness.
With Love

Music Tom

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