At the beginning of my first presentation at the Austin Graduate School of Theology, May 2014

Lord,
only you know what these servants give:
      the sacrifices they lay on your altar –
week after week, Sunday after Sunday,
      gifts of love, crafted of hard work.

I do know Lord,
these offerings are merely the public,
      the visible part of the iceberg –
floating atop their deep investment
      in the Word and life of the body.

And we all know Lord,
without solid foundations, the public
      is nothing more than a performance;
a stage show to impress with oratory skill,
      balancing on the empty shell of a ministry –
that will collapse.

So Lord,
I am honored to come and share time with these
      who give their lives to your work:
this marvelous, life-giving, and life-demanding work.

Good Lord,
help me say something constructive, generative,
      for strengthening weary foundations.
Help me present material – practical and useful,
      that sparks ideas for those sacrifices,
offering that indeed come week after week,
      this Sunday and the next, and the next.

Amen

Limited permission is granted for reuse of this prayer in worship or other venues. If printed in any form attribution must be given as "Glenn Pemberton, mosaicsite.org/glennpemberton." Special permission is required to print three or more of these prayers at one time in any form, print, electronic, etc., and must be secured by request at gdp05b@acu.edu.