God – Rev. Dr. Joseph McBrayer

Here are the Prayers of the People I offered in worship on Sunday January 25th, 2026 at Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Decatur, GA, USA.

God of love, compassion, and justice,

We thank you for people and technology that helps us to remain connected in the unity of worship today.

We ask that you would keep us safe and warm this day and help us to remember our un-housed neighbors and friends.

We pray for the many needs of our community and for all those on our prayer lists. At the church and for those we are remembering in our personal prayers today.

We come to you today with much on our minds and hearts as there is so much turmoil and animosity in our world.

We pray for all those experiencing violence in the world remembering the people of Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Venezuela, Ukraine, in our nation in Minneapolis, and here at home.

Keep us safe from harm and keep us safe from doing harm by our actions or inactions, by our words spoken or not spoken.

We lament the injustices of the world and in our own nation. We pray for the families and friends of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — whose lives should not have been ended.

We pray for little children and families who have been separated in ways that lessen their humanity and lessen our own humanity.

We pray too for the officers, political leaders, and all those who would use words and actions to justify or cause the inhuman treatment of people, citizens or not.

May your Spirit convict their hearts and minds -and ours -and help us all to see the humanity of others.

Teach us to lament the actions and language of violence and the Dehumanization of people who are made in your image. Help us to honor the dignity and worth of all people.

May we not grow cynical or numb to the realities of others and may you help us to not simply turn away because things are too difficult to look at —create in us clean hearts that seek understanding, honesty, and compassion.

May we not give in to the temptation to worship the idolatry of power, but, as Jesus teaches us, may we seek to care for the weak, the downtrodden, and the outcast as our actors of worship by loving our others and you O God.

Remind us that we are called to be part of the good in the world — help us to know that we are not alone and that together, we can work for your beloved community to be made here on earth as it is in heaven.

Help us to live into the prayer your son taught us, saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.

After having several (ongoing) conversations with many people who tend think that all modern christian music has bad theology, and is all fist-pumping, empty rhetoric (although some of it is)–I’ve decided to start posting up some music (some of my own acoustic versions) I’ve come across. I hope that these songs/hymns will be helpful to christians who are searching for songs and hymns that have deep meaning, good theology, and good musicality for various types of worship.

The first of these is “I Will Go” by Jon and Tim Neufield–two brothers in a Canadian band called Starfield. This song addresses the need for christians to understand and heed God’s call to minister with the poor, the oppressed, and the broken–“the ones the world has cast aside.” My favorite lines (perhaps one I most identify with) come in the second verse: “Let me not be blind with privilege/ give me eyes to see the pain/ Let the blessing you’ve poured out on me/ not be spent on me in vain/ let this life be used for change.”

This is an answer to the ever-present question of “what do you do with privilege?” In recognizing and using one’s privilege to help those who have none is what God calls us to do. God calls us to go and join the effort that God is already making in places of need and hurt. As Starfield articulates on their website:

“We are so privileged, yet we’re so dissatisfied with our lives no matter how well we’re doing”, lead singer Tim Neufeld says. “There’s always this underlying pressure to be doing better, when the exact opposite should be the case. The pressure and call on our lives should be to live with less and give away more.”

May we live our lives in ways that allow others to fully live.