MARRIAGE ENRICHMENT SUNDAY

MUSIC & WORSHIP RESOURCES

Sunday, March 21, 2010

W. Patrick Alston, Sr., Lectionary Team Liturgist

Worship Planning Notes

This service should not be used as a “renewing of vows” ceremony for individual couples, but as a reaffirmation of love and marriage by all couples and by your church. Have your pastors prepare litanies and prayers of reaffirmation for couples.

The following are suggestions to aid your church in celebrating Marriage Enrichment Sunday:

• Have special seating for married couples of the church so that they can sit together during the service. Have a processional of the couples at the beginning of the service.

• Have your media ministry prepare pictures of the couples in your church. These pictures should be taken at least two weeks prior to your Marriage Enrichment service.

• Prior to your Marriage Enrichment service, hold workshops on how couples can strengthen their marriages. These should take the place of Bible Study and Sunday School classes.

• Honor the elders. Have the couple that has been married the longest to participate in the service through testimony, words of wisdom, or a special prayer for newly married couples.

1. Invocation
Many have gathered here in the sight of God, and in front of this congregation, to be joined together in holy marriage; which is commended in the Scriptures as honorable; and therefore not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of God.

All who are joined in marriage will answer at the coming day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. So, Lord we pray forgive us our secret marital sins.

Of the world’s three great institutions – the home, the church, and the state - the home is the oldest and it is sacred. God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of persons in covenantal commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church, and to provide for each couple in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel for sexual expression and the means for the advancement of the human race.

Each partner in a marriage is of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to God’s people. Each spouse is to love the other as Christ loved His church. And to give of themselves to one another totally and freely as Christ gave of himself for the church.

In marriage, no one is to be ruled over or trampled upon. But instead the couple, made one by marriage, is to submit themselves to one another, nurture each other’s dreams and faithfully commit to one another in sickness and in health, in poverty and in richness, in good times and in bad, so long as they both shall live. 

The marriage relationship is sacred when it is that of “two souls with a single thought … two hearts that beat as one.” It is the blending of two lives. We pray that all couples will be blended. Lord strengthen our belief in marriage, strengthen all marriages, those old and those new, and strengthen the Black family. Amen.

2. Hymns and Congregational Songs
(a) Oh to Be Kept. By Thurston Frazier

(b) Lord Prepare Me to Be a Sanctuary. By John Thompson and Randy Scruggs

(c) Sanctify Me. By V. Michael McKay

(d) I Would Be True. By Howard A Walter. Tune, (PEEK), by Joseph Y. Peek

3. Spirituals or Traditional Songs
(a) Done Made My Vow. Arr. by Nolan Williams, Jr.

(b) You Must Have That True Religion. By Roland Carter

4. Gospel Songs for Choirs, Ensembles, or Praise Teams
(a) You’re All I Need. By Jason Clayborn

(b) What a Fellowship. By Elisha Hoffman. Tune, (SHOWALTER), by Anthony
Showalter. Arr. by Albert Goodson

(c) I Need You to Survive. By David Frazier

(d) I Don’t Mind Waiting. By Juanita Bynum

5. Liturgical Dance Music
(a) The Family. By Donald Lawrence

(b) Be Grateful. By Walter Hawkins

6. Anthem
O For a Faith. Arr. by Nathan Carter. For SATB Choir

7. Modern Songs
(a) One Night with the King. By Jeannie Tenney

(b) Souled Out. By Estee Bullock and Nate McNair

(c) God Favored Me. By Jules Barthowlomew

8. Song or Instrumental for the Offertory Period
(a) The Bridegroom Cometh. By Carl White, Jr.

(b) I’m Yours Lord. By Ethel Holloway

(c) Favor. By Vashawn Mitchell

9. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer
(a) We Are One. By Peter Scholtes and Walt Whitman

(b) We Are One. By Timothy Wright. Arr. by Valeria Foster

(c) Kept by God. By DeAndre Patterson

10. Sermonic Selection
(a) Safe in His Arms. By Darius Brooks

(b) See Us Through. Writer Unknown

(c) More Than Wonderful. By Lanny Wolfe

(d) Flesh of My Flesh. By Leon Patillo

11. Invitational Song or Instrumental
(a) Come Unto Jesus. By Charles Nicks

(b) Down at the Altar. By Joe Pace

12. Benediction Song or Instrumental
(a) Always Remember. By Andraé Crouch

(b) Seeker of Your Heart. By Larnell Harris, Sandi Patti, and Steve Green

13. Audio Visual Suggestion
The pictures of couples in your church can be viewed as a slide presentation at some point during the service, or at the end of the service. See the cultural resource unit for Marriage Enrichment Sunday for additional ideas.

Cites and Additional Information for Music and Material Listed

1. Invocation
This invocation was developed by The African American Lectionary Liturgical Team.