About Worship
Worship at All Saints might look and feel a little different. We carefully and prayerfully select a worship theme each season, and we choose songs and liturgical elements that help communicate that theme and bring us closer to God and to one another.
All Saints Lutheran Church is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and participates in the Synod Authorized Ministry (SAM) program offered by the Southeastern Iowa Synod. Bishop Amy Current has authorized Wanda Barber, Matthew Reece, and Julie Schoville to be Synod Authorized Ministers able to preside over all worship services and offer pastoral care. The Synod provides training and instruction throughout the year and fully supports this program.
Seasonal Theme Write-Up
Written by Matthew Reece, Director of Music Ministries
Called to be disciples;
led by the light
For the season of Lent, the worship theme “Called to be disciples; led by the light” invites us into a journey of deepening faith and intentional following. Lent is a time to listen again for Jesus’ call: spoken beside the waters of baptism and echoed in every moment of repentance and renewal. As we walk with Christ through scripture, prayer, and worship, we encounter Jesus as the source of living water, meeting human thirst with grace that cannot be earned and love that does not run dry. In this season of honest reflection, we are reminded that discipleship is not about spiritual perfection but about trusting the promise of God’s mercy and allowing faith to shape how we live.
Led by the light of the world, we follow Jesus’ example of preaching good news, teaching with compassion, healing the broken, and drawing others into life-giving community. The light that guides us through Lent also exposes what needs healing within us and among us, calling us to lives marked by humility, courage, and hope. As disciples formed by grace, we are sent not only to believe but to embody Christ’s love: bearing light into places of shadow and offering living water to a thirsty world. This season prepares us to proclaim, with renewed clarity, that we are called, forgiven, and sent, led always by the light of Christ.
Altarscape
Thank you for creating the beautiful altarscape to emphasize the theme for the season Julie.
Color for the season
Lent: Purple is typically associated with Lent, suggesting repentance and solemnity.
Wednesday, February 18th – Ash Wednesday Worship
Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of the season of Lent in the church year. There is an Ash Wednesday worship service today at 7 pm.
This link will open the congregational text for the Ash Wednesday Worship Service.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dkizk1fZ59EQAg9HxP8GUYil6cqicmfj/view?usp=sharing
Ash Wednesday Introduction
On Ash Wednesday we begin our forty-day journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. Marking our foreheads with dust, we acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving cross indelibly marked on our foreheads at baptism. While we journey through Lent to return to God, we have already been reconciled to God through Christ. We humbly pray for God to make our hearts clean while we rejoice that “now is the day of salvation.” Returning to our baptismal call, we more intentionally bear the fruits of mercy and justice in the world.
Ash Wednesday Prayer of the Day
Gracious God, out of your love and mercy you breathed into dust the breath of life, creating us to serve you and our neighbors. Call forth our prayers and acts of kindness, and strengthen us to face our mortality with confidence in the mercy of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Ash Wednesday Scripture Readings
Isaiah 58:1-12 – The fast that God chooses
Shortly after the return of Israel from exile in Babylon, the people were troubled by the ineffectiveness of their fasts. God reminds them that outward observance is no substitute for genuine fasting that results in acts of justice, such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and clothing the naked. Sincere repentance will lead to a dramatic improvement of their condition.
Psalm 51:1-17 – Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. (Ps. 51:1)
2 Corinthians 5:20b — 6:10 – Now is the day of salvation
The ministry of the gospel endures many challenges and hardships. Through this ministry, God’s reconciling activity in the death of Christ reaches into the depths of our lives to bring us into a right relationship with God. In this way, God accepts us into the reality of divine salvation.
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 – The practice of faith
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commends almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, but emphasizes that spiritual devotion must not be done for show.
Sunday, February 22nd – First Sunday in Lent
Ardor (Worship Musicians)
The musicians rehearse from 9:00 to 9:45 am every Sunday morning. You are invited to join us in leading music during the worship service. The musicians for worship can find the service orders and music in the crate on the back pew in the sanctuary for each week. Contact the Director of Music Ministries or the church office if you plan to help lead worship.
This link will open the congregational text for the Sunday worship services (02.22.2026 – 03.22.2026).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pLVxwrZWlWxp0vYDk7iAIlNUnvZ00Rro/view?usp=sharing
Introduction
Today’s gospel tells of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. His forty-day fast becomes the basis of our Lenten pilgrimage. In the early church Lent was a time of intense preparation for those to be baptized at the Easter Vigil. This catechetical focus on the meaning of faith is at the heart of our Lenten journey to the baptismal waters of Easter. Hungry for God’s mercy, we receive the bread of life to nourish us for the days ahead.
Prayer of the Day
Lord God, our strength, the struggle between good and evil rages within and around us, and the devil and all the forces that defy you tempt us with empty promises. Keep us steadfast in your word, and when we fall, raise us again and restore us through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Scripture
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 – Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
Human beings were formed with great care, to be in relationship with the creator, creation, and one another. The serpent’s promise to the first couple that their eyes would be opened led, ironically, to the discovery only that they were naked.
Psalm 32 – Mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord. (Ps. 32:10)
Romans 5:12-19 – Death came through one; life comes through one
Through Adam’s disobedience, humanity came under bondage to sin and death, from which we cannot free ourselves. In Christ’s obedient death, God graciously showers on us the free gift of liberation and life.
Matthew 4:1-11 – The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness for forty days
Jesus experiences anew the temptations that Israel faced in the wilderness. As the Son of God, he endures the testing of the evil one.
Fellowship Time
After worship there is time for refreshments and fellowship in the gathering space.