From Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, July 26, 2026

One of our families’ favorite things to do during these summer months is to head to one of our coastal beaches and search the shoreline for beautiful shells, fossilized shark teeth, and lost trinkets hidden in the sand. When my dad was living, he even brought along his handy dandy metal detector in hopes of discovering some historic artifact or precious jewelry left behind from a tourist.
 
In a moment of frivolity not long before my dad got sick, we played a wonderful, but horrible trick on my mother. We hid my sister-in law’s beautiful diamond ring in the sand ahead and gave the treasure-finding wand to my mom. In about fifty feet, the screech of that metal detector began blaring, and mom was so excited. What had she found she wondered – maybe a bottle cap, a nickel, or maybe something really valuable. As she dug with her shovel, she screamed to highest heaven… “Look, look what I found!” My dad was the one who broke the news that the ring was actually my sister-in-law’s. (I am sure they didn’t talk the entire way home.)
 
This Sunday we will discover the priceless joy of the Kingdom of Heaven as Jesus describes in Matthew 13. But this time it won’t be a cruel practical joke. It will be the real deal – treasure beyond our greatest imagination.
 
Hope to see you Sunday… and you can leave the metal detector at home! :)

- Steven

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Rev. Steven Baines is a Charleston native who currently serves as our church administer after 25 years in our nation’s capital. He served as executive minister at National City Christian Church, the “national cathedral” of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He has also held senior leadership positions at national civil rights organizations including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and People for the American Way.

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The Last Shall Be First

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, July 19, 2026

What if the path to true greatness is the exact opposite of what the world teaches? The Bible reveals that those who humble themselves before God are the ones God ultimately lifts up.

Join us on Sunday as we examine a place for humility in our modern world.

-Ken Carrington

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Believing In, Believing, Trusting

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, July 12, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –
 

"And God took Abram outside and said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.' Then God said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Abram believed the Lord, and God credited it to him as righteousness"
(Genesis 15:5-6 NRSV)

The King James version reads, “Abram believed in the Lord…”

Over millennia this phrase has shaped three major faiths. Some have come to group them together into the Abrahamic faiths – Jewish, Christian and Muslim – contending that they all witness to the same God. But do they? Perhaps to the novel notion of a monotheistic God, but they exhibit a different way of expressing the relationship. As followers of Jesus, we look to the words of Paul who in Romans suggested “a more excellent way” – the way of love revealed in the teaching and the life of Jesus.

This Sunday we look at this Genesis text from 3000 years ago as a catalyst to live into our own faith in God’s promises – promises that we must believe, that we must live into, if we are to be authentic followers of Jesus the Christ.

Invite you friends. Stop by. Tune in. Let’s be the church navigating these new waters for and with Jesus.

In anticipation –

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The Pursuit of Happiness?

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, July 5, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

As I was growing up in Texas, I knew one thing- I wanted to be a cowboy. For me, of course, that meant riding a handsome horse, strumming three chord guitar tunes, and wearing boots with ‘dogger’ heels – not the work of herding and branding cattle.  

Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were the most popular singing cowboys, but it was the crooner, Bing Crosby who first recorded what came to be known as the Anthem of the West – "Home on the Range" (which was said to be President Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite song).

My favorite lyrics were, “Where never is heard a discouraging word and the sky is not cloudy all day.”

Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But even the mythic range the song speaks to is riven these days with conflict over water, grazing rights and market forces. Perhaps there is no place we are safe from discouraging words, so it’s all the more wonderful to find encouragement as we do at the end of our text this Sunday:   ‘...rejoice that your names are written in heaven!’ (Luke 10:20).

I know many folks are out of town or looking to enjoy the long weekend with no distractions (meaning real clothes and church), but don’t deny yourself the joy we know in gathering, singing, positioned for God’s grace. Invite whomever is left – we are all to be evangelists!

See you in worship!

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Forgiving – Forgiven – Forgiveness

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, June 28, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

This Sunday we look at forgiving. Or is it forgiveness? Or forgiven-ness? Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts that we as people of faith are called to deal with. We are supposed to forgive… and forgive… and forgive. But what if something has happened that is unforgivable. Is there such a thing for us?

There is so much to consider surrounding forgiving and forgiveness and forgiven-ness!

First of all community without forgiveness is impossible. As believers, we are called “to settle our disputes with each other” (2 Cor. 5:18). We need to consistently forgive others and receive forgiveness from others or we’ll “give up in despair" (2 Cor. 2:7).

Whenever we are hurt by someone, we have a choice: will we focus on retaliation or resolution? The Bible minces no words about settling the score: “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always tries to be kind to each other – and everyone else” (I Thess. 5:15). But in God’s economy that isn’t enough. We have to press into the very heart of the matter – “forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

(Invite someone you need to forgive or from whom you need forgiveness!)
 
See you in worship!

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Supporting Each Other

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, June 21, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

This week we take seriously the requirement discussed last week that We Support Each Other! The way we communicate to and with each other – the words we use, and the way in which we convey them, must demonstrate to each other (and, therefore, will demonstrate to the world) our intention to support each other.   

As we seek the ways we can support one another, it might be helpful to remember that the word support literally means, “to lend strength to.” 

We find strength in places that are supportive, places where it’s safe to be ourselves.  

So – come to worship Jesus!

In great anticipation, 

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Accepting Each Other

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, June 14, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

A few years ago we invited Stan Ott, a church consultant, to join us for a weekend. One of the takeaways from that time was this: We must be the people of God before we attempt to do the work of the people of God.

One can stand at a distance and chuckle – of course! But I think many of us fall into a trap, a no win situation. We see what’s happening in the broader church where statistics don’t paint a positive picture. We are aware of the shifting loyalties, patterns of behavior, what appears to be waning commitment to the ‘church’ as we have known.

And while we don’t shield our eyes from what’s right before us, we need to - with eyes wide open - look deeper and beneath the surface. If we look with compassion at people’s lives today we see health issues, soccer weekends, family caregivers, multiple jobs. We see that lives are different and that yesterday’s norm is not today’s.

Dear friends, we have an opportunity to be a part of and live into Jesus’ new creation. We will spend the coming Sundays exploring what it means to be the people of God. We will accept each other, build each other up, come to know what it means to forgive, and allow ourselves to be forgiven with humility modeled by our Christ.

What is in the way of your marriage, your friends, your work, your aspirations? By becoming the people of God we will be set free to partner in God’s work which is our destiny (and our joy!). 

In great anticipation –

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I Desire Mercy

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, June 7, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

Cleo La Rue was my professor of homiletics at seminary. He was the first Black tenured professor in the department. He was from south Texas, played stride piano and was unflinching in his criticism and lavish in his praise – in other words – perfect.

He writes in his commentary on this section of Matthew, “Jesus typically calls busy folks. He was not known for recruiting lollygaggers.” In these short verses we have:

• a vocational-180 – detested tax collector to disciple,

• a restoration – an ‘unclean woman’ restored to wholeness,

• a resurrection – a dead child brought back to life. 

What do these episodes tell us about Jesus? Various people shown mercy  - all sick or perceived as sinful, healed by Jesus, restored to new possibilities for living in wholeness and purpose.

We are in ‘ordinary time’ – a long stretch to engage the life and work of our Lord that starts this Sunday at the table – our Lord’s.

Here's your chance for perfect attendance post Memorial Day!

In anticipation –

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Above, Beneath, Within

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, May 31, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

This is the only day of the year that calls us to ponder a teaching of the church rather than a teaching of Jesus. Although this mystery of God revealed in three ways is the core belief of Christianity, we struggle to explain it. Monotheistic Christians do back flips explaining why such a belief in the triune God doesn't make them polytheists!

Well, Sunday we won’t be exegeting doctrine. We’ll be savoring the multifaceted nature of our God - creative, redemptive and sustaining - all of which we will need to employ if we are to be the radical, loving, transforming agents our God is calling us to be.

• We’ll celebrate graduations and student accomplishments.

• We’ll ordain and install the new officers called by God and elected by you.

• It’s Gospel Sunday – we welcome Grace Ramsey back!

The beginning of summer – its cool in God’s house! Invite someone you love. Take a moment to position yourself for grace!

In anticipation –

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A Mighty Wind

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, May 24, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

As of this coming Monday we will have entered ‘Ordinary Time’ – meaning that it is neither festival nor penance, but ‘ordered’, numbered, the in-between time within which most of our life is lived.

I usually comment that all time spent in service to and under the call of the Christ is extra-ordinary. This year is no exception.

Our scripture tells of the Spirit of God, the promised Spirit. The same Spirit that hovered above the deep, above Mary, and lighted upon Jesus at his baptism. The rushing of this Spirit sounding like a mighty wind bringing the word, a blessing, our advocate. This occurs as disciples are gathered together. {Hint}

In anticipation –

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Mysterious vs. Miraculous

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, May 17, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

Traditionally, on the 40th day after Easter, the church celebrates the feast of the Ascension. But rather than a midweek service, it’s commonly celebrated by the church, if at all, on the first Sunday after.

It only appears in the Gospel of Luke and The Acts of the Apostles written by the same author. The accounts are addressed to a character named Theopholus which is Greek for ‘lover of God’. Thereby penned for us as well.

Is Luke describing miracle, or leading us into a mystery? Has the incarnate set aside humanity to enable God’s ubiquity? The crux is this:

We are not orphaned. We are entrusted to do that for which we were created.

Where Jesus goes we are invited to follow—not by levitation or climbing, but by becoming…like Jesus.

Come be positioned –

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Fully Equipped

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, May 10, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul details how God has brought a fractured and fragmented world to the path that leads to unity. How, before the planets, the stars, and the seas were formed, it was intended that God would walk with us in our humanity. The path that is offered is through faith in Jesus the Christ, and it is the church’s task and the church’s privilege to proclaim this message to all the world.

We start Sunday. We welcome new members. Is there someone you haven’t seen of late? Tell them to meet you at 10:30!

In anticipation –

This Sunday we welcome new members Whitney Connell and Carla Davis.

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Where Are We Going?

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, May 3, 2026

As Jesus is giving his final instruction to his disciples on the night before his death, he leaves intimate instructions for his closest followers.

The reading for this Sunday focuses on the relationship Jesus has established with this new community and the strength they will find in and through each other.

When Thomas asks, “how can we know the way,” Jesus comforts their troubled heart (singular) by reassuring them they already know the way because Jesus has embodied the fullness of God.

Jesus proclaims, “I am the way!”

- Steven

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 Rev. Steven Baines is a Charleston native who currently serves as our church administer after 25 years in our nation’s capital. He served as executive minister at National City Christian Church, the “national cathedral” of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He has also held senior leadership positions at national civil rights organizations including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and People for the American Way.

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Click here to view all Second Presbyterian Church videos. Find upcoming events and announcements here.

You Aren’t Who You Think You Are

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, April 26, 2026

Dear Friends in Jesus –

When we think about ourselves, most of us think that our selves are the result of what we have managed to make of our lives. That my self is whatever I have chosen, worked, decided, lived through and strived to be.

The Bible has a very different take on who we are. Who we are, says scripture, is not what we put together for ourselves, but what God has put together in us. Scripture says less of our earnest search for God; rather more typical of the Bible is to assert God's search for us.

May we be found… in worship on Sunday!
 
In anticipation, 

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We Had Hoped...

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, April 19, 2026

Dear Friends in Jesus –

This Sunday Luke continues the narrative of Christ’s resurrection in a way that resonates today. It resonates in opposition to tweets, texts and Instagram. Luke tells of a face to face encounter on the road. There follows discussion/conversation among the travelers. This leads to a connection resulting in an invitation to share a meal. In the sharing of the meal there is discovery of the one who said he would rise! And that discovery mandates action – those who have seen are compelled to proclaim and share what they have witnessed – Jesus is alive!  

In this age of internet chatter, fast food, and isolation, the 2000 year old narrative points us toward real fellowship, face to face discourse, rampant hospitality and joyful witness.
 
Join me Sunday and let’s live it!

In anticipation,

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