Together

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, October 25, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

Author/Professor Amy Peeler is often asked-

“Are there any verses in the Bible that explicitly tell us to go to church?”

She says, "students have raised this question several times in her classroom, and rarely is there an occasion where the answer is so straightforward. Hebrews 10:25 is just that verse: 'And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

"The injunction is clear: do not neglect to meet together. The author of Hebrews will allow for no 'bedside Baptists,' for no mentality that loves Jesus, but can live without His church."

I am inviting you to anticipate the call; do not neglect to meet together!As we worship in church on Sunday, we’ll experience the proof that we are better together!

Invite your friends, or someone who you wish were, to Gospel Sunday!

Yes, in anticipation -

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No Show; No Go!

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, October 18, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever heard the expression, “the proof is in the pudding?” I often wondered what that expression meant as a child. Is it that the pudding will actually be pudding? That it is nutritious for us? That it will taste delicious? I must admit I had to ask ChatGPT on my smartphone to remind me it’s origin.
 
The earliest printed version appears in William Camden’s 1605 work Remaines Concerning Britaine, which notes the line: "All the proofe of a pudding is in the eating." Centuries ago, "pudding" didn’t refer to the sweet, creamy dessert eaten with a spoon today. Instead, it referred to a savory, sausage-like dish made by stuffing seasoned minced meats, blood, cereal, and fat into animal intestines or a skin, then boiling it. YUCK!
 
Because of early cooking methods and lack of modern refrigeration, you couldn't tell if the meat inside was safe, fresh, or properly cooked just by looking at it. The only reliable way to test if it turned out right—the true "proof"—was to cut into it and eat it.
 
This Sunday we examine again the book of James to hear this author’s take on “the proof is in the pudding.” Is faith just formulas or creeds? Is faith without works really faith? How does one show evidence of our faith?
 
Come Sunday with your spoons ready, and let’s taste and see!
 
- Steven

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Love Who?

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, October 11, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

When asked to comment on the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Dr. King replied, “I imagine that the first question the priest and Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But by the very nature of his concern, the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

This seems to capture an essence of the parable Jesus taught to illustrate love of neighbor.

So much energy is spent on “What about me? What about mine?” And I’m not just talkin’ stuff. Let’s talk speech, safety, health, housing, access – essentials that enable us to live with purpose and dignity. Then to share those things to allow others the same opportunities.

Who is the Samaritan today? Depends, of course, on who you ask.

Let’s ask Jesus.

Keep out your rain gear and paddle to worship this Sunday. 

In great anticipation –

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The Return to Nazareth

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, October 4, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

"The church's witness must join proclamation and embodied love."

This statement is from the class that Elizabeth Killen is teaching on Sunday mornings – The Gospel for the Whole of Life. The study will take us into November. I thought a sermon series would be a wonderful opportunity to accompany the teachings – using common themes but with the different perspectives of classroom and sanctuary.

This first Sunday is "The Return to Nazareth" on Luke 4:16-21. Jesus has been busy, calling disciples, healing, and teaching, and he returns home for the formal announcement, the fulfillment of Isaiah, owning who he is – Mary’s boy, carpenter, Messiah. Not everyone takes this claim as good news!

Let’s engage this pivotal moment together. We’ll pray, sing, share Supper this World Communion Sunday, and be strengthened and positioned for God’s grace.

In anticipation,

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That's Who I Am

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, September 27, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

I love it (I think) when we get to engage one of the most familiar texts in scripture. Jonah inspires conversation, wonder, skepticism – the opportunity to move beyond fisherman’s tales, beyond what one can land in the boat, to how one can land in petulance or grace.

Which ‘bait’ will we take? Many lures before us, but only one that promises great power (the love of Jesus) and eternal life. Whoa!

See you Sunday –

Best love,  

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Something to Hope For

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, September 20, 2026

With everything that is going on around us, it's easy to shut down. It's easy to stop believing in the people around us and to even stop believing in ourselves.

Let's get together on Sunday and find a path towards the hope we can all have.

- Ken Carrington

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This is the end of a 3-part sermon series focused on the grand essentials of happiness: Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for.

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Homecoming Sunday: Someone to Love

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, September 13, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

Everyone Needs Someone to Love (and a place to belong!)

Alexander Chalmers, along with G.K. Chesterton and others, credited with articulating a phrase that has been the inspiration for sermons, sermon series, graduation cards and graduation addresses. He is said to have written "The three grand essentials of happiness are: Something to do, someone to love, and something to hope for."

Whatever the catalyst was for this statement, the world can be grateful. But more to the point, the church can be grateful. With this phrase, yearnings are expressed that are common to most people, but, yes, essential to us who would follow Jesus.  

There are a plethora of books and articles that speak to the importance of purposeful work, community and affection, and this Sunday we are engaging one of Jesus’ best known and often preached parables that speaks to yearnings, but more importantly to non-transactional love, forgiveness and costly, sweet reconciliation.

Homecoming Sunday – invite your homies, check on those you haven’t seen for a while, recruit the ones you want to know better and who you want to know you better as a follower of Jesus – our and the world’s – only hope! Come worship and share a meal.

In anticipation –

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Something to Do!

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, September 6, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

The British theologian G. K. Chesterton writes about the joy of God's unending act of creation in his great book Orthodoxy. He muses that God says to the rising sun every morning, "do it again!" And so when our work may involve seemingly endless routine, we need to find the joy that lurks beneath even the most menial tasks.

He suggested, “if an ode can be written for a Grecian urn, then perhaps every widget is a wonder. Just because miracles happen every day doesn't mean they are no longer miracles.” And “angels are able to fly because they take themselves lightly." :)

He is also one of a couple of authors to whom the title of this series is ascribed...

“Grand Essentials of Happiness – Everyone Needs Something to Do, Something to Hope For, Someone to Love."

Monday is Labor Day... this Sunday, let’s look at what we get to do!

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A Blueprint for Expansion

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 30, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

There is a theme offered the last couple of weeks here at Second Church – one of inclusion, but more than just allowing and accepting those who may have been thought unwelcome or unworthy elsewhere, we’ve looked at expanding the table – providing a place for everyone and pulling up more chairs! .

How is that possible? Well the Apostle Paul doesn’t leave the people to whom he writes without direction. Our lection begins – “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good. …Be tenderly affectionate one to another.”

How’s that for a start? Nonambiguous. Then Paul continues with clear, succinct exhortation. If there is confusion, it is ours.

How wonderful! Can anyone measure up? (shhh - We’ll talk about Dolly.)

In anticipation,

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Adding More Chairs

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 23, 2026

In our house when I was growing up, my parents had an old dining room table they purchased when married that still functioned as our formal table for the holidays. When I was very young, I remember being astonished that the table seemed to “magically” grow at Thanksgiving and Christmas. How did that little table with four people around it expand to seat eight or ten? As you know, it was not magic, but leaves that can be inserted into the middle to make room for more people.
 
Last week we heard an encouraging word from Cress about the need according to God’s grace to keep expanding the “Welcome Table.” There should always be room for family and guests alike. However, most churches with declining membership, and apathy among those who do attend, find little problem with space limitations as rows of pews remain vacant on Sundays. But having chairs ready to welcome and meet the needs of God’s beloved is another story entirely!
 
You see, chairs require people - people with needs, people maybe not familiar with our church lexicon and traditions, but people who are indeed gifted by God’s spirit, people ready to serve, people who are seen as family not simply guests intruding on the dinner.
 
This Sunday we will be in conversation about not only expanding the table, but adding “working” chairs as well. Hope you will come and take your seat ready to eat.
 
See you Sunday,
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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Expanding the Table

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 16, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

In our text this Sunday Jesus has left the familiar environs in which much of his story has taken place and travels to the region of Tyre and Sidon, lands that were populated mainly by non-Israelites.

The road is dusty, they’re tired, they stop for lunch. They had no longer sat down when a foreign woman spies them and runs up to Jesus shouting ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David – my daughter is tormented by a demon.’

Jesus ignores her! The disciples gather, ‘Send her away. She keeps shouting after us!’

This develops into an unsettling episode that touches on the Jewish laws of exclusion and what appears to be a narrow understanding by our Lord of the scope of his mission.

The woman won’t be denied. She kneels. She cajoles. She endures insult to access the only power that could save her daughter.

We gather in worship to access the only power that will save us and God’s world created good gone awry. Come as we position ourselves for grace.

In great anticipation –

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Hand Towel Theology

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 9, 2026

Dear Friends in Christ –

The last three weeks you’ve experienced wonderful preaching by three very different pulpiteers. Ken, Steven and Becky each have special voices through which they brought God’s word on humility, engagement, and God’s abundance.

This Sunday I’m recounting a familiar episode I’ve offered to you when Rebecca and I first arrived that I believe has particular and timely resonance for these days.

We were looking for a gift for Rev. Lana Russell who actually delivered a message at my ordination. She’d just accepted a call and had moved to Michigan. We wanted to send a housewarming gift.

Lana and I are both from Texas and may exhibit a frontier sense of humor, a Lone Star look at theology. We stopped by this Christian gift shop and there in the midst of pottery, vases, linens and cards was a rack of dishtowels – you know the kind that you might hang near the cabinet – but that you may or may not ever use. This one towel had three phrases, brief declarations, three brief statements that I want to hold before you –

• Hell is hot,

• time is short, and

• stakes are high.

As our planet bakes and our lives race by, we are struck with the urgency of our witness to the only power that can repair the breach of this moment – the love of Jesus.

See you in worship. Invite a friend (or someone who you wish were :)

Glad to be back!

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The Abundance of Scarcity

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, August 2, 2026

Our guest preacher this Sunday, Rev. Becky Albright, is on staff at Charleston Atlantic Presbytery serving as General Presbyter and Pastor to Pastors. Previously, Becky was an Associate Pastor at First Presbyterian Church, Beaufort, SC. She received a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree from Winthrop University and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte, NC.

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From Ordinary to the Extraordinary

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

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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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