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Defined: Who God Says You Are by Stephen Kendrick and Alex Kendrick
“Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ”
LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - Please fill out a contact card to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing and to let us know you worshiped with us in person today even if you are a member. If you’re a visitor, online or in person, and would like more information please feel free to fill out a card or email Pastor Cress.
Second Presbyterian is a church community where you will be known and nurtured. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here. Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here.
And get connected! Join a small group here. While we may be practicing social distancing these days, there are still ways to be involved and to offer your time, talents, and resources in service to others. Please reach out to our Director of Community and Communications Jordyn Pritchard to get connected.
Dear Friends in Christ –
According to the church calendar, we have entered “common time,” for which the liturgical color is green, indicating a time for study and growth. But I believe, you know, that all time is particular and precious because of God’s ubiquitous and inexhaustible love.
One cannot deny that these times are particular. One cannot deny that these times are, yes, unprecedented as we witness previously unimaginable attacks on our democratic institutions, our health systems, our civility, on our capacity for compassion and mutual respect. We, here, look to navigating God’s world through being attentive to God’s word.
This Sunday we’ll imagine together the radical call of Jesus on our lives. What does it mean to follow? What would it take for you to lay down your pen, your hammer, your chalk, your soufflé pan, your car keys, your smart phone, your attitude and… follow Jesus?
As Maya Angelou wrote, "love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." May we be the conduits of a love that will penetrate this present darkness. Let’s gather and be made fit.
See you in worship –
“Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ”
LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - Please fill out a contact card to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing and to let us know you worshiped with us in person today even if you are a member. If you’re a visitor, online or in person, and would like more information please feel free to fill out a card or email Pastor Cress.
Second Presbyterian is a church community where you will be known and nurtured. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here. Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here.
And get connected! Join a small group here. While we may be practicing social distancing these days, there are still ways to be involved and to offer your time, talents, and resources in service to others. Please reach out to our Director of Community and Communications Jordyn Pritchard to get connected.
Dear Friends in Christ –
You know, for the early church Jesus’ baptism was an "acute embarrassment.” It was scandalous that the son of God would even entertain a baptism of repentance.
Repentance for what? Wasn’t the Son of God sinless? So what was the Messiah doing in the muddy water of the Jordan River, lining up behind the tax collectors and sinners, aligning himself with the great unwashed? I’m told that early in the Christian experiment the church fought to keep control of the narrative. A tough job, especially when the longed for central character showed up with no interest in fine garments and in no need of privilege or status.
Jesus’ first public act was an act of radical solidarity. An act of stepping into intimate, inextricable, “shameful” relationship with us - humanity. Instead of standing apart, instead of protecting his own purity, Jesus stepped into the same pool we stand in and cast his lot with us. With this singular act he established the whole narrative of heaven come to earth.
He stands with those whom he came to serve – those whom he came to redeem.
As John puts it, "Messiah's coming!"
See you in worship –
Wednesday Night Women’s Bible Study Wednesdays | 6:30pm
Women’s Podcast Small Group Wednesdays | 8pm
Mixed Adult Small Group Thursdays | 7:30pm
Men’s Small Group Friday Mornings | 6am
Children & Families Small Group Sundays | 9:00 a.m. starting January 31, 2021
Youth Small Group Sundays | 7:00 p.m. starting January 31, 2021
“Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ”
LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - Please fill out a contact card to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing and to let us know you worshiped with us in person today even if you are a member. If you’re a visitor, online or in person, and would like more information please feel free to fill out a card or email Pastor Cress.
Second Presbyterian is a church community where you will be known and nurtured. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here. Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here.
And get connected! Join a small group here. While we may be practicing social distancing these days, there are still ways to be involved and to offer your time, talents, and resources in service to others. Please reach out to our Director of Community and Communications Jordyn Pritchard to get connected.
Dear Friends in Christ –
Have you heard someone say how boring the bible is or how they would rather curl up with a good novel or binge watch episodes of [ you fill in the blank ].
Guess they hadn’t heard of the Magi! Our text for this Sunday is in celebration of the twelfth day of Christmas and is known as the Feast of the Wise Men- also known as Epiphany. Now there’s a word! One of those moments when suddenly something becomes clear. It’s like the curtain has been lifted or the fog lifts. We could use a couple now couldn’t we?
Our narrative has all of the elements of a Hollywood blockbuster and more! It features Persian princes, caravans, astrological signs, court intrigue, deceptions, sinister intentions, holy dreams of revelation, royal tributes, two great escapes… and the incarnate God.
Battle lines are drawn – it's light vs. night – and human might is no match for infant delight. The pilgrims arrive at their destination and scripture is fulfilled.
Men and women, we need a tale of perseverance and uplift.
This Sunday we celebrate communion. 2020 is in the rear view. Let’s power up with the Word and the wafer!
See you in worship –
A message from Pastor Cress for New Year's Day 2021.
CLICK ON VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES BELOW TO FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION
“Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Christ”
LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - Please fill out a contact card to assist with COVID-19 contact tracing and to let us know you worshiped with us today even if you are a member.
Lizzie Meden, Liturgist
Carol Settings
Leader: Let us go, in heart and mind, to see what has come to pass. Let us go with the shepherds:
People: Let us go to find the Savior!
Leader: Let us go with the wise ones:
People: Let us go to find God's promise, born for us!
Leader: Let us go with the poor and humble:
People: Let us go to find our King, born in a lowly manger.
Leader: Let us go with all the world, with all the peoples of the nations.
People: Come, let us worship; come, let us adore him: Christ the Lord!
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. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Leader: O God, you search us out and know us, and all that we are is open to you. We confess that we have sinned.
People: In your mercy, Lord, forgive us and heal us.
Leader: When we make no room for Christ, and fail to welcome him into our lives,
People: In In your mercy, Lord, forgive us and heal us.
Leader: When we seek to cut down those who might rise above us,
People: In In your mercy, Lord, forgive us and heal us.
Leader: When we sanitize your birth place and erase from memory the poor and displaced,
People: In In your mercy, Lord, forgive us and heal us.
Leader: When we sing sweet sentiments over Christ's birth, and fail to rejoice over his everyday presence,
People: In In your mercy, Lord, forgive us and heal us.
Leader: We turn to you, O Christ, perfect union of Spirit and flesh;
People: In We renounce evil; We claim your love; We choose to be made whole.
Response: Thanks be to God!
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell*; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic** Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.
Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be. He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending, He. Of the things that are, that have been,
and that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!
O ye heights of heaven adore Him, angel hosts, His praises sing: Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
And extol our God & King; Let no tongue on earth be silent,
every voice in concert ring, evermore and evermore!
Christ, to Thee with God the Father, and O Holy Ghost, to Thee
hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory and dominion, and eternal victory, evermore and evermore!
Refrain:
Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere;
go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!
While shepherds kept their watching o’er silent flocks by night,
behold, throughout the heavens there shone a holy light. [Refrain]
The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! above the earth
rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth. [Refrain]
Down in a lowly manger the humble Christ was born,
and God sent us salvation that blessed Christmas morn. [Refrain 2X]
2nd Presbyterian CCLI Lic. #2046860
Second Presbyterian is a church community where you will be known and nurtured. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here. Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here.
And get connected! Join a small group here. While we may be practicing social distancing these days, there are still ways to be involved and to offer your time, talents, and resources in service to others. Please reach out to our Director of Community and Communications Jordyn Pritchard to get connected.
Dear Friends in Christ –
I’m not done with Christmas – I’m not ready. This Sunday I want to take just a few minutes to unpack what it is that we have just celebrated and what it is that I pray we’ll carry with us through this coming year - the enfleshment, the carnality, the humanity of God. Is it possible that anyone walking in off the street might think we’re koo koo?
Imagine someone sitting in or looking at church for the first time. Wonderfully poetic strains of the baby Jesus, word made flesh. References from Isaiah to the one who has made bare his arm in the eyes of the nations. They must wonder how one known as the Prince of Peace may be the warrior king.
The Jewish people returning or returned from exile were looking to someone whose stature and prowess would cause those behind him to marvel and those before him to cringe. And who shows up wriggling and writhing? Jesus. (Thank you, Jesus.)
These times demand all that God is and all that we can be as God’s people. Let’s look to a post-Christmas, post-pandemic, post-inauguration and a post-masked time when our smiles will be seen. Let’s begin this Sunday as the days lengthen. (Yay!)
A message for Christmas morning from Pastor Cress.
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service with Advent readings and Christmas carols. This service is traditionally held at 11pm.
Members joined together from their homes the weekend before Christmas to "light up the night" with luminaries and other bright ways to demonstrate the light of the world.
