Home Alone

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 29, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

While we did not have a “white Christmas” in Charleston this year, we had a joyous celebration of Jesus’ birth with two moving worship services on Christmas Eve. I am not sure about you, but I find the Christmas season can come and go so quickly and it seems that white Christmas never materializes.
 
This Sunday Cress has asked me to preach, and I am truly honored. The lectionary text this week sends us ahead a few years to Jesus at 12-years-old in the temple with the religious leaders and scholars. It appears even Mary and Joseph had a hard time keeping up with Jesus during his pre-teen years!
 
I hope we have not left Jesus behind with all the presents unpacked and colorful decorations stored until next year. It would be disappointing to miss what lies ahead on the journey with this precocious child.

See you Sunday!
Steven

 

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

Source: sermons

Christmas Eve Bulletins

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Fourth Sunday of Advent Bulletin - December 22

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 22, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

The Scriptures say little about Joseph the carpenter, but what we do know about him is significant:

  • He was a righteous man. (Matthew 1:19)

  • He obeyed the requirements of the government. (Luke 2:4)

  • He followed the directions of the angel of the Lord. (Mt. 1:24; 2:14; 21; 23)

  • He showed respect and restraint toward Mary, his wife. (Mt. 1:25)

We also know that he ‘fostered’ the savior of the world. Is Joseph unsung? Not this Sunday.

See you in worship!

 

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

Source: sermons

Third Sunday of Advent Bulletin - December 15

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Third Sunday of Advent

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 15, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

This is What You Do…

Scripture says that folk ‘from all over Judea’ came to hear John. They had heard what was going on in the desert, so they knew they weren’t going to a day spa. No, John had been going around preaching – and the word he preached was the word he had received from God, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord!’ They were summoned. Everyone from the hoi polloi to the holy were called. Maybe for some it was a lark, a chance to get away and goof on the guy who bailed on a cushy temple job for an assignment in the desert. Others might have been curious to find out what all this was about. And surely some longed for Messiah and wanted to be ready.

John wasn’t coy, if anything he was callous, but his purpose was clear. Something’s about to happen and if you want in, something has to change -- YOU!

See you in worship – invite a friend or someone you’d like to be.

In anticipation,

 

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

Source: sermons

Second Sunday of Advent Bulletin - December 8

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Second Sunday of Advent

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 8, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

Heads Up! John the Baptizer returns to the lectionary quoting Isaiah and spitting fire. He speaks with an urgency that resonates across the centuries. What was going to break Rome’s occupation? What was going to break the Jewish pharisaical death grip? It would take more than a longed for liberator. It would take an intervention by God in a stealth move – as a baby. 

Announced by the Baptizer, summoned by the Spirit, come to a place of possibility, we are offered new life through a redirecting of our lives.

Heads up!

(Invite somebody – share the news!)

 

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

Source: sermons

Poinsettias 2024

 
 

Poinsettias will be placed in the sanctuary at Christmastime and can be dedicated in memory or in honor of loved ones or to the glory of God. Please submit the form below and the dedications will appear in the Christmas Eve bulletin and will be listed online if ordered by December 19.

Fill out the form below and give $20/poinsettia online, via Venmo (@chs2ndpc), designated in the offering plate on Sunday, or deliver to the church office.

Poinsettia Order Form

Orders may still be placed if you would like to contribute toward sanctuary poinsettias, but dedications made after 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19 may not be listed in the printed service bulletin.

First Sunday of Advent Bulletin - December 1

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

First Sunday of Advent

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, December 1, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

Happy New Year! This Sunday we join with Christians around the world to begin the season of Advent.  We take down the green liturgical colors and replace them with purple – the color of royalty. We leave the season known as ordinary time – as if there is such a time – and we look to celebrate the adventus of the Christ – the coming, the arrival, the in-breaking of God into our world.

JB Phillips, the great translator of the Bible into modern language, writes:

“By far the most important and significant event in the whole course of human history will be celebrated with or without our understanding, at the end of this season, Advent. The towering miracle of God’s visit to this planet on which we live will be glossed over, brushed aside or rendered impotent by over-familiarity. Even by the believer the full weight of the event is not always appreciated. His faith is in Jesus the Christ – he believes with all his heart that this man who lived and died and rose again in Palestine was truly God incarnate. He may have some working experience that the man Jesus is still alive, and yet be largely unaware of the intense meaning of what he believes.”

We will engage scripture and our personal experiences to plumb the depth, the wonder, the glory of what we claim and who claims us.

 

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

Source: sermons

Sunday Bulletin - November 24

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Weed Control

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, November 24, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

Life is messy. Too many bad things happen to too many good people. Evil seems to flourish alongside the righteous. And why do good things happen to bad people? Why doesn't a good god fix it? These are deep questions for folks, and believers as well.

Perhaps what we are given is not so much an answer to the questions, but a God who is with us, even in the questions… especially in the questions!

Let’s engage a parable I call Weed Control. We’ll celebrate our Jesus and the promises made and kept.

In anticipation –

 

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

Source: sermons

Sunday Bulletin - November 17

THIS IS GOD'S HOUSE - ALL ARE WELCOME

 “Meeting people at their point of need, Inviting all into a dynamic relationship with Jesus”


LET US KNOW YOU WORSHIPED WITH US TODAY - 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.

INFORMATION & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Are you looking for a church home where you can make a difference for the God we serve? Where you belong and where you will be known, nurtured, challenged?  We welcome you and invite you to spend some time with us.

Interested in joining Second? Find more about becoming a member here. Have a prayer request? Please let us know here.

 
 

Watch Second Presbyterian videos on YouTube, like Second on Facebook, and stay connected by signing up for our emails which offer a snapshot of upcoming church and missions events and announcements.

Commitment Sunday

Sunday morning worship at 10:30 a.m.

Find upcoming events and announcements here.

SERMON SNAPSHOT: Sunday, November 17, 2024

Dear Friends in Jesus –

A few years ago I found myself swept up in a cultural ‘moment’. It seemed that a kid from Canada was taking pop music by storm. He wrote lyrics that weren’t filled with expletives. He wrote music that was singable. He wasn’t old enough to shave, but he made my daughter’s girlfriends in the fourth grade squeal. So when the biopic of his journey from the streets of western Canada to a sold out gig/coronation as teenage pop icon at Madison Square Garden came out, I took my daughter and her friends.

When the other parents asked who was going to take them, I said “me.” Almost to a person they couldn’t believe that I would take the time, endure the screams, wrangle the gaggle of fourth grade girls. They didn’t know I was a ‘belieber’! I was a fan!

Well, now you may ask Justin who? He who said, "You're able to do whatever you set your mind to as long as you remember to keep God first and stay grounded,” is no longer on the charts, but often in the tabloids.

This Sunday we gather to worship and to offer our commitment to Jesus and the work we are called to do/ that we get to do through the Second Presbyterian Church for the dynamic, inclusive realm of God!

Last week the question was not, ”do you believe in God?”, but “do you believe God?" as through scripture the faithfulness, the constancy, the courage, the power of love is revealed and made manifest?

See you in worship.

In great anticipation –

 

(I’m a Believer!)

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

Source: sermons