Skip to main content
Monthly Archives

September 2019

2019 Annual Fall Picnic — Double the People, Double the Fun

By Intersections

Our Fall Picnic was enjoyed by more than 70 people, doubling last year’s crowd! We celebrated our newest members, Lynda, Norris, and Larry & Carlene, and Beverly! Special thanks is expressed to the West Cape May Fire Company for the grill and cooking expertise of Chuck and Dave. Mister Softee made an appearance everyone enjoyed, especially the many children! (Thanks Kevin Beare!) Delicious salads, a Brownie Buffet, and other homemade items were made by generous individuals. Our special thanks to our church staff for setting up the tables and chairs making everyone feel welcomed! Thank you all! — Marjorie Wetherill, for the team.

New Members Welcomed on September 29, 2019

By Intersections

Get To Know and Welcome Our Newest Members!

During worship on September 29, 2019, the congregation welcomed its newest members.

” The new disciples praised God, and they enjoyed the goodwill of all the people of the city. Day after day the Lord added to their number everyone who was experiencing liberation” (Acts 2:47, The Voice).

Lynda McCartney: Lynda is a Philadelphia native who has enjoyed Cape May for 20 years. She has three children (so far!) and enjoys fine dining, cooking, reading, swimming, walking, and film, not necessarily in that order. Lynda brings a 15-year history of teaching Sunday school as the Director of the AWANA program and a nursery and visitation worker. She is excited to join us and see how God will use her in our community.

 

 

 

Norris Clark:  Norris is the managing partner of Princeton Strategic Communications. He has been heavily involved in the local community as a board member of the local Big Brothers Big Sisters, the MAC, the NJ Delaware Bayshore Council, Historic Cold Spring Village, the Friends of the Fishing Creek School, and TEDxCapeMay. Norris served as Deputy Mayor of Lower Township, and is a seminary graduate with a Masters in Religious Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and he holds a BA in Philosophy from Covenant College.

2019-09-29 Message- The Case of the Man Who Never Noticed

By Intersections, Sermons

A 69-year-old Spanish man was fined after officials discovered he hadn’t shown up to work for at least six years. Ironically, the civil servant was discovered only when the deputy mayor attempted to give him an award for 20 years of “loyal and dedicated” service. He finally surfaced and was fined for abandonment of his employment. But, really, how could someone not notice he was missing?

Being a good neighbor is about closing the gaps. Building bridges. Making connections. Amazing things can result when we improve our noticinga and interacting with our neighbors. According to a U.S. survey (safehome.org), there are generational, gender, religious, and political differences as to who makes the best neighbor. Fun Fact: Baby Boomers (born 1946 – 1964) appear to be the nicest neighbors of any generation, but every generation can improve because 1/3 of Americans have never met their neighbors! The apostle Paul wrote, “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it” (Galatians 6:10a).

Generational, gender, religious, income, and political differences created divisions between individuals and communities in Jesus’ day, too. This week, Pastor Kevin’s message, “The Case of the Man Who Never Noticed,” concerns a rich man who neglected his neighbor. More than a morality tale, we will consider the radical nature of Jesus’ mission and the equally radical call to address the chasms of life. Let’s close the gaps!

All this and more this week at Cold Spring Church. (And remember, following worship, we will enjoy our Annual Fall Picnic! See you Sunday!

2019-09-29 Message for Kids- Your Passport to An Adventure in Faith

By Sermons

Have you ever joined a group? A club? Sure! Well, did you know you are part of a very cool group called the church!? I have a passport here for you to fill out. God has invited you to experience belonging, a tru part of our congregation. You are unique and we are so glad you as a part of us! Jesus invited us together to serve each other and others . A passport for a faith adventure that never ends!!Have you ever joined a group? A club? Sure! Well, did you know you are part of a very cool group called the church!? I have a passport here for you to fill out. God has invited you to experience belonging, a tru part of our congregation. You are unique and we are so glad you as a part of us! Jesus invited us together to serve each other and others . A passport for a faith adventure that never ends!!

If you don’t pray more after reading this, you didn’t read this!

By Intersections

What Is Prayer Actually Worth To You?

Photo credit: Joshua Hanks

“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live” (1 Timothy 2:1-3).

What is your response when someone offers to pray for you? You welcome the prayer, right? Have you ever replied, “No thanks, I don’t want your prayer”? Some people may resist the suggestion of prayer for any number of reasons, but most of the time, people welcome prayer. Our congregation’s active prayer list engages us and every week as we share requests and answers to prayer encourage all of us. But how much is prayer actually worth to you?

What is Prayer?

Prayer may best be described as a conversation with God. While folding our hands is frequently associated with someone praying, hand-folding is not required for God to hear us, of course! Eyes open or closed. Standing, sitting, walking, driving, or any possible activity can be a perfect context for taking to God. Remember, the apostle Paul said to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

Since we can pray anywhere, we can also pray about anything and about the full range of life’s experiences. Alone or with others. No special formula, language, or method is required, either. No practice is necessary to make a connection to God. Just direct your thoughts to God. God even offers the Holy Spirit to help us when we just don’t know how to pray (Romans 8:26-27).

Our prayers may be for ourselves or others, silent or spoken aloud, expressed in words, art, music, or dance, or any other medium. Prayer can be urgently offered in crisis or during planned, peaceful, or contemplative moments. Succinct or expansive, and capturing our every possible feeling and emotion, and concerning any and every imaginable situation, prayer with God is an amazing, personalized, way to be in touch with God through Christ.

Prayer In the Bible

In God’s word, people interacted with God believing that prayer was also a method of changing a situation or themselves for the better. Abraham prayed that God would not destroy the city, Jacob prayed for strength when he was going to a stressful family reunion, Moses prayed for mercy for his people, Joshua confesses his people’s sins, Hannah prayed for a family, Daniel for freedom, Nehemiah for transformation, Job prayed for his friends (Job 42:10) and Solomon prayed for wisdom (1 Kings 3:1-15). The Book of the Psalms is filled with prayers from requests to expressions of anger and sorrow, including intercessions, praise, and thanksgivings. Certainly there must be value to prayer because interacting with the Creator is a real life experience. People correlate praying with results, either experienced inwardly, or externally.

Jesus practiced what he preached about prayer and made it a priority, both in private (Mark 1:15, Matthew 14:23), and in public (Luke 22:32, 41-44), and famously from the cross where he died for the sins of the world, praying, “Father, forgive, them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus taught us how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:1-13), to not use prayer to get attention from others (Matthew 6:5-6), to pray before making an important decision (Luke 6:12-13), to pray boldly (Mark 11:24), and pray for the success of God’s mission (Luke 10:22, Matthew 9:38). Jesus continually prays for us, too! (Romans 8:34). If prayer didn’t matter, would Jesus pray?

The letters of the New Testament are similarly filled with reminders of the value of prayer. In James’ letter, “…pray for each other…” because, “the prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with” (James 5:17). The apostle Paul wrote, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life” (Philippians 4:6-7 The Message). We are to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), and to pray for our civic leaders and neighbors (1 Timothy 2:1-3, 1 John 5:14-15, 1 Peter 3:12, Colossians 1:9-12).

What About “Thoughts and Prayers”?

In our experience, prayers matter. But can we learn anything about what people ion general think about prayer? Following natural disasters, mass shootings, or catastrophes, politicians and religious leaders often offer up their “thoughts and prayers” to victims. Our nation historically values prayer. For example, both houses of Congress open each session with prayer, the government continues to provide chaplains for the armed forces (an important part of their ministry is prayer), and other civic, public, and private organizations may include prayer in their proceedings. Detractors criticize the phrase, “Our thoughts and prayers are with you,” as meaningless, asserting that prayer offers no real value. In a recent issue of the Journal of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers sought to quantify the value people attributed to prayer. Critics argue that the phrase is cheap, and it doesn’t equate to real action. It may be offered to sound like “I really care,” but really means “I won’t do anything.” Christians frequently seek other’s prayers, especially during difficult or painful times.

The researchers took an economic approach to determining the value of thoughts and prayers. (For the full article, “The Value of Thoughts and Prayers,” visit https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/10/1908268116.)

For example, the findings showed that recipients of prayer often expect some kind of direct benefit (improved health or Increased wealth), or gain feelings of hope and connection to others, or to reduce their anxiety. Participants in the study self-identified as one of three groups: Christian, atheist, or agnostic. In the experiment, they were told that a stranger would be learn about their recent hardship and in return, the participant would receive that stranger’s thoughts and prayers. The experiment evaluated how much the thoughts and prayers mattered to each group. On average, Christian respondents valued the gesture, but nonreligious people negatively valued the gesture when offered by Christians, and were indifferent to receiving the thoughts and prayers from other nonreligious people. The study also suggested that while others may sincerely offer their thoughts and prayers, when no other gesture was offered, its impact was less recognized. Everyone agreed that the words alone were secondary if not also linked to other actions.

Prayer In Motion

Wait, that sounds like what we read in James’ letter when he wrote about faith in action:

“Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” (James 2:16-17).

The bottom line? Pray. It matters. To you. To (most) others. And, it actual

The bottom line?

Pray. But remember prayer may be like like faith, without a corresponding action it is, well, using the words of James, dead. Look for opportunities to do more than pray. Don’t stop sharing with God, listening, and learning with God’s Spirit in community with others. Pray. Do. That’s why faith communities gather…to provide spiritual resources to follow Jesus with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love! There are amazing benefits to prayer, both to the one praying and to the recipients of those prayers. (And when you want to offer prayer for others and want them to know you are praying for them, its a great idea to politely ask if they’d welcome the prayer to begin with.) Whatever their response can be a wonderful moment for engagement. Active, authentic prayer is always connected to active, authentic action.

Pastor Kevin

2019-09-22 Message- Standard of Giving, Standard of Living

By Sermons

Taking care of ourself is good advice! Cold Spring Presbyterian Church provides resources for you to experience the abundant life through Christ, and all of us invest a great deal of our time, energy, and attention in accomplishing our whole-life wellness, which we can call our standard of living. We pay attention to all aspects of our life, our mind, body, and spirit, too, because our time, energy, and talents are exchangeable for the resources we need to maintain or improve our standard of living. The Bible speaks a lot about our standard of living, the standards we adhere to that show our love for God and others, and how we measure the standard of living we achieve.

This week, we will consider an often overlooked and misunderstood parable of Jesus about a business manager and how he traded his time, energy, and attention to achieve his standard of living, but forgetting its relationship to his standard of giving. (Fun Fact: Did you know that 38 parables deal directly with money? Yes! And in the Bible, more than 2,000 verses are about money and possessions!)

Pastor Kevin’s message, Standard of Giving, Standard of Living about a dishonest manager will help us all learn how to make the best, even shrewd, decisions, and teach our families to do the same, as we spend, save, and give, each according to our own unique life experience.

Hear the word. Internalize the word. Share the word! Catch up on recent messages at www.coldspringchurch.com/sermons.

2019-09-15 Message- Who Is Your “One”?

By Sermons

You may use it to give you peace of mind, and to locate a missing item. There are several companies like TrackR that offer a super tiny electronic tracking device you register to your smart phone and attach to a item of value, like your key ring. Should you misplace your keys, “Beep. Beep. Beep.” You not only hear the signal, but you can open your smart phone and locate the missing item on a map. TrackR’s tagline: Find more. Search less.

Finding what’s lost is not a new idea. This week, we will hear Jesus’ story of the lost sheep which begins with a highly questionable assumption: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” If that crowd around Jesus included 100 shepherds, it is more likely that ninety-nine of them would be thinking—
“Are you kidding me, Jesus? I’m staying with my ninety-nine secure sheep and doing everything I can to make sure I don’t lose any more of them. Wow. Why would I leave what I already have to head into the wild, unknown places, to look for just one lost sheep—who is not worth it and is probably already dead or injured? That’s crazy!”

But Jesus insists that a truly GOOD shepherd would immediately go looking, not stopping his search until the animal is located. The GOOD shepherd listens for the “Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.” Then, when that one sheep returns on the loving shoulders of the GOOD shepherd, he will triumphantly and joyously parade back to his friends and neighbors calling them to “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” Every One matters to Jesus. How about you?

What are you searching for? Maybe you feel a bit lost? We put Jesus’ priority of searching and finding the one’s who are not here (instead of being content with those we already have). One is worth everything to the GOOD shepherd who invests in those who Are at risk and most deserve attention and compassion.

“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:10).

This week, Pastor Kevin’s message is titled, “Who Is Your One?” from Luke 15:1-10. Get resources to help search for the One’s and the None’s all around us. Jesus’ tagline: “Find one. Rejoice. Search more. ” One’s matter to Jesus.

2019-09-15 Message for Kids- Searching and Finding

By Sermons

Hi. I can’t find my iPhone. Will you help me? Thanks. Press the AppleWatch face here… great. Hear that beep? Where is my phone? Will you search for it with me? Yeah, you found it!

It awful when we loos something we love. Have you ever lost a favorite toy? Money? Your pet? Sure. How long did you wait to search for it? No waiting right? Well, when we feel a bit lost, unsure, confused, let’s remember that God has a very special way to always find us. God’s spirit, that inner voice inside us, can remind us that God loves us all the time. We are in the palm of God’s hand. God is always walking with us. We can feel lost from time to time, but God will always find us!