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Monthly Archives

March 2020

2020-04-05 Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

Welcome to Palm Sunday!

At Cold Spring Worship Online, you have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime.

We believe that everyone deserves to experience God’s love in relevant and authentic ways, while keeping themselves and the community safe, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thriving faith community puts God’s love into action to help make greater Cape May a better place. We joyfully love and serve God and our neighbors through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us!

Below are resources that can be used before, during, and after our 10:30 AM worship experience. Share them with others, too!

“Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am…” Jesus.

Worship Guide (v1) for April 5, 2020

Worship Guide Slides for April 5, 2020

Readings April 5 2020

Notes to Share for April 5, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for April 5 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for April 5 2020

2020-03-29 Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons
You may watch the video on our Facebook page. Audio of the message is above. Thank you for sharing!

At Cold Spring Worship Online, you have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime.

We believe that everyone deserves to experience God’s love in relevant and authentic ways, while keeping themselves and the community safe, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thriving faith community puts God’s love into action to help make greater Cape May a better place. We joyfully love and serve God and our neighbors through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining us!

Below are resources that can be used before, during, and after our 10:30 AM worship experience. Share them with others, too!

“Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am…” Jesus.


Worship Guide (v3) for March 29, 2020

03-29-2020 Readings

Notes to Share for March 29, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for March 29, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for March 29, 2020

Lenten Devotions for Week 5

2020-03-22 Message- Social Distancing, Mud, and Spiritual Connections

By Intersections, Sermons

How are you doing? No one will remain unaffected by this pandemic. Covid-19 presents an unprecedented global health crisis that increasingly threatens lives and our quality of life closer and closer to home. Travel bans. School closures. Fear, uncertainty, and anxiety are among our responses while social distancing is necessarily becoming our default behavior along with thorough hand-washing. Don’t beat yourself up if you feel fear. Listen again to last week’s message and the admonition from 1 John 5:4: Faith overcomes fear as we let God’s word hold us, not fear. We live by faith.

Social distancing is not a modern invention. In the message this week from John 9, we will meet a man who experienced social distancing; from his family, from his neighborhood, from his religious community, too. No one wanted him close. Except Jesus. Let’s not confuse social distancing with spiritual distancing. Remember that Jesus is as close as a friend, offering living water that satisfies our deepest thirst, and connects us to the presence of God, opening our eyes to see!

Plan to join us on Cold Spring Worship Online at 10:30 AM on Sundays. Read the scripture readings, the Lenten devotional, and the digital worship worship guide. We can practice spiritual closeness and social distancing at the same time!

How will you safely practice social distancing but stay spiritually close to others who need you? To others you need?

What has God done for you? With whom will you share that through a phone call or email this week?

Think about a time when Jesus corrected an incomplete understanding and brought healing?

Could this health crisis be an occasion for more radical care, greater compassion, and wider inclusion, or will we miss the opportunity to show the love of God to those most in need of it?

Get connected this week. Pray. Give thanks. Thank you for supporting our mission to energize spirits and transform lives in new ways! Be safe as you live by faith.

2020-03-22 Digital Worship Resources

By Sermons

Hello Online neighbor!

At Cold Spring Church Online, you have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime.

We believe that everyone deserves to experience God’s love in relevant and authentic ways, while keeping themselves and the community safe. Our thriving faith community puts God’s love into action to help make greater Cape May a better place. We joyfully love and serve God and our neighbors through the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ.

Below are resources that can be used before, during, and after our 10:30 AM worship experience. “Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am…” Jesus.

Worship Guide for March 22, 2020

Scripture Readings for March 22, 2020

Notes to Share for March 22, 2020

Children’s Worship ages 4-7 for March 22, 2020

Children’s Worship ages 8-12 for March 22, 2020

 

Lenten Devotions for Week of March 22, 2020

COVID-19 UPDATE Please join us for worship online. In-person worship is cancelled.

By Intersections

COVID-19 Coronavirus UPDATE: Worship is online as in-person services are cancelled

We have been advised by authorities and the Presbytery of West Jersey to have no gatherings over 10 people and to explore alternative ways to provide spiritual resources online. No matter how far apart we sit in our sanctuary or meeting rooms, bringing people together who come from a variety of places, family size, and exposure risks is not safe or in keeping with being a responsible neighbor. Therefore, the session has cancelled worship services in the Red Brick Church and all events in Price Hall until April 14, 2020 (4 weeks). We will continually reassess our next steps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapidly changing conditions.

Serving You During Health Emergency

The pastor and staff are available to serve you during this health emergency. Please visit our Contact page, for email addresses and other information. We are complying with official guidance, health directives, social distancing, and taking reasonable steps to protect our staff in our workplace. Our church office  (609-884-4065) and cemetery office (609-884-5130) will remain open, and if no answer, please leave a message and someone will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Join Us Online

Please join us for worship online each Sunday on Facebook Live or via Zoom Webinar. We realize that not everyone can Easily go online and we are looking to offer telephone access, as well. We will provide instructions to join us online for an abbreviated but engaging worship experience. We will include prayer, Scripture readings, musical selections, and a message of hope from Pastor Kevin. You may send your prayer requests to hello@coldspringchurch.com.

We hope you are well. As you are able, stay home, and Express carefor others through email, a phone call, and other ways to be in prayer for each other and our world while we can’t gather in person for worship. We look forward to a time when we again will be able to gather as the people of God in the community when it is deemed safe.

Worry Less. Pray for Grace and Wisdom During a Pandemic.

By Intersections

God who is always present with us and for us, of all that is seen and unseen, our anxiety rises as the invisible coronavirus spreads. We worry about the impact of this illness on healthcare workers, older adults, those already physically fragile, the vulnerable among us and people whose livelihoods are tied to the regular movement of people and commerce. We recognize in this moment how inextricably connected we are to one another and we hope that this unmistakable realization will shape all our actions in ways that foster the common good, increase compassion and expand communal care.

As people in positions of leadership in religious communities, educational institutions, hospitals, government and local communities face difficult choices about how to address the complex challenges this virus brings, grant them wisdom and courage. Knowing that we are flawed and that our knowledge is incomplete, make us humble in our judgment, patient with one another, and gracious toward those tasked with the burden of making hard decisions in the days ahead.
Bring healing to the sick, strength to the caregivers, comfort to those who mourn, peace to those in quarantine and mercy to all of your beloved creation. Amen.
Adapted from Presbyterian Outlook, March 9, 2020

2020-03-15 Message Ahh, Yes! Living Water for All

By Intersections, Sermons

Who’s thirsty? You know when your body is parched. Without skipping a beat, you reach for water. “Ahhh… Yes!,” you say. Water is the most important resource in the world. Did you know that in one year, the average American residence uses over 100,000 gallons? Wow! But sadly, unsafe water kills 200 children every hour. In some countries, less than half the population has access to clean water.

In recognition of World Water Day (March 22), we will be introduced to Living Waters for the World, a ministry of the Presbyterian Church to help share clean water and the love of Christ around the world. Volunteers have installed 1,000 clean water systems in 26 countries. Look for information in our bulletin this week about Living Waters for the World that continues to train and support volunteer teams from churches like ours. If you’re interested in joining a team, or forming one, please let us know!

Pastor Kevin’s Lenten message this week transports us to a foreign country  where Jesus meets a woman who had come to a well to drink. But it was her spiritual thirst that was quenched with living water. You can quench your spiritual thirst this week, too, as we discover that no where and no one is off limits for his transformative love, his living water, or his salvation. Come and see!

Special Message Regarding Coronavirus Pandemic — Preparedness

By Intersections, Newsletters, Sermons

Updated: March 12, 2020

Stay Healthy During Coronavirus Pandemic.

We will follow directives from the State of New Jersey, Cape May County Health Department, or other state or municipal authority should they impose assembly restrictions, quarantines, or other constraints to prevent or contain virus exposure including cancelling or postponing worship services, events, and closing our facilities. (Check back often for updates.)

From our new Healthy Living Team

The session has established a Healthy Living Team to promote healthy living practices, especially during health crises like the coronavirus pandemic. Jonna Myers (R.N.) and Melissa Arnott (EdD.) are leading this team.

We encourage appropriate social distancing during the pandemic: Our sanctuary in the Red Brick Church is spacious enough to allow worshippers who choose to attend to comfortably practice recommended social distancing protocols. (Our average attendance is 70. Our sanctuary seats 300 including our balcony, leaving lots of room to spread out as needed.)

Live streaming of worship: Should services be cancelled due to the pandemic, visit our Facebook page for FaceBook Live video streaming, and/or our website for messages and music content. Stay spiritually nourished and connected!

What about Easter? Its possible that our two Easter services may be postponed, but they will not be cancelled! Should the coronavirus pandemic threat continue into April (Easter is April 12), we may need to postpone our services to a later, safer, date. Easter is one amazing event we don’t want to miss celebrating, so we will just choose a different date to gather if the April 12th events are postponed. (Stay tuned!)

What we are doing: We are re-doubling our efforts to ensure that Price Hall and sanctuary, bathrooms, other surfaces are clean, using disinfectants that are approved by the CDC. Boxes of tissues have been provided in center aisle pews. Hand sanitizer is provided. We installed automatic paper towel dispensers in our bathrooms that are safer to operate.

What you can do: We have our own special areas at home or at work that we need to pay attention to during virus outbreaks. Everyone’s cleaning list should include door knobs, handrails, and handles on your microwave, refrigerator, cabinets, and those toilet and faucet handles, too.

Check with neighbors! If you are able, reach out to your neighbors, especially those who are home bound.

Stock-up! Remember to have at least a three-week’s supply of food essentials and any required respiratory medications. BUT…

Please do not hoard – if you have extra soap and hand sanitizer – bring it to church – we will use it! Hoarding is not neighborly!

Contact the Deacons or call the office for assistance with essential shopping or doctor’s visits. We want to help!

Go Online! Shop for groceries, contribute to the church, listen to worship services, and even pay bills online. Follow us on Facebook, and please Like our page. It helps others discover our page!

You Can Prepare for Any Infectious Disease Outbreak

In light of the pandemic of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), resources are available for our congregation. Now is the time to prepare and be aware of safer community practices. According to a Preparedness for Pandemics guide published by the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, simple precautions can help everyone participate in healthy ways.

Everyday Musts During A Pandemic:

  1. More Hand Washing – Less Face Touching. Washing hands thoroughly and frequently is essential. Especially every time you go out in public. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be found in and around bathrooms in the Red Brick Church and Price Hall. Use sanitizer often, but hand washing is a must!
  2. Stay at home if you are sick. Remember you can stay connected to our community when you’re sick at home or away from home by visiting our website. Listen to sermons and music, watch videos, and connect to us on Facebook. Consider giving online. Staying away from others when you’re sick is a must!
  3. Simply smile and use your welcoming words, without handshakes. Welcoming hospitality takes many forms, and your smile is a wonderful gift others enjoy receiving! Social distancing is a must!

As we gather for events and worship, simply smile, and use your welcoming words, without handshakes. Frequently and thoroughly washing our hands is essential. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers (containing at least 60% alcohol) can be found in and around bathrooms in the Red Brick Church and Price Hall. Use sanitizer often. (Again, hand washing is better!)

Thank you for modeling protective health practices and praying for those most severely affected by the pandemic, especially the most vulnerable and isolated members of communities around the world. Should you have any special needs or concerns, please let a Deacon or session member know how we can assist you.