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May 2020

2020-05-31 Pentecost Sunday Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260. Password: 278951.

Photo-Op for Everyone!

The world in our home! Share a photo of items or products displaying words in a language other than your “first” language, or made in a country other than your country of birth. Or, share a photo of a place you visited on vacation or a trip away from home.
(Photo:  Baby Avery in her Romanian attire with a Romanian prayer in the background on her pillow)

Post your photos on Facebook, and tag coldspringchurch, send via Facebook Messenger, or email.

Share Your Experience!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Once you and your family are ready, share the picture with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

God Speaks Your Language

Numbers 11:24-34 (MSG)
So Moses went out and told the people what God had said. He called together seventy of the leaders and had them stand around the Tent. God came down in a cloud and spoke to Moses and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy leaders. When the Spirit rested on them they prophesied. But they didn’t continue; it was a onetime event. Meanwhile two men, Eldad and Medad, had stayed in the camp. They were listed as leaders but they didn’t leave camp to go to the Tent. Still, the Spirit also rested on them and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ right-hand man since his youth, said, “Moses, master! Stop them!” But Moses said, “Are you jealous for me? Would that all God’s people were prophets. Would that God would put his Spirit on all of them.”

Connect To the Spirit’s Network

Acts 2:1-21 (MSG)

When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.

There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Even Cretans and Arabs!

“They’re speaking our languages, describing God’s mighty works!” Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: “What’s going on here?” Others joked, “They’re drunk on cheap wine.”
That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency: “Fellow Jews, all of you who are visiting Jerusalem, listen carefully and get this story straight. These people aren’t drunk as some of you suspect. They haven’t had time to get drunk—it’s only nine o’clock in the morning. This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes, I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both, and they’ll prophesy.
I’ll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below,
Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red,
Before the Day of the Lord arrives, the Day tremendous and marvelous;
And whoever calls out for help to me, God, will be saved.”

 

Last Week’s Service May 24,2020

Worship Guide (v1) for May 31, 2020

Readings May 31, 2020

Notes to Share for May 31, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for May 31, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for May 31, 2020

2020-05-24 7th Sunday of Easter Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260. Password: 278951.

Photo-Op for Everyone!

Smiling faces! Everyone loves a smile. Where in your life is God smiling on you? What has brought a smile to your family’s faces? What shines in your life? Share a photo. Draw a picture. Write a poem.Thank you! Post your photos on Facebook, and tag coldspringchurch, send via Facebook Messenger, or email.

How can I prepare for Worship Online?

Set the environment in your home to allow you to focus, participate, and enjoy the service. Fix your coffee, tea, or snack. Make sure everyone can comfortably watch and prepare to receive from God as we worship together, apart!

Share Your Experience!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Once you and your family are ready, share the picture with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

God is Shining On Us All!

Hello friend.

Memorial Day is a particular time to remember. We realize in this pandemic that God is present with us, offering hope, even as we experience discomfort, inconvenience, suffering, stressors, and losses. Our neighbors, nation and the world need hope, too. Join us for Worship Online and discover how God is shining on you, and shining through you to others. While we remember the sacrifices of those who have died serving our country, let’s remember that our country sacrificed not only for our nation’s freedoms, but we have always sacrificed so that others around the world could experience freed, too. God loves the world. Jesus said, “There is no greater love than this, that one lays down their life for another.” God so loved the world! 

What do you remember about this Memorial Day? Give thanks to God for freedoms here at home and around the world. For freedom in Christ! God is shining on you! That is something to remember every day!

Thinkable for this week: Sometimes, we may think God is frowning on us. But the Good News is that in Jesus Christ, God’s love, forgiveness, and hope set us free! 

  1. How do you experience God’s smile on you?
  2. What new blessings do you want to thank God for right now?
  3. In what ways does your life shine on others? What will you do today to let your light shine even more!

 

Last Week’s Service May 17,2020

Worship Guide (v1) for May 24, 2020

Readings May 24, 2020

Notes to Share for May 24, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for May 24, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for May 24, 2020

COVID-19 Update- May 21, 2020

By Intersections

Hello friends of Cold Spring Church.

Thank you for your faithfulness in taking care of yourself and others during the pandemic. We continue to pray for and stand with those serving on the frontlines, those who are sick, and we mourn with those who have lost loved ones and neighbors to this disease. We miss seeing each other, and being with each other: in person, in the sanctuary, and in ministry we enjoy across our campus. Also, thank you for continuing your generous financial support and participating in our Worship Online each week. While the State of New Jersey has announced measured re-openings, and hopefully some relief for small businesses, building restrictions are expected to remain in force through June and we should be prepared for a longer period of time. Our session and pastor remain in consultation with neighboring communities of faith and with our amazing presbytery leaders as we consider the many variables for even partial church sanctuary openings.

Let us not grow discouraged or dismayed as we wait to gather together in our sanctuary. Let’s prepare one another for the new reality, a new way to safely gather in worship. Emerging guidelines for congregations are particularly hard to hear regarding many aspects of worship that we have grown accustomed to. For example, limiting the spread of COVID-19 will severely limit or eliminate the use of hymnals and Bibles, bulletins, congregational singing, and affect the way we enter and exit the sanctuary. Our commitment to the health and wellness of everyone will require strict adherence to six-foot social distancing and mask protocols, and may require other safety or screening measures. We will get through this, together, as we co-create a new reality of corporate worship. Christ is our hope and God’s emerging future will be filled with grace and abundance.

There are three important ways you can experience new spiritual energy today!

    1. Praying
    2. Giving
    3. Engaging

Remember to practice social solidarity and not spiritual distance. You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our thriving faith community puts God’s love into action to help make greater Cape May a better place.

2020-05-17 6th Sunday of Easter Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

UPDATED Worship Guide v2 below.

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260. Password: 278951.

Photo-Op for Everyone!

God is in our midst, doing new things. What new experiences have you noticed during the pandemic? Any plants blooming? Babies born? Discoveries made? Have any new recipes brought a smile to you family’s faces? Maybe worship online has brought new energy to your spirit! As restrictions are gradually relaxed, what are you noticing that’s new outside?Share a photo of your new. Draw a picture. Write a poem celebrating the new! Sure. We’re locked down, but we’re not locked out of God’s mercies that are new every morning! (Lam. 3:23)Thank you! Post your photos on Facebook, and tag coldspringchurch, send via Facebook Messenger, or email.
Photos: Shannan and David’s new baby and Liam’s new tent and new home for bald eagle on our Cold Spring Campus.

How can I prepare for Worship Online?

Set the environment in your home to allow you to focus, participate, and enjoy the service. Fix your coffee, tea, or snack. Make sure everyone can comfortably watch and prepare to receive from God as we worship together, apart!

Share Your Experience!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Once you and your family are ready, share the picture with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Wake up, Everybody!

What’s new? Our pandemic news cycles are informative, but stressful. All of us have been affected by the escalating counts of the sick and the dead. Lockdown orders keep us safe while our lack of sleep, interrupted wellness routines and isolation darn our energy. Working from home, working on the front lines in healthcare or service businesses, or not working at all, we all need hope! But we have hope within us. Christ is no the foundations or our hope, Christ is our hope!

While our lockdown experiences may seem as novel as the coronavirus itself, there are many lockdown stories in the Scriptures. But lockdowns can keep us safe until the new day has downed. Remember Noah? Locked down in that ark, God kept the family dry and secure from the threats outside. Even the disciples on that first Easter morning were locked down in fear, trying to keep the threats at bay. This Sunday’s worship online will awaken your faith. My message from Acts 17 will help us wake up and engage our local context because our faith was made for times like these!

Wake up, everybody! Christ is our hope!

Sincerely,

Pastor Kevin

(Background Photo credit: Sunset Beach, ©Christine Cloer)

Worship Guide (v2) for May 17, 2020

Readings May 17, 2020

Notes to Share for May 17, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for May 17, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for May 17, 2020

2020-05-10 Mother’s Day Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online. We simplified our online service and made it even easier to participate, and viewing does not require a Facebook account! Join the video stream on Facebook Live (www.facebook.com/coldspringchurch) or, if you don’t have internet access, use our New call in number: +1 (929) 205-6099. Enter Meeting ID: 875 2479 7260. Password: 278951.

Happy Mother’s Day

Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate! – Proverbs 31:31

 

Shout-Out to the Kids!

Last week Pastor Kevin wanted to see photos of your pets! Pictures of dogs, cats, or some other animals you enjoy. Here are a few of the pictures you sent!

Again this week, Pastor Kevin is asking the kids to take a photo of something that brings them joy while being quarantined! Once you and your family are ready, snap a pic or video to share with us by posting to Facebook #ColdSpringChurch or Instagram #coldspringchurchnj. While we have to live apart, we are never alone! The love of Jesus is for everyone, and Eastertide is the perfect time to remember Jesus’ victory.

How can I prepare for Worship Online?

Set the environment in your home to allow you to focus, participate, and enjoy the service. Fix your coffee, tea, or snack. Make sure everyone can comfortably watch and prepare to receive from God as we worship together, apart!

Share Your Experience!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. You may want to subscribe to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

From Fragile To Antifragile Faith

Cape May County, like every other region of the country, seeks a holy grail of achieving both population safety and economic health and a return to normal. Our neighbors across the street and friends across the pews can struggle with their faith. Robust individuals and businesses resist the pandemic’s worst consequences, and resilient ones try to bend but not break under the severe stress. But fragile populations and organizations weaken and too often, tragically break.

We may feel fragile. Our faith may appear fragile. While fragile systems break, the opposite of fragile, antifragile systems benefit from shocks and thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, stressors, and uncertainty. This week, Pastor Kevin’s message from Acts 7:55-60 invites us into a new reality, from fragile to antifragile faith as we look at disciple Stephen whose faith first appeared to be robust, but once arrested and tested, resilient was all that was hoped for, a return to normal. But to his persecutors like Saul (aka Paul), Stephen’s faith appeared fragile as he was crushed to death under the stones of hatred and fear. Find out how a fragile faith can be transformed into an antifragile faith. everybody’s story is different. Stephen. Saul. You, me. Everyone.

God is not a routine. Jesus is not a cliché. Faith is not a franchise. Years later, Paul (formerly Saul) wrote, “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next (Romans 5:3-5). 

Let’s discover what Go is doing next. We can engage our pandemic world, and our search for safety and prosperity, with a faith in Christ that goes beyond robustness or resilience to an antifragile faith: growth in stress. See how our lives can be strengthened and create a new reality, full of hope.

 

Last Week’s Service May 3, 2020

Worship Guide (v1) for May 10, 2020

Readings May 10, 2020

Notes to Share for May 10, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for May 10, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for May 10, 2020