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September 2020

2020-10-04 Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-10-04 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for October 04, 2020

Readings October 04, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for October 04, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for October 04, 2020

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online or in-person. 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.

Communion:

If you’d like to participate, ready yourself with the elements. The bread can be of your choosing. For the cup, you may use grape juice or wine, or use water as a most acceptable substitute, remembering that Christ is the Living Water for all.

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!

Worship and Message theme:

Our worship theme this week is about responding to God’s investment in us. That’s right, God has invested in you! Do you feel like a recipient of God’s mercy? Each day we have the privilege and responsibility to respond proportionally to the gifts we have received. What kind of responder are you? We know about “first responders.” Especially in our pandemic world, we are dependent upon those who respond first with appropriate resources they have been given that includes their training, equipment, and most of all, their commitment to service, kindness and mercy. We are all “responders” to God’s gifts of love and mercy in Christ. Worship is one way to respond. But when we lack energy to respond its time to remember what we have already received. Let’s not take God’s gifts for granted! Or worse, mistakenly think that what we have has resulted from our own efforts alone. Jesus said, “Freely you have received; freely give!” (Matthew 10:8). In our message this week from Matthew 21, Jesus tells a story about a tenant vinedressers who refused to respond proportionally to the owner of the vineyard. How can we respond more generously to God’s blessings? Do you think of yourself as a tenant in God’s creation?

Welcome Back!

While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome all who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sundays at 10:30 AM. Last week about 25 people safely worshipped together. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.

Pre-registration is encouraged but not required to attend worship. If you’d like to worship in person, you may contact the office 609-884-4065 or email hello@coldspringchurch.com.

Music Preview:

We begin our worship with praise, Shine, Jesus, Shine. It is a prayer for renewal of congregations and communities. The spiritual themes include the light “shining in the midst of the darkness” and Christ as the “Light of the World” (John 8:12). This Light “set[s] us free by the truth…” (John 8:32). The final stanza focuses on how Christ’s brightness can be reflected in our lives as “our faces display your likeness.” Worship Online communion service concludes with the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:23-27 put to music in The Blessing. This song has been sung online simultaneously with the aim of spreading hope and encouragement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020-09-27 Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-09-27 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for September 27, 2020

Readings September 27, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for September 27, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for September 27, 2020

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online or in-person. 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.

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!

Worship and Message theme:

Our worship theme this week is all about action. Doing our faith instead of just talking about it. (We do love to talk about faith!) As we worship in-person, online, and in our daily meditations, remember that God wants us to put our experience with Christ into practice. It’s not easy. We struggle and stumble. But putting faith into practice is simple. Well done is better than well said. Our message this week from Matthew 21 is the first in a series of three stories Jesus told about the kingdom: the two sons, the rented vineyard, and the banquet.

This week, we learn about a dad who asked his kids to work in the vineyard. The first said “No. I don’t want to.” The second said, “Yes.” But as the day went on, neither did what they said they would do. The first who said “No!” did the work, while the second, who initially said “Yes!”, never showed up. So Jesus asked the crowd, “Which child responded to their dad’s request?” What do you think?

Which child are we most like in this parable? The one who says, “I will go” and does not, or the one who says, “I will not go” but has a change of heart and does? This week, let’s keep it simple but visible. Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. Well done is better than well said.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back! While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome whose who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church Sunday’s at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.
Pre-registration is encouraged but not required to attend worship. If you’d like to worship in person, you may contact the office 609-884-4065 or email hello@coldspringchurch.com.

Music Preview:

We begin our worship about putting our faith into practice with Chris Tomlin’s stirring worship hymn, “God of this City.” This song has been offered as a prayer for cities around the world including Dallas, Boston, L.A., and Chicago, and now Cape May, too! Our sending hymn, “Hope of the Nations,” is worship leader Brian Doerksen’s expressions of God’s love for the world and offer of hope found in Jesus Christ. Music that stirs our spirits can help equip us for loving, merciful, and humble acts of kindness we can do this week.

2020-09-20 Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-09-20 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for September 20, 2020

Readings September 20, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for September 20, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for September 20, 2020

This week is the perfect time to join in our worship online or in-person. 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.

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!

Worship and Message theme:

In the future, when we’re asked to recall the worst year ever, there is no doubt that 2020 will be the #1 choice! In January, our annual meeting was filled with expressions of gratitude for God’s blessings as we launched our “Brave New Year!” mission theme. Little did we know that as we were enjoying food and conversation in Price Hall, 7,570 miles away, the coronavirus was spreading. In our hyper-connected world, everything spreads. Within eight months, almost one million people around the world, including 200,000 in the United States, are dead. Besides COVID-19, hurricanes, fires, and everyday stressors and hardships have taken a tragic toll. Our Brave New Year has not turned out the way we had imagined. We say Life isn’t fair. God isn’t fair. This week, God is inviting us to embrace and lean into these truths as good news. Yes, that’s right. We will explore how God’s unfairness, life’s unfairness, is good news because if we all received what we deserved, we’d be in big trouble! Instead of expecting or demanding fairness, we can expect God’s grace and mercy. (Much better!)

Our response to Life’s Not Fair! is this week’s worship theme: Living at the Corner of Grace and Mercy. Our first in-person and online hybrid worship experience is September 20. In the new and improved Worship Guide you can read about Jonah. He shockingly responded to personal success by sulking and complaining that God wasn’t fair when showing grace to people Jonah felt undeserving of mercy. Then consider Jesus’ story in Matthew 20:1-16 about employees’ angrily complaining about unfairness. As they picked up their paychecks at the end of the day, they compared theirs to others. Even though they worked more hours, everyone got the same amount. “Wait,” they cried, “That’s not fair!” Well, it isn’t fair. It’s not about fair, its about grace and mercy.

“What does God require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). We are to love mercy, not justice. We are to love mercy, not fairness. Get ready to explore why we don’t seek a future of fairness, but a future of hope, depending on God’s grace and mercy through Jesus Christ. Good news!

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back! While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome whose who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sunday, September 20, 2020, at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.
Pre-registration is encouraged but not required to attend worship. If you’d like to worship in person, you may contact the office 609-884-4065 or email hello@coldspringchurch.com.

Music Preview:

Today’s theme of God’s grace and mercy are featured in our two musical selections. We begin with Great Is Thy Faithfulness. The popular song refers to Lamentations 3:22-23 but especially fits today’s readings. Our sending hymn is Grace Greater Than All Our Sin. We are recipients of God’s grace and also extenders of that same grace to others. The lyrics, “marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe,” finds a scriptural basis in Paul’s teaching about faith in Romans 5:1-2: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

2020-09-13 Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-09-13 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for September 13, 2020

Readings September 13, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for September 13, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for September 13, 2020

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.

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!

Worship and Message theme:

Our worship theme this week is courage. Fires, hurricanes, social unrest, injustice, the contentious election season, the pandemic and regular obstacles we face stress all of us differently. Living in a community requires courage. We need the courage to be present for others. We need the courage to be humble. Courage to be patient. Courage to serve others and take steps in a new direction. We need courage to forgive others. That’s really a challenge.

Our scripture readings this week are about courage as we meet Moses at the Red Sea when a vanguard of courageous Israelites walk into the sea on dry ground, and we will hear Jesus’ story of the merciful King and his cowardly unforgiving manager.

When we authentically sacrifice for others, doing the right thing in the right way, we are acting courageous. As Paul instructed his student Timothy, “make full use of the gift that God gave you…use it well. God’s Spirit doesn’t make cowards out of us. The Spirit gives us power, love, and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:6-7). Jesus said, “Freely you have received. Freely give” (Matthew 10:8). How do you love your neighbor as yourself? How are you experiencing that love yourself? When do you ask God for courage? When should you ask God for courage?

It takes courage to believe God, to forgive as we have been forgiven. Whatever seas and obstacles you are facing, God’s abundant grace will give you abundant courage so the Spirit can empower you to mirror God’s love, forgiveness, and grace to others.

In Two Weeks—September 20th—Welcome Back!

While we continue to worship online every week, we are excited to welcome whose who are able and comfortable to worship in-person in our historic Red Brick Church on Sunday, September 20, 2020, at 10:30 AM. Your safety, health, and wellness are our our top priority. West Jersey Presbytery approved our session’s re-opening plan and our pastor, staff, and teams have worked hard to prepare for your arrival. Following the guidance from the CDC and health officials, we have implemented safety protocols, and designed an approximately thirty-minute worship experience that will be spiritually energizing and safe for you, your family, and other worshippers.
A New Worship Experience. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everyone’s life in drastic ways, both negatively and positively. The State of New Jersey has restricted places of worship to 25% of their building’s capacity (but not more than 150 people). That means we can safely accommodate about 50 individuals in the building who will maintain safe distancing, wear facial masks or coverings, and refrain from congregational singing. Other safety practices will be posted to ensure a safe environment.
Pre-registration is encouraged but not required to attend worship. If you’d like to worship in person, you may contact the office 609-884-4065 or email hello@coldspringchurch.com.

Music Preview:

We begin worship prayerfully asking that Christ “Help Us Accept Each Other,” a musical and visual offering of the United Japanese Christian Church in California. The scriptural basis for this song is Romans 15:7. Living as people who have been accepted by Christ inspire us to accept others, too. The solo, “Got Any Rivers” is offered by the Rev. Larry Moyer. Written by pastor Oscar Carl Eliason in 1942, he based the chorus on the Panama Canal Gang’s lyrics about uncrossable rivers and cutting through mountains! He added scripture references about Joshua, who like Moses in today’s message, crossed a mighty body of water with courage. We conclude with is “Build Your Kingdom Here,” with Jesus’ teaching and parables about the 

2020-09-06 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-09-06 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for September 06, 2020

Readings September 06, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for September 06, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for September 06, 2020

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.

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!

Worship and Message theme:

Our worship theme this week is We Are All In This Together. You’ve read this affirmation on lawn signs and t-shirts, in shop windows, roadside displays, and on websites. You may have spoken these words to comfort or feel connected to others. It’s an almost universal response to the pandemic, We Are All In This Together! But if twenty-six weeks of quarantine restrictions have taught us anything as a nation, it’s that together does not fit what we are experiencing. Some have beautifully renovated beach houses with manicured lawns, and some of us live in public housing with broken elevators and no safe outdoor space. Some are safe and sound while others are staring at the devastation of Hurricane Laura, grieving lives lost to COVID-19, police abuse, or pervasive racial inequities. Many have managed to work from home and stay employed while others are either laid off or called “essential” and must report to work in unsafe and risky workplaces. Many children have access to the internet, while others do not and find it almost impossible to be successful in online learning. When we affirm, We Are All In This Together, let’s also ask ourselves how we can help make this statement real.

The message from God’s word in Exodus returns to Moses who also tells the enslaved people of Israel that We Are All In This Together. Moses explains that the Passover ritual is a group undertaking. If one household can’t afford a lamb, they are to join with their closest neighbor who can. God’s way means that provisions are made for everyone to participate in God’s freedom mission. In the Gospel reading, we learn that the community of faith is responsible for showing respect to everyone. When any of us misses the mark, trespasses, or sins, God’s way means that provisions are made through a loving process of redemption and restoration. Then, in our Epistle reading, God’s way means that conditions are made to tangibly show love to because when we love others as ourselves, we demonstrate the Lord Jesus Christ living among us. God is for us. God is with us. God sends us like Moses to prepare, protect, preserve, protest, and prevail together, to release the captive, enslaved, embittered, hurting, sick, lonely, and struggling.

This week, let’s be open to our togetherness that spans geographic, social, spiritual, racial, economic, age, gender, and political differences. God has made provisions to unite, not divide us. We are neighbors, nations, and human beings created in God’s image. Instead of taking sides, let’s take heart as Jesus’ peacemakers, ambassadors of reconciliation, heralds of hope, because Jesus came to save sinners and eat

Restricted In-Person Worship To Resume September 20:

We anticipate that a restricted 30-minute in-person worship will resume on September 20. We are designing a hybrid worship experience to enjoy either online or in-person, whichever venue you feel most comfortable in. For the safety of our in-person worshippers, mask or face coverings and physical distancing protocols will be followed. Also, for the safety of everyone, there will be no congregational singing. Our online participants can enjoy the live 30-minute service that begins at 10:40 AM, preceded and followed by several music videos with lyrics. More details will follow.

Music Preview:

We begin worship joining together with All Who Are Thirsty. return to our communion hymn, All Who Are Thirsty as we gather at the Lord’s Table. Worship Online concludes with the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:23-27 put to music in The Blessing. This song has been sung online simultaneously with the aim of spreading hope and encouragement during the COVID-19 pandemic.