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Monthly Archives

November 2020

2020-11-29 Advent 1 Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

Worship Guide (v1) for November 29, 2020

Advent Devotions for November 29, 2020

Readings November 29, 2020

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

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for November 29, 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: 882-3154-2428 Password: 1714.

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!

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. 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.

Worship Preview

Happy new year! Happy new church year, that is. This week is the first week of Advent as the lectionary and liturgical cycle moves forward! Advent is the time for watching and waiting for the promised Messiah— Jesus. Of course, Jesus has already come. The prophet in our Old Testament reading asks God, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah 64:1). Well, God has already done that! God has already “rent the heavens” and come down as Jesus “moved into our neighborhood” (John 1:14). But our relationship with Jesus is not historically bound to the past, but is a dynamic relationship to be enjoyed right now, and into the future, too! During Advent we watch and wait for Jesus transforming our world, our lives, continually. We watch and wait as we experience the Good News that God Is Here! How can we experience hope? By watching and waiting, actively engaging and being open to the Spirit of Christ this Advent season.

We begin our ADVENTure journey this week. Pick up your Advent resources (online, in-person, for individuals and a special card deck of family Advent activities) that will help us experience the fantastic story of God’s abundant grace and how we can choose to be a people of gratitude. In our Gospel reading from Mark 13:24-37, Pastor Kevin’s Advent series, God Is Here!, begins with how to participate in God’s restoration project that transforms us and all of creation. We  watch(What are you watching for during these unprecedented times?) and wait— (What are you waiting for? Who are you waiting on?). This requires the vigilance of which Mark speaks on the first Sunday of Advent — active waiting and watching.

Music Preview

We begin Advent singing O Come, O Come Emmanuel, a solemn and delicate carol originally written in Latin with a title of ‘Veni, Veni, Emmanuel’ about 1710. The English translation of the Advent carol came about in 1851 when priest and scholar John Mason Neale’s version was featured in the pages of The Hymnal Noted – a key text in the history of hymns collected by hymnal documenter Thomas Helmore. Let’s join in watching and waiting for the promised Messiah, Emmanuel (meaning God is here).

 

Senior Living in New Jersey Resources

By Uncategorized

The senior population of New Jersey is rising every year, about 1% per year since 2010. Not all of these seniors have access to information that can help them decide where to live and how they can afford it. Senior Housing Net is looking to change that, with their new Guide to Senior Living in New Jersey. This online guide is a comprehensive look at cost, resources, and even COVID-19 rules for NJ senior living.

Click here for more information

 

 

2020-11-22 Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Pentecost (Christ the King) Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

Worship Guide (v1) for November 22, 2020

Readings November 22, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for November 22, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for November 22, 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: 882-3154-2428 Password: 1714.

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!

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.

Worship Preview

This will be an unprecedented Thanksgiving holiday. Your friends at Cold Spring Church are prepared to walk with you even as COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations across the country and county climb. In a year where our use of the word “unprecedented” is in fact, unprecedented, we realize God’s amazing love for us is not unprecedented! From the beginning we have experienced God’s love in Christ that is not bound by our constraints. This week, we can learn How To Have an Unprecedented Thanksgiving in Pastor Kevin’s message from Matthew 25:31-46 about Jesus story of the sheep and the goats. You will want to experience worship with us in-person or online this week on Christ the King Sunday.

Next week: Advent begins!

Music Preview

This week we are providing a longer worship countdown video to enjoy. We hope this provides more time to prepare for our Facebook Live or phone-in experience together. Remember to invite others to join you online by sharing the page with your friends. And during worship, use the Emoji buttons to express your feelings and engagement!

We begin worship with the Apostles Creed set to music. Words are powerful. They have the potential to bring us together and the potential to tear us apart. Since the beginning of time, words have carried an incredible amount of weight. Writers Cass Langton and Ben Fielding, “thought a song that really was reminiscent of the Apostles’ Creed, that covered its main points, would be a beautiful way of calling modern churches to reflect on the foundation of the faith that unifies us.” We hope you enjoy “This I Believe.”

 

2020-11-15 Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-11-15 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for November 15, 2020

Readings November 15, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for November 15, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for November 15, 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: 882-3154-2428 Password: 1714.

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!

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.

Worship Preview

No one likes uncertainty. We all understand what we mean when we take risks. A risk is taken when we have little certainty of a decision’s hoped-for outcome. The risingCOVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations pose a risk to us as we struggle to overcome pandemic fatigue with its necessary mask-wearing, hand-washing, and physical distancing. Each of us evaluates our sense of risk. As we discovered in last week’s message, we need spiritual awareness when life is unpredictable. We need to prepare for the unexpected, not as strategic planners (the five bridesmaids without extra oil), thinking they know what was going to happen, but the five who in humility were strategic preparers. We live in a world where anything can happen.
This week, we will learn about three individuals who were given talents, financial resources, to hold. Upon the giver’s return, the person who was given 5, doubled it to 10. Likewise, the individual who was given 2 doubled it to 4. And the one who was given 1, didn’t cultivate the gift but instead preserved it by burying it in the ground, returning no growth. Find out what happened next in Pastor Kevin’s message, “Our Job To Be Done: More Cultivating, Less Preserving.” Which term best describes how you handle the talents, gifts, and blessings God has given to you? Do you cultivate them to grow? Or, hold them tightly to preserve them unchanged?

Music Preview

We will enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving-themed hymn, We Plough the Fields and Scatter. God is thanked for the fruits of the earth, and in our pandemic experience, we also thank God for all our blessings – freedom, health, life, and our spiritual blessings in Christ. Just over 200 years ago, this hymn first appeared in German and was written by Matthias Claudius who was a Commissioner of Agriculture, newspaper editor, and bank auditor. After a very serious and life-threatening illness, he concluded that he was not the master of his destiny. and wrote this hymn when he was about 40 years old. Reflecting on his farming and finance background, he is grateful for God’s love as the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Sustainer of life, “And what Thou most desirest our humble thankful hearts.”
Our sending music is a beautiful and inspiring song by Stuart Townend & Keith Getty, Across the Lands, that begins with Paul’s great statements about Christ in Colossians, contrasting his humble humanity, death, resurrection, and humanity. We see the power of Jesus’ words when he lived on earth until we come to the unique moment in all of history when he offers up his life on the cross. With the ‘shout’ of the resurrection, and the continual intercession Jesus performs on our behalf before the Father. And throughout the whole of history, this ‘Word’ is being spoken out across the lands, through us as we cultivate the gifts we have all received.

2020-11-08 Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost Worship Online or In-Person Resources

By Intersections, Sermons

2020-11-08 Worship Online

Worship Guide (v1) for November 8, 2020

Readings November 8, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for November 8, 2020

Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for November 8, 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: 882-3154-2428 Password: 1714.

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!

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.