Welcome to Our Worship Page
Get the 2020 Annual Congregational Report Here
Worship Guide (v1) for January 31, 2021
Children’s Worship Ages 4-7 for January 31, 2021
Children’s Worship Ages 8-12 for January 31, 2021
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. (Please remember to use the Passcode to have the very best worshipping experience on the phone!)
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 Your Way!
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.
Dear online worshipping friends: We apologize in advance should our live stream be interrupted (again!) by Facebook. We are working with Facebook and the music publisher to honor our music licenses and resolve these issues. Should you experience an interrupted live stream, please rejoin as soon as we are back online! Thank you for your patience.
Worship Preview
Among the stressors we experience in the COVID-19 pandemic is contending with the constantly changing information we must evaluate every day. Who do you trust? How do you evaluate information sources? How can we more consistently make the very best decisions we can? What do you do when a long held belief is challenged by reliable new information? The best decisions are based on reliable authority. Whose authority do you count on?
In this week’s Gospel, those listening to Jesus became increasingly stressed, especially the religious know-it-all’s because Jesus’ new information challenged the status quo and empowered a new way of living. To the unclean spirits, unkind spirits, unforgiving spirits, negative spirits, confused spirits, Jesus’ words are authoritative, reliable, but even more, Jesus’ words were aligned with his actions. Jesus sets our spirits free! Jesus wasn’t just a great teacher, he was a great healer! Jesus showed love to those most thought to be unlovable, incurable, and hopeless. Do you feel unloved? Do the stressors and circumstances of life, large or small, seem incurable? Does hope always seem just out of reach? This week, find hope, healing, and love that will amaze you. In worship, let’s be open to experience Jesus’ authority over every dimension of our life. Jesus is too amazing for words as he empowers us to live our very best life, the abundant life. Get ready to be amazed!
Music Preview
The hymn today, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, was written by Isaac Watts in the 18th century, and grew out of his desire to give followers of Jesus the ability to sing about Gospel events. The symbol of the cross remains a persistent image of sacrifice and hope. Jesus died for all on the cross, but was buried and rose again, leaving the empty cross to stir our spirits. This hymn is particularly powerful because it includes many poetic devices. For example, an oxymoron is found twice in the first stanza: “my richest gain I count but loss” and “pour contempt on all my pride.” The third stanza contains a paradox in a crown of thorns, and there are two rhetorical questions in the second half of this stanza: “Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown?” The piece ends with a proclamation of Amazing Love, that Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
