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You’re in the right place!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get your Worship Guide (click here)

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Message and Music preview!

This week, we got questions. And, Jesus is listening!

Message Preview

One question kids never tire of asking is Why? Why, why, why, why, why! Kids want help getting the answers they seek. They deserve our loving and generous attention. We wish to affirm their value and address their concerns, so they feel heard.

This week, we see how Jesus responds to persistent and controversial questions, even insincerely asked ones. The religious folks who badger Jesus in our reading from Luke 20:27-38 aren’t looking for answers. Not really. They only want reassurance for their points of view and, if they can, embarrass Jesus while they’re at it! How did Jesus react?

At Cold Spring Church, your questions are welcome. Jesus invites and assures us that whatever our motivations or questions, or how persistently we ask them, Jesus never tires of listening—or responding. Those dilemmas you’re facing? He’s with you. Those seemingly unanswered queries? God’s got you. No matter the depth of our pain or anxiety, Jesus understands and receives us just the way we are.

Get to the heart of the matter, what matters to you, this week at Cold Spring Church.

Music Preview

We begin with our Fall countdown, setting the theme for our worship experience today. Rev. Larry Moyer, accompanied by Jayne McDonough, will sing a Gaither hymn, Little Is Much When God Is In It. Following the message, we will be moved by an energetic music lyric video. You Never Let Go is inspired by Psalm 23, verse 4. We need to find something firm to stand on in our darkest moments, and the Lord “never let us go.” The composer, Matt Redman, says this song has caused many people to write to him about how God has been at work personally for them.

Our sending hymn is When We Are Living, written by Roberto Escamilla. He was born in 1931 near Monterrey, Mexico, close to the border with Texas. The first verse he learned as a young boy and was based on Romans 14:8: “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.” The remaining verses were written about living and receiving love through service and giving and receiving through our pain and questioning. The hymn concludes with an affirmation that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8: 38-39). When we live in a way that focuses closely on God’s love, nothing else really matters. “Hard times will prove us, never remove us,” writes Roberto Escamilla, “we belong to God, we belong to God.”

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship with us on YouTube (click here)

Physical distancing is recommended but not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You’re in the right place!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get your Worship Guide (click here)

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Message and Music preview!

This week, we’re hearing a knocking at our door?! Is it trick-or-treaters?

Message Preview

This week commemorates the Protestant Reformation (1517-1648) that transformed Europe with renewed spiritual energy. The Reformation was coexistent with the Black Plague devastating effects of the second wave of the Black Death, as the bubonic plague wiped out an estimated 30% to 60% of the population. As communities contended with the disease, the Protestant Reformation’s motto, Scripture alone, grace alone, and faith alone, emboldened followers of Christ to humble service, scientific and religious scholarship, and ministries of caring. While the names of reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin are widely recognized, the occurrence of Reformation Day on Halloween, October 31, was no accident for Luther. Halloween, or All Hallow’s Eve, is the day before All Saints Day. The Church would be packed with worshippers as it recognizes the community of faith that has passed on. Luther wanted to broadcast his criticism of the Church to as broad an audience as possible to promote reform. He couldn’t have picked a more appropriate connection since he was calling the Church back to the Gospel roots and  Christian affirmations.

The Rev. Larry Loyer will preach this week while Melissa and Pastor Kevin are on vacation. The message from Luke 19: 1-10 is titled It’s Halloween. Who’s knocking at your door? We will meet a tax collector named Zacchaeus. (Was this the repentant tax man Jesus referred to in last week’s message?) When Jesus referred to Zacchaeus as a child of Abraham yet was still lost, he must’ve shocked his hearers in at least two ways. They would have had a hard time even acknowledging that this unpopular tax collector was a fellow son of Abraham, and they would never admit that the children of Abraham are lost. This Sunday, we will discover that no one is saved by a good heritage or condemned by a bad one. We reaffirm our Reformation roots because faith is more important than genealogy.

Music Preview

We begin with our Fall countdown that sets the theme for our worship experience today. We will enjoy our Fifth Sunday Hymn Sing, so be thinking of a favorite hymn you’d like us to sing! Following the message we will be moved by an energetic music lyric video from Koiné Music, Speak O Savior, I Am Listening. Our sending hymn is Zacchaeus Was A Tax Man, written by Carolyn Gillette to the tune of The Church’s One Foundation.

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship with us on YouTube (click here)

Physical distancing is recommended but not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You’re in the right place!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get your Worship Guide (click here)

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Message and Music preview!

This week, we’re hanging out at the corner of faith and justice!

Message Preview

Our political, community and personal conversations often contain criticism without grace and accusations without evidence. Looking at others with contempt in our economic and political climate seems to be easy for us. From social media to the corner deli, judging the offenses of those around us is second nature. Why do we hold others in disdain? In our Gospel lesson this week, Jesus introduces us to two individuals at the temple. One gave thanks for not being like those despicable others, and the second humbly asked God for mercy. From Despicable 2 Incredible is Pastor Kevin’s message from Luke 18:9-14 as we learn about skyscrapers and our uniqueness. How can we eliminate the corrosive nature of contempt? What must we do to get out of the habit of expressing disdain, both in our relationships and, more broadly, as a nation?

Message Preview

We begin with our Fall countdown to worship video that sets the theme for our  experience today. God welcomes all of us, right now, without exception! Beverly Mate will sing O Savior, In This Quiet Place, accompanied by Jayne McDonough. Following the message we will be moved by an energetic music lyric video, Chief of Sinners Though I Be, recalling our Gospel lesson about spiritual humility and the astonishing good news that Christ brings us. Our sending hymn is Fight the Good Fight which may appear to be a military theme, but in fact is an athletic one, from a Greek verb meaning “struggle” or “grapple” or “wrestle.” The sports context continues in later stanzas reflecting the experience of a runner (recalling Hebrews 12:1-2).

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship with us on YouTube (click here)

Physical distancing is recommended but not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You’re in the right place!

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get your Worship Guide (click here)

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Message and Music preview!

This week, we’re hanging out at the corner of faith and justice!

Message Preview

There are thousands of intersections in Cape May. Think about intersections near you: What intersection is the most remarkable to you? When is the intersection the busiest with traffic or pedestrians? Why not take a photo of your intersection to share with us on Sunday?

Consider our corner at Seashore and Academy Roads. For hundreds of years, our intersection has been a gathering place, a sending place, and a safe place for neighbors to enjoy at the Red Brick Church and the beautiful cemetery campus. Cold Spring Church is at the crossroads of community activity.

This week we will hear Jesus’ story about a widow and a judge from Luke 18 who find themselves at a crossroads. Why did she go to the judge at night? What does Jesus want us to learn from the judge’s decision even though he hated God and people? Join us at the corner of Faith Avenue and Justice Street this Sunday, where we find Jesus looking for an intersection of faith and justice in our lives, too. What will you find there?

Music Preview

Worship begins with singing God Welcomes All. Barbara Cain will sing There is a Longing in Our Hearts. The refrain of this sung prayer describes why we pray, and the stanzas indicate what we pray for. These requests are not for possessions but for qualities and conditions we hope for in the world around us, and they emerge from the changing circumstances of our lives. 

After the message we will enjoy the music lyric video by 7eventh Time Down, I Have Decided.

Our sending music is David Haas’ Come! Live In the Light (We Are Called), based on the well-known challenge of Micah 6:8, “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Our theme of faith and justice is the musical center about our vocation as follows of Jesus.

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship with us on YouTube (click here)

Physical distancing is recommended but not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview! This week, find out why you need a bicycle for your spirit!

Message Preview

How much is that now? We do more and more double-takes as meat and other grocery costs rise. Supply chain issues, labor shortages, high product demand across the U.S., and the global response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have contributed to excessive price hikes. Inflation is hitting everyone, but low-income households are feeling the pinch even more, especially as wage increases for many workers fail to keep up with inflation. Is gratitude increasingly difficult to express? As we deal with sticker shock, everybody agrees the price we most prefer is FREE! Everybody wants free!

A lot of the services we depend on are free. Companies, though, are trying to figure out how to start charging. But once we get used to free, its tough to accept the idea we need to pay now! Researcher Russ Roberts of George Mason University even found that many WWII vets were still upset when they recalled when the Red Cross stopped offering free donuts. Get the rest of that story and more this week as we explore the Good News from the prophet Jeremiah and Jesus. Invite a friend because it will be a Gratitude Free-For-All at Cold Spring Church!

Music Preview

Our lyric video Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord, can be everyone’s prayer, especially those seeking to be open to God’s grace to nurture a spirit of gratitude. As the world we live in gets more complex and distracting, we need to cling to God’s saving presence in Christ and ask that the eyes of our hearts would be open to see the beauty of life.

The closing hymn Live Into Hope was written for the United Presbyterian Women’s National Meeting in July 1976 because the team planning worship could not find a suitable melody for the reading from Luke 4:16-20. Jane Parker Huber wrote the words with this lively 18th century tune in mind. 

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing is recommended but not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview! This week, find out why you need a bicycle for your spirit!

Message Preview

There are bike trails like the Cold Spring Bike Path just north of us in Erma, the path along the old Cape May Seashore Line’s railroad bed, and the bike trail connecting Cape May City with Cape May Point and the state park. Last week hundreds of competitive bicycle athletes and enthusiasts rode through our area, some enjoying a side trip through our beautiful campus. While there are substantial health benefits to riding or exercising on a bike, we will discover even more about the bicycle. 

This week’s Gospel reading from Luke 17 starts with the disciples asking for more faith to meet a particularly thorny forgiveness problem. When you think about it, to forgive you really need to have faith! Surprisingly, Jesus explained to the disciples that to forgive big, all they needed to do was put what “little faith” they had into motion! Faith in motion results in forgiveness.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” -Albert Einstein

Faith is a bicycle for the spirit. And when faith is in motion, amazing things happen! There’s a vast difference in outcomes between riding a stationary bike and a moving bicycle. We’ll learn about a Scientific American study that evaluated which species on the planet was the most efficient in locomotion. While the mighty condor was above any other species, beating even a human in an automobile, it was a human riding a bike that blew the condor away from its top spot! In a message titled Faith: Bicycle For the Spirit (A Way to Forgiveness), we will learn how to get our faith in motion. Cold Spring Church is your neighborhood stop for a faith that moves you!

Music Preview

Following the message, we will be inspired by Jonathan Rundman’s Forgiveness Waltz. Jonathan is from Finland and was recently called as pastor of a Lutheran church in Minnesota. Jesus’ message of grace, of how loved we all are, as we are, is like a dance of forgiveness. 

Our sending hymn, Faith Begins By Letting Go, affirms that faith is not a state of being but a process of doing, becoming what we are called to be in relationship to God, other people, and the world. The movement from one stage of faith to another is suggested by gestures of the hand: letting go, holding on, reaching out.

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing and masks are recommended but are not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview! This week, find our where Charles Dickens’ inspiration for A Christmas Carol came from!

Message Preview

As a faith community, we transform lives as we fulfill our mission to make greater Cape May a better place in the name of Jesus Christ. We are delighted that more and more of us are returning to outdoor activities and in-person  worship. (Remember that a great way to support our mission is to invite someone to worship with you!)

As we improve our spiritual energy, we demonstrate God’s welcoming love to our entire community because nobody wants to be a Scrooge! We don’t even want to be around those who act like the protagonist from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But we know that more than just individuals can ignore, disrespect, mistreat, and abuse others. Communities, organizations, groups, and nations can create or tolerate Scrooge-like behaviors and policies that adversely affect the least and the lost. Our mission is to work together to promote positive, trusting interpersonal relationships that improve hopefulness and reduce feelings of isolation. Healthy communities of every kind boost health, happiness, and longevity.

God sent Jesus to close gaps between our Creator and us, between individuals, to heal the divides of religion, gender, politics, and wealth. We can and must tangibly reveal our unity in Christ, here and now. The apostle Paul wrote, “When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it” (Galatians 6:10a). In this week’s message from Luke 16, The Case of the Invisible Neighbors, we will hear Jesus’ story about a rich man who neglected his neighbor. More than a morality tale, we will consider how the radical nature of Jesus’ mission inspired Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Who will you be inspired to notice? Even Scrooge was inspired to change and treat others differently! All this and more this week at Cold Spring Church.

Music Preview

Our music video is Chris Tomlinson’s Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone). After a chance encounter on a plane, a producer asked Chris to write music for his upcoming Amazing Grace movie. The movie is about William Wilberforce’s work to abolish slavery in Europe. He wrote a chorus, My Chains Are Gone, to the well-loved traditional hymn. Chris says he never thought his version would be so popular in churches worldwide. (You can stream Amazing Grace (2006) starring Albert Finney, Benedict Cumberbach, and Toby Jones on Apple TV and Prime Video.)

We close today with a Carolyn Gillete hymn, Outside My Gate, Outside My Door, inspired by Jesus’ story of Lazarus on was dropped outside the rich man’s gate (Luke 16:19-31).

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing and masks are recommended but are not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the beautiful and historic Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and street and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview!

Message Preview

Taking care of ourselves is good advice. Cold Spring Presbyterian Church provides resources for you to experience abundant life through Christ. All of us invest a great deal of our time, energy, and attention in accomplishing our whole-life wellness, which we can call our standard of living. The Bible speaks a lot about our standard of living, the standards that show our love for God and others, and how we measure the standard of living we achieve. We also pay attention to all aspects of our life, mind, body, and spirit. Our time, energy, and talents are exchangeable for the resources we need to maintain or improve our standard of living.

This week, an overlooked and misunderstood parable of Jesus about a business manager will show us how his standard of living flows out of his standard of giving. (Fun Fact: Did you know that 38 parables deal directly with money? Yes! And in the Bible, more than 2,000 verses are about money and possessions!)

In our Gospel reading from Luke 16, we may discover a redeeming quality in a dishonest manager as we spend, save, and give, each according to our unique life experiences.

Music Preview

Rev. Larry Moyer will sing, Just a Little Talk with Jesus, written by Rev. Cleavant Derricks, pastor of a small African-American church in Alabama. He wrote the song during the Great Depression. Money was already tight during these difficult times, but his church was in terrible need of new hymnals. Rev. Derricks found a publisher, Stamps-Baxter, and contacted them. He stated he needed hymnals and did not have the money to purchase them while offering a bargain. Would the publisher accept his songs to provide hymnals for his church? The publisher bought just two of his songs. Rev. Derricks is said to have received fifty hymnals in exchange for the rights to his music. This song became one of the best-loved southern gospel songs within a few years.

Our lyric video hymn is God of the Poor (Beauty for Brokenness) by Graham Kendrick. It was commissioned by Tear Fund and originally recorded in 1993 for the Spark to a Flame album and re-recorded for 2011’s Very Best of Graham Kendrick. The theme reflects our reading from Amos about our responsibility to not only care for our neighbors, but to work for justice.

We will conclude worship singing God Whose Giving Knows No Ending. The musical setting grounds these inspiring words, an early American shape-note tune named for a Baptist church in Harris County, Georgia. The Hymn Society of America received more than 450 submissions searching for a new hymn about whole-life stewardship, and God Whose Giving Knows No Ending was their favorite.

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing and masks are recommended but are not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview!

Message Preview

Happy birthday, football! Football is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Football League (NFL) today. Football is any game where you kick a ball with your foot on a linear field of play, including soccer and rugby. The goal is to get the ball to your opponent’s end zone for a touchdown. The NFL generated 15.26 billion dollars in revenue in 2019 and is the most profitable sports league in the United States. Total attendance at NFL games reached a record 18.29 million fans across the regular season in 2021. Increasingly football is beating out baseball as America’s favorite sport. This week football may also become your favorite metaphor for our spiritual life in Christ!

Living rooms and stadiums will erupt with shouts and cheers for a touchdown. But like watching the football move up and down the field, the forces of good and evil can be seen to compete. Sin can seem on the offense, putting the most points on the scoreboard. Too infrequently, though, spiritual goodness appears to be winning. The Apostle Paul spoke about the personal struggle of wanting to do good (Romans 7:18-19). Paul told Timothy about his spiritual progress as he learned to grow and mature, make better choices, living his best life in Christ (1 Timothy 1:12-17).

In our Gospel reading from Luke 15, we celebrate when God’s goodness wins. In the story about the lost sheep, Jesus wants us to realize that more important than a football crossing into the end zone is when even one person responds in faith to Jesus. With Jesus, a touchdown is an expression of repentance, and a pattern of repentance and faith, that elicits huge cheers in heaven! There is joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents, then for the ninth-nine righteous who need no repentance (Luke 15). The faith community can be a place of celebration as we discover The Gridiron Gospel and pick up the ball of faith this week at Cold Spring Church.

Music Preview

We begin with our countdown to worship video that sets the theme for our experience today. God welcomes all of us, right now, without exception! Barbara Cain will sing I Could Never Outlove the Lord, accompanied by Jayne McDonough. Following the message we will be moved by an energetic music lyric video, Chief of Sinners Though I Be, recalling our New Testament Reading where the Apostle Paul uses that phrase to describe himself and the astonishing good news that by God’s grace he celebrates all that Christ is doing for him. We will put our faith into action singing our sending hymn, O For a World. Everything longed for in the lyrics is a reminder of how far our present world is from what God wants. Yet this is not just wishful thinking; it is a call to action, a summons to participate in the fulfillment of God’s desire for all earth’s people to live in radical shalom because Christ lives in and through us.

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing and masks are recommended but are not required!

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

Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

You have found a place to encounter God and people who care about you – just as you are, right where you are, anytime. Our welcoming, energizing, community worship premiers at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. We are fully accessible and lot parking is available. Stay for our Hospitality Table following worship. Get news and event information in your inbox every week by subscribing to our weekly Connections email newsletter. Sign up here!

Get Your Worship Guide (Click here)

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Read the Message and Music preview!

Message Preview

Where do you see faith at work? This Labor Day weekend we will celebrate God’s work in our lives that we most clearly realize when we put our faith in Jesus Christ to work.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

We work on lots of projects, big and small. Think about your last project. How did it turn out? Sometimes, the project may not have turned out the way we expected! Ordinary setbacks, unanticipated obstacles, or our inactions or distractions may leave the task incomplete. We want to stay with it. Sometimes we can’t or won’t. What do we do? How can we build things that matter?

In this week’s message from Luke 14:25-33 titled, Before You Build, we hear Jesus set some pretty high expectations for those who follow him. There is no discount discipleship. No coupons to reduce our costs. When Jesus invited others to follow, it meant following in his footsteps. What did Jesus mean when he said to love him more than our family? (Yes, he said that. But it doesn’t mean what you may at first think.) Jesus says our possessions (time, energy, attention, health, finances) must never get in our way. What prompted Jesus to use the metaphor of a builder who couldn’t finish the project or a king estimating his chances of winning a battle? 

What does it cost us to follow Jesus? The short answer is everything! But the good news is that Jesus has paid the cost, and we can be ready to complete God’s tasks. Our goals may not be as audacious as Nehemiah’s or as fantastic as the Apostle Paul’s, but what we do matters because we matter. Let’s get it done because when Jesus starts something, you can be sure he will finish it! That includes us, too. What God began in your spiritual core, your heart, God will keep at it until we reach our full potential in Christ. Find out how you can build your life by taking these three steps of faith at Cold Spring Church this week:

1. Secure the foundation
2. Build the future 
3. Stick to the plan

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Music Preview

This week we will enjoy a hymn solo for Labor Day by Barbara Cain with Jayne McDonough titled, O God Our Creator, You Work Every Day. Our first hymn is an upbeat piece by 7eventh Time Down titled I Have Decided. Our worship will reinforce our theme of making good decisions and not turning back when Jesus calls us forward. We close worship with Lord of All Hopefulness that celebrates God’s work in our lives throughout each day.

“…That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:18).

Whatever your religious affiliation, or none at all, we all hear Jesus say, “Come to me all who are overburdened, and find rest for your soul!” Everyone is welcome at Cold Spring Church. Yes, everyone!

Enjoy sitting with others from greater Cape May as we worship together. We simplified our service and made it even easier to participate, with our Worship Guide and lyric videos displayed on a large screen.

Worship anytime on YouTube Live!
(click here)

Physical distancing and masks are recommended bu are not required!

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Energize your life and discover the amazing love of Jesus! This week is the perfect time to join us in person for worship. Enjoy live music and solo, lyric videos, and a message of hope from God’s word.

We are excited to welcome you to worship in our historic Red Brick Church that premiers on Sundays at 10:30 AM.