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Vision

Our Vision and Mission Shape Community-Focused Ministry

By Intersections, Uncategorized

Energize Your Spirit — Transform Your Life

Our Vision

We believe that everyone deserves to experience God’s love in relevant, accessible, and authentic ways, and that our faith in practice represents an amazing opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, communities, and the world. Our thriving faith community puts God’s love into action to help make greater Cape May a better place. We welcome people of all ages to joyfully love and serve God and our neighbors in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. God loves Cape May, and we demonstrate that love every day of every year!

Our Mission

Cold Spring Presbyterian Church energizes spirits and transforms lives by delivering  resources and experiences that are rooted in the Good News of Jesus Christ through  inspiring worship, practical teaching, innovative programs, and community-focused events and ministries.

Established in 1714, Cold Spring Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a member of the Presbytery of West Jersey. We invite you to become a part of our hopeful future.

(Our vision and mission was drafted by our Transformation Pastor and was updated received by the session in September 2019. It emerged from the work of the Mission Study Team including Marty Bowne, Kevin Beare, Taylor Burkhardt, intentional transformation journey our congregation began in 2016, including community-directed worship and events, congregational surveys, feedback, and the Focus Your Vision day in 2018. The comprehensive Mission Study will be completed in November 2019.)

Who is the Mission Study Team:  While the Mission Study Team (MST) was open to new folks joining in and helping out as we go along, the team to date included: John Stalford, Chuck McPherson, Melissa Arnott, Marty Bowne, Lenore Bowne, Larry Hume, Taylor Burkhardt, and Kevin Beare. Pastor Kevin led the team.

Why We Need A Mission Study: 305 years is a long time. And over three centuries, even since 2016, every community, everyone, experience change. More than you may at first recognize. Being in a community for a long time can so familiarize us to what we’re used to, that’s we cannot clearly see what has changed and who our neighbors have become. Cold Spring Church does many things, but the future belongs to ministries that can focus their resources to deliver amazing, life-transforming ministry the community really needs. We want to take best advantage of existing community resources, and convince our congregation and other friends that our story and program is worth supporting and investing in. In order to do that, we need to create as thorough and as balanced a profile of our community and our congregation as we can. . . . God is already at work in our community. Our task is to find out where Cold Spring Church can enter that picture moving forward.

2019-02-24 Message for Kids- #Selfie or #Selfless

By Sermons

A recent survey of people ages 18-24 revealed that “selfies” are their most popular genre of photography. The result of the survey is supported by evidence from Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and other media. What’s the difference with a Selfie? Who do you see when you take a selfie? Of course, yourself! The thing is, when you’re always focused looking at yourself you don’t see who? Others, right! When we are walking around all day, whether our phone is in front of our face or not, if we are constantly thinking about ourselves, what we want, we might be being selfish! Jesus wasn’t selfish. He freely gave himself for us so we would be forgiven and given an amazing life! And, Jesus doesn’t want us to be selfish either, but to be selfless!

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).

So let’s remember: less selfie, more selfless. Selfie’s are O.K.. Selflessly paying attention to others is Jesus’ way!

2019-01-27 Message- Breaking Free

By Sermons

Life doesn’t just happen, it is the result of the choices we make every day

  • Emily Dickinson
  • If I can stop one heart from breaking,
  • I shall not live in vain;
  • If I can ease one life the aching,
  • Or cool one pain,
  • Or help one fainting robin.
  • Unto his nest again,
  • I shall not live in vain.

What’s your life’s purpose, your mission?

This week we will learn from the salmon who start and end their mission at home. More instinct and nature helps them fulfill their purpose. But we’ll also ask Carrion Crows in the Japanese city of Sendai how they have creatively learned to use new information far from their home turf to eat, using passing traffic to crack nuts for them.

Kids need a purpose in their life. Adults do, too. And so do churches.

We want to glorify God and enjoy God forever. This requires that we practice “Forgetting what lies behind… (and) press on to what lies ahead in Christ Jesus.”

Our community activities, our ministries, must fulfill our mission, the the purpose of our ministry.

What’s your mission? We must listen to Jesus.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”

How will we help jesus fulfill His mission in Cape May?

Let’s listen. Let’s learn. Let’s Lead.

2018-09-23 Message- Make Church Great Again. No Child Left Behind.

By Sermons

Make America Great Again is , well, a great slogan! It stirs our imaginations to conjure images of America as Great! But what is our frame of reference to be Great? Back a few centuries ago, America was considered Great because it was the friend of all, welcoming of every religion, even the Puritans (who were kicked out of England because their faith was just weird), the Anabaptists (who fled Europe because their faith was non-conformist), the Roman Catholics (who were feared to be worshipping a prince in a tall white hat instead of the Prince of Peace), and welcoming of Italians, Germans, Scots, French, Asian, African, and South American countries, too. Being great means no one is left behind. There is room for you. One more. The ones no one else seems to want. The others who are forgotten. Being Great as in winning the Great War, enjoying the Greatest Show on Earth, hearing the Greatest story ever told, singing Great is Thy Faithfulness, and recalling Jesus tell his disciples, Greater things you will do, are all, as I said, really great. Aspiring to greatness can be a great thing to aspire to. But what is great? And how do we as individuals become truly great? How do our communities become great? How can Cold Spring Church become great?  How can America become great? Well, what did Jesus say about greatness? Let’s take a look at Mark 9:30-37.

The disciples followed Jesus, literally followed him as he walked around. They were his students and where Jesus went, they went. But from many accounts in the Gospels, the disciples not only stayed attentive to their spiritual coach, they also had their own huddles with one another just out of earshot of Jesus. (An interesting Bible study could be looking up the manny times Jesus asks, “What were you discussing along the road?” ) Just out of earshot may protect your private conversation from a hard of hearing friend, but Jesus is not hard of hearing. He hears the whimpers of a baby and the sighs of the aged, Jesus hears all, something the disciples just couldn’t understand. So, the disciples were in their huddle, chatting up a storm, when Jesus asks, “What were you discussing on the road?”

Not a peep. Like getting caught in science class whispering to a classmate. Stoic Silence. Apparently no one admitted the conversational topic. THey were too embarrassed. But like I said, Jesus is not hard of hearing. He sits them down in the home they arrived at, and starts addressing what they thought was a silent running.

“So you want to be great?”

Simple. Include everyone. Welcome this child. Love this child. Protect this child. As you welcome children, you are welcoming me, Jesus said. To be great, is to be the servant of all. All of us are children. Some of us just move faster or slower than others. Every age. Every person. Welcome. Now, let’s show God’s love as servants in the community, and to the degree we serve, we will be great again! And that’s Great!

2018-08-05 Message- Q+A with Jesus. Ask for clearer vision

By Sermons

 The Gospel lesson (John 6:24-35) continues the image of Jesus as the bread of life. This is particularly fitting for communion Sunday when we gather at the table.

Sometimes our vision is obscured. In the Gospel story, Jesus has compassion on the people because they keep looking for physical bread (what they can see), and he says “I have so much more to give!” They just don’t see it. What do you ask Jesus for? Is your vision and faith prompting you to ask for something beyond yourself? How can God use you to bless others. Feed the hungry. Quench the thirst. And remember God wants to do way beyond our wildest imaginations!

2018-08-05 Message for Kids- Clean Your Glasses To See God At Work

By Sermons, Uncategorized

Here is an eye chart. Read the row. Nice. You see pretty good. Try these goggles on! New swim goggles. Tell me what you see. Oh, not so much? Why is that? There is something on the lens obscuring your vision. Sorry. Take this lens cleaner and let’s clean them up. Now you can see clearly. You know, God is doing all sorts of great things all around us. But some of the things God does can’t be easily seen. Love. Forgiveness. Hope. Peace. Our vision is clouded, our eyes of faith are obscured. What we need is a spiritual lens cleaning cloth. Here’s a lens cleaning cloth for your glasses. The spiritual cloth is made from hope and faith. Remember to begin your day with clear vision so we see God’s love in action right in fron to you.