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 begins at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. 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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Here’s this week’s worship preview!

Message Preview

The traveling disciples Jesus sent out returned after their community-blessing adventures with fantastic news. How about you? Now we will meet one of those religious-types who wanted to prove himself, looking for a loophole in the definition of “neighbor.” He was no Mr. Rogers!

Being a “neighbor” in 2022 can be challenging and complicated. But it wasn’t easy in the first century either. Jesus tells one of his most memorable stories, the “Good Samaritan.” It includes a surprise ending about mercy, neighborliness, and compassion, three qualities in short supply in the Roman-occupied territory of Israel. But that lawyer and many in the audience would have considered that Samaritan bad. Why? Because the Samaritan Jew broke the religious and social rules by showing mercy to the Jerusalem Jew who nearly died in a ditch.

One admirable takeaway from Jesus’ story is to be inspired to be a better neighbor. But can we also identify with who was left for dead along the road and received mercy? Mercy may be a bit expired to our modern ears. Mercy may just feel tired, not worth our effort. Jesus reminds us that mercy is needed now. Mercy is wired! Mercy is a needed spiritual behavior that can have incredible impact on those who receive it.

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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 begins at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. 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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Here’s this week’s worship preview!

Message Preview

As we discovered last week, Jesus invites us to follow the Way. While following is not easy, going first is challenging! Going first is risky. Jesus showed people the Way, spoke the truth, and gave life. But there comes a time when disciples must go out on their own. On this Independence Day, we remember when our nation’s founders determined that change was necessary and went first. They took a step. They could achieve their God-given potential and take responsibility for their future only if they went first.

In our Gospel reading from Luke 10, Jesus sent a team of 72 ordinary people to proclaim freedom and show love and kindness to strangers if they would receive it. They had the authority to heal troubling spirits and bring peace to chaos. Jesus sent them to produce a harvest that would be gathered, shared and used to feed the world physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We may think: wouldn’t it have been better for Jesus to go first? Wouldn’t Jesus go first to offer a more remarkable display of power to get people’s attention? No, Jesus sent us. We are the freedom train sent into communities and neighborhoods. Are you ready to go first? Jesus is. One Way to “go first” this week that we celebrate Independence Day is to invite someone with you to worship this week. Hear Jesus say, “You go first!”

Music Preview

We begin worship with a special 4th of July countdown and Freedom mini-movie. Beverly Mate will be singing For Freedom, Christ Has Set Us Free. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette wrote the lyrics while attending the PC(USA) Synod School in a class taught by Dr. Charles Myers on Galatians. It resonates with some of the beautiful themes of that New Testament letter. Galatians reminds us that all the work we do to justify ourselves in the sight of God comes to nothing, but then God reaches out and says, “My child! You belong to me!”

Our video hymn is God of This City, written by the Belfast band Bluetree in 2004. While the band was traveling on a mission trip to Pattaya, Thailand, the poor conditions of the city became the inspiration for their song.

The video hymn Blessed Jesus, Living Bread will nurture our spirits as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Before the Benediction, we will sing God of Our Father’s Whose Almighty Hand. The hymn’s origins can be traced back to 1876 when the United States was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Daniel C. Roberts wrote the text for the hymn to be used during a small patriotic celebration in Vermont.

“…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 welcomed 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 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 to worship in our historic Red Brick Church 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 begins at 10:30 AM every Sunday in the Red Brick Church. 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.

---

Here’s this week’s worship preview!

Message Preview

Journey with Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. Luke’s Gospel is a “Travel Narrative” as Luke follows Jesus and the Disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem. A journey from the life Jesus knew in Galilee to the death he will experience in Jerusalem. “When the day drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” And some of the disciples followed him on “the Way.” Like early Christians, this became the rallying cry to follow Jesus on The Way. For us today, the task of following Jesus becomes one of discovery. Discovery is whom we are called to be and what we are called to do. This journey with Christ will mean facing trials and tribulations; however, there is also the promise of transformation and that our lives will be saved.

Music Preview

The composer of If I Have But a Moment, Sally DeFord, tells this story about the song: “I always marvel at just how much our Savior accomplished during what was a very short ministry. There were so many demands on his time. Yet though he had a great work to perform and labored far beyond the strength of any other man, he was still accessible to those who needed him, stopping along the way to lift, heal, and comfort.

As we strive to offer Christian charity and service to others, there are many demands on our time. We are busy people. I remember a day when a busy visiting teacher brought me flowers “for no reason at all.” Perhaps she picked them up at the grocery store check stand on a whim and stopped by on her way home.

She did not know how much I needed her kindness that day. It was a small act of service that I have never forgotten, rendered during a time of quiet grief. The memory is a gentle reminder to me that when I am in danger of being caught up “in the thick of things,” that much may be accomplished though I have but a moment.” Barbara Cain will be singing, If I Have But a Moment. 

Our lyric video hymn following the message, “Oh, That the Lord Would Guide My Ways” was written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), the Father of English hymnody. The hymn is basically a prayer, asking God to help the singer live within God’s will and, if he should stray, that the Lord would bring him back. Everything is in God’s hands. 

Herman Stuempfle’s hymns offer honest accounts of how we are as human beings. The closing hymn, “Would I have answered When You Called” represents a personal reflection on the Gospel stories of Jesus recruiting his first disciples, with their concise narratives of call and response. Jesus calls “Follow me”, and the fishermen brothers Simon and Andrew do just that, without hesitation.

It may be that, like Jesus’ first disciples, “all I longed for I have found by the water” and that we desire to “seek other shores” with Christ. Nevertheless, as the saying goes, “when the chips are down…”, how easy would we find the call – not least if we are were required to follow Jesus in giving our lives for our faith commitment? Would we, like Jesus’ scattered disciples, have “slipped away and left you there alone”? (v.3). The truth is, Stuempfle concludes, many of us have to say “we do not know”. We can only pray that Christ-in-us will give us strength beyond our own “to follow faithfully.” (v.4)

“…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 welcomed 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 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 to worship in our historic Red Brick Church on Sundays at 10:30 AM.