April 3 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Flowers from the Coopers

Tim leads the Adult Class disussion

Suzanne and Lorie offer the postlude

Back for fellowship time!

It's nice to be back in Franz Hall

Today’s Meditation Verse: “Look! I’m doing a new thing; now it sprouts up; don’t you recognize it?” —Isaiah 43:19a (CEB)

Welcome... Pastor Charles

Prelude... Lorie Courier / “Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”

*Call to Worship (Psalm 126, CEB)... Claudia Mills

Leader: When the LORD changed Zion’s circumstances for the better, it was like we had been dreaming.

People: Our mouths were suddenly filled with laughter; our tongues were filled with joyful shouts. It was even said, at that time, among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them!”

Leader: Yes, the LORD has done great things for us, and we are overjoyed.

People: LORD, change our circumstances for the better, like dry streams in the desert waste!

Leader: Let those who plant with tears reap the harvest with joyful shouts.

People: Let those who go out, crying and carrying their seed, come home with joyful shouts, carrying

bales of grain!

*Hymn... “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (UMH #121)

Confession and Pardon (UMC Book of Worship #479)... Claudia Mills

Almighty God, we confess that we are often swept up in the tide of our generation. We have failed in our calling to be Your holy people, a people set apart for Your divine purpose. We live more in apathy born of fatalism than in passion born of hope. We are more by private ambition than by social justice. We dream more of privilege and benefits than of service and sacrifice. We try to speak Your name without relinquishing our glories, without nourishing our souls, without relying wholly in Your grace. Help us to make room in our hearts and lives for You. Forgive us, revive us, and reshape us in Your

image. Amen

This is the message we have heard from God and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus the Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:5,7)

*Offering/Doxology (“Old 100th”)

Praise God throughout these forty days. Praise Christ, our Lord, whom God did raise. And praise the Spirit who imparts God's love in Christ into our hearts. Amen.*

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer... Pastor Charles

Epistle Lesson: Philippians 3:4b-14... Claudia Mills

Special Music... Chancel Choir / “There Is a Name I Love to Hear” arranged by David Lantz III

Gospel Lesson: John 12:1-8... Pastor Charles

Pastor: This is the Word of God for the people of God.

People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon... Pastor Charles / “Using your nard”

Communion / The Lord’s Prayer (See insert) 

*Hymn... “Lord of All Hopefulness” (UMH #2197)

*Words for the Journey... Pastor Charles

*Postlude... Lorie Courier & Suzanne Polacek / “Jubilation”

Devotional for the Fifth Sunday in Lent

Celtic cross (pewter)

 
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you rest secure. 

May there be peace within your walls and security in your palaces.” 

Out of love for my relatives and friends, I will say, “May peace be within you." 

Out of love for the house of the Lord, our God, I will pray for your well-being.

—Psalm 122:6-9 (New Catholic Bible)

 

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“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”

Saint Teresa of Avila

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Luke in 40 Days: Rest

Scholarships available for Laity

The Board of Lay Ministry of the Mountain Sky Conference provides scholarships for lay members to attend an event or workshop that would help you spiritually, increase your knowledge, or strengthen your leadership ability. Scholarship amounts are up to $250 for in-state events and up to $500 for out-of-state events and workshops.

The following guidelines and procedures have been developed to facilitate the use of the funds available for this purpose.

 

1. Applications will be accepted and considered only from lay members of the United Methodist Churches of the Mountain Sky Conference.

2. Funds will not be awarded for educational events meant to accredit laity for professional certification.

3. Special consideration will be given to educational events that provide lay leadership for Mountain Sky Conference priorities. The scholarship fund is intended to promote activities that extend beyond the local church and strengthen the connectional ministry. 

4. Applications should be received 30 days prior to the date of the event.

5. The principle of participatory funding is paramount. The total cost is to be shared by the participant, the local church, and the annual conference. Additional sources of funding should also be explored.

6. The following questions must be answered:

   1. What do you hope to accomplish by participating in this program, plan, or event? 

   2. How does this complement your participation in your local church? 

   3. How does this help you and your church engage more effectively into the local community?

   4. What do you see as benefits for the sub-district, district or the annual conference from your attendance at this event?

7. The application must be signed or acknowledged via email by the pastor or a representative of the local church.

8. You are expected to submit an evaluation of your experience within 30 days after the completion of the event. Please send it to one of the scholarship coordinator as designated below.

Applications and evaluations may be mailed to:

 Nancy Flint, 125 Lewis Lane, Columbia Falls, MT 59912, neflint@gmail.com

or

Ken Hazlitt,  206 Colorado Place, Sterling. CO 80751, khazlitt@juno.com

 

Download the Lay Scholarship Application HERE

General Conference News

General Conference organizers are looking at strategies to prevent further delays of The United Methodist Church’s top lawmaking assembly beyond 2024.

At its online meeting March 28, the Commission on the General Conference approved the formation of two strategy teams — one focused on visas and the other on logistics. 

With the new teams, the commission members hope to overcome the two main obstacles that have blocked General Conference from going forward amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I am definitely in favor personally that we have a General Conference in which we are all in the same space,” said the Rev. Juliet Spencer, the commission member who proposed the strategy teams.

“I just don’t want us to be caught two years from now or a year and a half from now saying, ‘Oops, we still can’t have it in person.’”

Read more at this link.

Devotional for April 2

Scrollsaw cross

I will bring the one third through the fire;
    I will refine them as one refines silver,
    and I will test them as one tests gold.
They will call upon my name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are my people,” and they will say, “The Lord is my God.”

                    —Zechariah 13:9 (New American Bible—Revised Edition)

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 “The primary purpose of prayer is not to make requests. The primary purpose is to praise, to sing, to chant. Because the essence of prayer is a song, and man cannot live without a song. Prayer may not save us. But prayer may make us worthy of being saved.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays

 

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Luke in 40 Days: Luke 18:18-43

United for Ukraine: Benefit Concert

Benefit Concert for Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine with Arvada UMC ensembles and local artists providing music with 100% of proceeds go to relief efforts. 

Arvada UMC (6750 Carr St., Arvada)

Donations accepted online or at the door. 

Donation Link: https://www.shelbygiving.com/App/Giving/aumc

Livestream Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdWdLpQDK1s

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” - Leonard Bernstein

Devotional for April 1

Crochet cross

First of all, I encourage you to make petitions, prayers, intercessions, and prayers of thanks for all people, for rulers, and for everyone who has authority over us. Pray for these people so that we can have a quiet and peaceful life always lived in a godly and reverent way. 

— 1 Timothy 2:1-8 (Names of God Bible)

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   “Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.”

George Whitefield

 

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Luke in 40 Days: Luke 18:1-17