Scripture lessons for next Sunday

The season after Pentecost continues this week with lessons from Psalm 111 and 2 Timothy 2:8-15.

October 2 @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers

Joys:

+We are blessed with the Rev. Ashley Murphy, Director of the Wesley Foundation @ CU as our preacher this morning.
+Sandy Bainbridge gives thanks for the support given for the Alzheimers fund raiser ($1,000).
+Myrle Myers gives thanks for the improving health of Austin Cooper.
+Belinda Alkula gives thanks for Pastor Charles' time off.
+We give thanks for those with birthdays this week: Braden Nunnery, Siena Pulaski, & Joey Vander Vorste.
+We are blessed by those who served this week: Belinda Alkula (fellowship/video), Angela Baker (communion), Steve Bainbridge (usher), Pat Cleaveland (flowers & fellowship), Tim Cook (adult class & liturgist), Lorie Courier (piano), Etta Levitt (Zoom usher), Kathy Lloyd (Zoom host), Myrle Myers (fellowship), & Ron Revier (choir).

Concerns: 

+Louise Cook asks for prayers as she travels to Spokane this week.
+The PATH Fund needs replenishment. Support from the congregation is needed. 
Scott Glancy requests prayers for PATH fund recipients:
   1) a single father with 4 elementary school children who needed to be quarantined and he had to be off work for a couple of weeks and 2) a mother who had a dental emergency.
+We continue to offer prayers for those recovering from the recent hurricanes.
+We join with many across the nation in mourning the 250 deaths and 567 injured in gun violence this past week. 

October 2, 2022 @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements

+Ladies Lunch Bunch -- Thursday, October 6, at 11:45 a.m., at the   Chautauqua Dining Hall (900 Baseline Road in Boulder). Please R.S.V.P. by October 4 to Sandy Bainbridge via email or text to 970-584-0311. There is handicap parking in front of the hall and other metered parking nearby. It is suggested to carpool from the church lot. Please arrange with each other.

+Church Conference season is here! Please prepare your reports for inclusion in this year's packet that will be presented at our virtual Church Conference, November 19 @ 10:00 AM. The membership, clergy compensation, and lay leadership reports must be pre-approved at the October Church Council meeting. Other reports need to be sent to Pastor Charles by November 1.

+Have you signed up for the Advent/Christmas devotional? Pastor Charles invites the congregation to participate in the creation of the fourth annual Advent and Christmas devotional. The theme for this year’s devotional is sometimes called a crèche, Nativity set, or manger scene. St. Francis of Assisi created the first crèche in 1223 in an attempt to bring the focus of Christmas back to the birth of Christ and away from material, gift-giving customs. 

It’s simple! 1) Select a person, an animal, or an element of the Nativity that speaks to you. You can also describe a Nativity set that you have in your home that is special to you. 2) Write a short reflection (one to two brief paragraphs) on what that that person, animal, element, or set means to you. 3) Submit your devotion to the office by November 1 either in writing or via email. 

October 2 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

 

Adult class welcomes the Rev. Ashley Murphy

The choir shares their gifts

World Communion Sunday with Rev. Murphy

Celebration Sunday @ St. Paul's

Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Visit this link for today's worship video.

Welcome... Rev. Ashley Murphy

Prelude... Lorie Courier / “Sheep Safely Graze”

*Call to Worship... Tim Cook

Children of God, welcome! Welcome to this place of love and grace.

Welcome to this place of hope and perseverance. God invites all of us to be a part of the beloved community.

God invites all of us to share in the Good News: We are welcome, just as we are. We areloved, just as we are.

In gratitude for all of this, let us worship God! Amen!

*Hymn... “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” (UMH #694)

Prayer of Confession... Tim Cook

Lord Jesus Christ, we remember with gratitude those people who generously sowed the seeds of faith in our lives. Above all. we recognize how you have blessed our lives with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that our faith has miraculously and mysteriously grown. We confess the times we fail to involve ourselves in planting any seeds of faith in the lives of others; the times when our personal agendas become more   important than yours; the times when we have denied others the opportunity to expand their faith through our lack of interest or involvement; the times when our lives become so entangled with the values of the world that we forget what you have said and done and    promised. Lord Jesus Christ, we know that when we become disconnected from you, our lives become parched and unfruitful and our faith becomes stunted and dry. Bless and renew our lives, we pray, so that we remain connected to you at all times and in all places, strengthening our faith to expand and, growing strongly and vigorously, to bear the fruit of your mercy, your love, your undying life. Amen.

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer... Rev. Murphy

Gospel Lesson: Luke 13:18-19; Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-32... Tim Cook

Choral Anthem... “We Gather at Your Table, Lord,” arranged by Walter Ehret

Sermon... Rev. Murphy / “Seeds of Faith. Seeds of Change.”

Communion / The Lord’s Prayer (UMH #12)

*Offering/Doxology (UMH #95)

*Closing Hymn... “Hymn of Promise” (UMH #707)

*Words for the Journey... Rev. Murphy

Postlude... Lorie Courier / “Come, Christians, Join to Sing”

Clergy Orders event

Pastor Charles has been in Lander, Wyoming this week or the annual gathering with clergy from across the Mountain Sky Conference. Good fellowship and learning taking place in-person for the first time in three years!

Bishops push back against recruitment tactics

United Methodist bishops are pushing back against recruitment tactics being used by some supporters of a new traditionalist breakaway denomination. 

Meanwhile, the bishops also express a commitment to ensuring The United Methodist Church will be a denomination where people across the theological spectrum — traditionalists, moderates, progressives as well as people who reject such labels — all feel they have a home.

“I firmly believe a future UMC needs traditional orthodox members as well as progressive members and everyone in between,” said Bishop David Graves in an email to the Alabama-West Florida Conference. “A church cannot effectively reach the least, the lost and the lonely if it is of one mind on every topic.”

Graves, who also leads the South Georgia Conference, and other bishops are speaking out in statements, videos and town halls across their conferences as an increasing number of congregations and clergy are weighing whether to stay in the United Methodist fellowship or go.

The bishops share a common message: As churches prayerfully discern where God is calling them, they need to have accurate information. 

Read more at this link.

Worship tomorrow!

Join us Sunday at 10:15 a.m. for worship followed by fellowship in Franz Hall, or join us online via Zoom here. Preview Sunday's bulletin here. 

We welcome guest preacher Rev. Ashley Murphy to the pulpit. October 2 is World Communion Sunday; if you are participating from home, please provide yourself with bread or crackers (any type) and juice (any kind).