Offertory Prayer

Invitation to the Offering
The offering you made last week empowered ministry within our congregation and in response to the needs of our community. It also helped support the work of ministries beyond the local church that reach people who are in desperate need to hear the good news of love and redemption. Ministries that bring medical care to the poor and elderly in our own communities, following in the footsteps of Christ who sought to heal and give hope. I invite you once again to give generously as we worship God through the sharing of our gifts, tithes and offerings.
http://www.umcgiving.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=qwL6KkNWLrH&b=3935565&ct=12937633&notoc=1


June 23, 2013 — Fifth Sunday After Pentecost

God of the universe and God of our hearts, speak to us this morning in our giving with your still, small voice. Remind us who we are; remind us whose we are; remind us why we have chosen to follow your Son Jesus the Christ. As we share in this offering today, remind us that when we feel as if we are the last ones left who have not turned from you, that we are not alone. What we do, and what we give is multiplied with the compassion of others. Keep us faithful in that knowledge. We pray this in the name that is above all others, Jesus the Christ. Amen. (1 Kings 19:1-15a)


Written by Ken Sloan, Director of Stewardship for GBOD. http://www.gbod.org/lead-your-church/offertory-prayers

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Surely you don't mean them, a Reflection on Ephesians 2:11-22

Here Paul is stressing that you can be a Christian even if you don't become a Jew first. We got over this hurdle so long ago that we have a hard time getting back into the mindset of the earliest congregations. 

But, we need to.

We need to think about what groups we are excluding, and what basis we are using to exclude them.

Paul said to the people of his time struggling with the disputes of his time that Jesus had abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of two.

We are confident (pretty much so) that Paul didn't mean that anything goes. Should we be so confident that what we think is absolutely essential in belief or action is on Jesus' must-do list?

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