We live in a fallen broken world. The world God originally created was not supposed to have cancer, racism, poverty, COVID, etc. Humans disobeyed and did what they wanted to do instead of listening to God. Sin and brokenness has been the reality in the world ever since. We have been struggling to regain a relationship with God ever since too. God came up with a way to bridge the divide and help us to have a relationship like Adam and Eve had with the Creator. Yet, that relationship is still not completely the same because we are still surrounded by the brokenness unleashed so long ago. Yet, we know that the death of Jesus on the Cross was a lifeline to us that reconciled us with God until the world is reborn. Reconciliation means we can have knowledge that we are part of God's family and have a deep relationship with God. We are trying to be those that follow the way of Jesus, in the midst of a world that as times appears to be increasingly filled with hate, hostility, greed, and all forms of sin and brokenness. One way we take a pause and recenter ourselves on how to reflect Christ in this world is through worship. Worship is a place where we come together and remind ourselves that this world is not all there is and that at some point God will set all things right. Worship is a time where we come together and commit to following the way of grace and love, in a world that often does not value such things. This week we will continue to explore what the Cross of Christ means for us and how that should change the way we live our lives and that it allows us to do something we can never accomplish on our own.
Attached is the bulletin that you can view or print out for Sunday morning. Here is some further details about ways to access our services this Sunday at 8am and 10:30am both in person and online. Just a reminder that 8am is a traditional service with most of the songs being hymns and the 10:30am service is contemporary with newer praise songs.
When coming to worship in the sanctuary some things have changed. You will need to wear a mask or face shield into the building. If you forget or do not have a mask or face shield a mask will be provided to you to wear while you are in the building. There will be a sign-in station where you can get a bulletin and other items so keep walking when you come through the door until you get to the sign-in table. At the sign-in table there will also be a place to put prayer requests. If you put them in before the service they will be included in some form during our prayer time. We will not pass the plate during the service but your monetary offering can go in the wooden box that is next to the sign-in table and there is also another box near the altar rail. There are hand sanitizer stations throughout the church and they are there for you to use them. You are NOT required to have received a vaccination in order to attend worship. In the sanctuary we have not roped off pews so there is not a guarantee of being 6 feet apart. I will not be wearing a mask while on the altar and any singers we have on the altar will not be wearing mask. Currently, we will not be having a fellowship time downstairs in order to increase health safety.
You can catch the Facebook Livestream at: https://www.facebook.com/tomscreekumc .
We will try start the Facebook Livestream at @ 7:50am and 10:20am and you will see messages on the screen and hear music playing. This is the best option if you want to interact with others online. Feel free to chat to each other before and during the service. You can put prayer requests in the chat. This is great way to be able to interact with others if you watch it live with others in your church family who are staying home but want to worship as part of an online community. It will continue to be there to watch later and feel free to share or create watch parties in order to share it with others.
You can catch this livestream on our Toms Creek UMC channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6E7eCwH2ZGYspkSCF0CGw/featured. We will TRY to start the YouTube Livestream at 7:50 am and 10:20am and you will see announcements scroll and hear music playing. This format is best if you are watching on a television or large screen with lots of people gathered around. You can have it fill the whole screen and just watch it without any distractions. There is a way to chat on YouTube but it normally has a lot less people and is normally a lot less chatty than the our Facebook livestream. If you subscribe to our channel it will let you know when we go live in future weeks. Later in the day another shorter version of the service is posted but for this coming series I recommend taking in the entire worship experience.
You can go to our website here https://www.tomscreekumc.com/service-videos and by Monday morning there should be a version of our service. Sometimes the whole service is there instead of the shortened version depending on different factors. Sometimes it will be from the 8am service and sometimes it will be from the 10:30am service.
For just the 10:30am service you can use a phone to listen to our service by calling 857-799-9465 from any phone starting at 10:20 am. This will only have sound coming through and you will not be able to see anything that is occurring. If you would like we can we make a DVD of the service for you to watch just let the church office or Pastor Heath know.
To give your financial offering you can sign up to give electronically here: https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/Vanco_ver3.vps?appver3=oo37DPDB_IkRvUYRT4XYFR9HODrOVn_HRoRVzfIf6wIC8Jr39BzhtDTFkxI3DZSBugLUwNICM4mn_Vn6Yqj7ze3avdPht8ScFTxSmF__f6NGGfZi-D-1l6WdFZHC1c8U
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you can text 844-406-0358 with an amount as the text. It will set up to give over text and from then on you just put in the amount and your donation to the church will go right through
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you can go to our website and hit the donate button on our webpage, https://www.tomscreekumc.com
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you can mail your offering to:
Tom's Creek United Methodist Church
10926 Simmons Road
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Exploring what the Cross means and what Jesus did on the Cross allows us to reflect on whether we are truly following Christ. We often reduce the full meaning of what Jesus did for us on the cross and many people stop short of fully receiving the full gift God gave to us on the cross. We should want to be a church full of people that are living out the Gospel, we should want to be a people that receive the full gift God has given us. Each of us are on a different part of our journey of becoming a better disciple of Jesus. Let us explore where each of us are on our journey and be willing to take the next steps to become a better reflection of God's kingdom and come into deeper relationship with God.
Blessings,
PH
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