Welcome to Saint Paul’s!
St. Paul’s is a different kind of church. We’re not a large megachurch with a sound stage and a suped-up production machine, but we strive to be a church full of authentic followers of Jesus. No matter how you come to visit us, we pray you’ll find clear examples of God’s love, whether through us or through our ministries – but hopefully both!
You might be excited about finding a church to belong to, or you might be a bit fearful from bad church experiences in the past. Either way, if you are looking for a church that focuses on creating spiritual fruits, not religious nuts, then you have come to the right place!
As a Christian family of faith,
Saint Paul’s affirms God’s love by
transforming lives,
connecting generations,
impacting our community & world,
and
making disciples for Jesus Christ.
The Way Forward
Posted on Dec 10, 2018 in Newsletter, Pastor's Blog, Stained Glass |
The Future of the United Methodist Church— A Way Forward!
Elements of Advent
Posted on Dec 6, 2018 in Newsletter, Pastor's Blog, Stained Glass |
Each year, as the calendar rolls toward December, we reach the beginning of the Christian Year as the season of Advent starts four Sundays before Christmas. During Advent, we prepare for and anticipate the coming of Christ. We remember the longing of Jews for a Messiah and our own longing for and need of forgiveness, salvation, and a new beginning. Even as we look back and celebrate the birth of Jesus in a humble manger in Bethlehem, we also look forward anticipating the second coming of Christ as the fulfillment of all that was promised by his first coming. Advent contains a lot of symbolic elements as we point to the coming of Christ. As you saw during Hanging of the Greens, everything has a meaning; from the colors of the altar paraments, the symbols used on the Chrismon tree, the Advent Wreath and its five candles. There are also other elements to Advent, and they are more about our own mindset. These elements of readiness, joy, love, and peace, go together with the visual symbols to help us focus on the true meaning of this special season and its powerful, world-changing testimony. As we celebrate Advent at St. Paul’s this year, I invite you to dive in to our opportunities for spiritual growth so you can be ready for the coming of Christ. Our sermon and worship series during this season will be Elements of Advent, and we will study the important symbols of this time of year during worship as well as participate in Advent activities and devotionals from the Elements of Advent devotional, written by Ron Glusenkamp with the music of Peter Mayer. Each day in this booklet explores a different element of Advent which connects us to Christmas and bonds us to Christ. There is a short devotional and activity each day to help you stay on target and should also help you have a little Advent fun! Our worship at the end of Advent will focus on Christmas Eve with a Service of the Nativity at 5:30 pm. This worship experience will focus us on each of the elements in the manger scene, reminding us of their meaning to the story of Christ’s birth. Our second Christmas Eve Service will be Carols and Candlelight, a Communion Service in the sanctuary at 8:00 pm full of the carols and scripture of this special time of year. Come and celebrate with us as we welcome the newborn king into our world!
This Act of Grace…
Posted on Oct 30, 2018 in Newsletter, Pastor's Blog, Stained Glass |
Way back on Pentecost Sunday, we entered the season of the church known as “Sundays after Pentecost,” and known by some of you who are more liturgically sensitive as “ordinary time.” You may have noticed headings in your bulletin that told you just how far away we were from Pentecost—twenty Sundays, twenty-one, twenty-two… It can seem like we’re getting farther and farther from that exciting season of candlelight, resurrection, Christmas carols and memories. In the church calendar, it can seem like we’re getting farther away from the source of our light, and the long-named Sundays can seem almost depressing because they remind us how long it’s been since we sang “Go, Tell it On the Mountain” or “Up from the Grave He Arose.” However, there is another way to see things: the “ordinary time” isn’t boring, but rather a time to put into practice the growth we’ve experienced during the first half of the Christian year: Advent through Pentecost Sunday. As the Sundays after Pentecost come to a close here in the secular month of November, we’ve got a lot of celebration and ministry to work toward in the name of Jesus. Each Sunday in November we’ll be preparing for Thanksgiving Sunday by participating in a “progressive” food drive for Interfaith. Each Sunday, we invite you to bring a certain item to worship, where we will add it to our overall collection we give to Interfaith on Thanksgiving Sunday, Nov. 18. On November 4, bring canned veggies and fruit to worship. On November 11, we ask that you bring boxed Potato and Rice mixes. On November 18, as we end our item drive, we ask that you bring canned proteins. During worship on that Sunday, you’ll be invited to go out shopping with our youth as they bring in the harvest to add to the collection. We’ll have a hymn-sing service for those who do not wish to go shopping, and we’ll celebrate as our shoppers come back at the end of worship with their harvest! Interfaith is still experiencing a critical shortage of food, so let’s do our best to help those in need! May God bless you as you bless others this November! ~Robert