Bethany UCC

Anyone who knows former student pastor and Bethany member Kelli Manning might be surprised to know that she was once hugely self-conscious. Well, she didn't manage, understand, or grow through it on her own. It required caring and collective curiosity. Preaching from Numbers 22, she encouraged us likewise to journey together:

"When people ignore or don't know to look for repeated warning signs...they keep walking on a dangerously lonely path. Seeing the warning signs is one thing, but allowing someone else to help navigate them is transformational."

Pastor Vince apologizes right at the start of this sermon for biting off more than he can chew research wise (Epistemology! Geology!) By the end, he shares an invitation to ground ourselves in the certainty of God’s power and care.

Preaching on the story of the shipwreck in Acts 27, Pastor Vince describes baptism as a means of confronting the powers of evil, choosing sides and facing our own mortality.

Pastor Vince’s sermon this week shares that God doesn’t ask us for extravagant gestures. Rather, they ask that we do what little we can and trust God to make more of it than we can imagine.

Pastor Rebecca's sermon centers the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, which was organized in 1987 with an absolutely singular mission: direct action to end the AIDS crisis. In the face of neglect, negligence, indifference, they behaved badly to save lives — a move that may sound familiar from stories about Jesus.

Examining Psalm 9 and 2 Samuel, Pastor Rebecca delivers a sermon on doing the right thing even when your actions seem fruitless.

Reflecting on her days at summer camp, Pastor Rebecca's sermon this week describes the experience of being changed as a result of getting "swept up" in a movement.

In his sermon last week, Pastor Vince introduced our new worship theme of "Act Up" with a sermon describing the ways God calls us to resist creatively.

In his sermon this week, student pastor Xander King shares the call to proclaim abundance against narratives of scarcity.

In his sermon this week, Pastor Vince discusses false sanctuary vs. real sanctuary. He encourages us to embrace the real sanctuary of God's love and care, rather than give in to the false sanctuary of familiarity, despair and anger.