As we began 2018, our worship focus at Christ United Methodist Church will be on “Finding God in Everyday Life.” The spiritual basis for this exploration is a claim that the Divine is always present in our lives, even in the everyday routines which we all have. However, many of us rarely experience God in our everyday lives, although we do experience the Divine in worship or in those life altering moments, such as the birth of a child or death of a parent. Why is that?

Pastor Beth Menhusen talks about how she finds God in community, by attending church and by being around other like minded people.

Verse: Matthew 18:20

As we began 2018, our worship focus at Christ United Methodist Church will be on “Finding God in Everyday Life.” The spiritual basis for this exploration is a claim that the Divine is always present in our lives, even in the everyday routines which we all have. However, many of us rarely experience God in our everyday lives, although we do experience the Divine in worship or in those life altering moments, such as the birth of a child or death of a parent. Why is that?

This podcast we focuses on “Finding God through Generosity.” Our reflections will be informed by the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Corinth.

Paul begins by reminding the Corinthians that “we reap what we sow.” That is, when we give generously, we shall also receive generously back from God. In the next verse, Paul continues by laying down three guidelines for the Corinthians to follow in deciding how much to give:

1.      They should not give reluctantly, but gladly

2.      They should not feel under compulsion, but voluntarily

3.      “God loves a cheerful giver.”

Verse: 2 Corinthians 9: 6-11

As we began 2018, our worship focus at Christ United Methodist Church will be on “Finding God in Everyday Life.” The spiritual basis for this exploration is a claim that the Divine is always present in our lives, even in the everyday routines which we all have. However, many of us rarely experience God in our everyday lives, although we do experience the Divine in worship or in those life altering moments, such as the birth of a child or death of a parent. Why is that?

Our focus for Sunday, January 14th, was exploring ways the Divine is present in our work of volunteering. From a Christian perspective, volunteering to help support our church or other groups, which are dedicated to the betterment of humanity and the environment, are important means of serving Christ and establishing God’s Reign here on Earth. Volunteerism is important, especially in the church which depends upon volunteers to support and strengthen all of its ministries.  However, the question Richard examines is how we experience the Divine when we engage in volunteer activity—either in the church or the broader community?

Verse: Luke 10: 38-42

As we began 2018, our worship focus at Christ United Methodist Church will be on “Finding God in Everyday Life.” The spiritual basis for this exploration is a claim that the Divine is always present in our lives, even in the everyday routines which we all have. However, many of us rarely experience God in our everyday lives, although we do experience the Divine in worship or in those life altering moments, such as the birth of a child or death of a parent. Why is that?

Our guiding thesis in this series is that we do not experience the Divine in everyday life because we are not expecting to encounter God in everyday life. In other words, we are not listening for God to speak in our ordinary affairs; we are not open to experiencing God’s presence in the mundane. So, the goal of this series is to help us hone our openness and sensitivity to God’s presence in everyday affairs. We begin this Sunday, January 7th, by examining how to become more aware of God’s presence through nature—even in the cold, cold winter, which we are experiencing.

Verse: Psalm 19: 1-6

Associate Pastor Beth Menhusen shines a light on Anna who declared the good news of Jesus birth. Learn how we can share the light of Jesus Christ just like Anna did.

We will continue “Advent,” that four-week period of preparation for the celebration of Christmas and the birth of the Messiah. In the Proclamations during these weeks, Richard will reflect on the four key themes of Advent:

1.      Joy

2.      Love

3.      Peace

4.      Hope

This podcast is about Peace, but not how you may think of it.

Read Pastor Richard Randolph's full blog post: http://richardorandolphonfaithmatters.blogspot.com/