Sunday at SPUMC - Jan. 31, 2010

"O God of all creation, we come here today because we yearn for a connection with you.  We want to feel your presence in our lives, to hear your voice with new ears, and to know how we can serve you better.  We want to be completely changed by our relationship with you.  Mold us into living symbols of your love.  Help our hearts to contain an abundance of joy and forgiveness for others.  Teach us how to pray and how to live - make them one and the same.  We pray these things in the name of Jesus, the one whom you choose to connect us to you.  Amen."

Today was the last day of focusing on "Worship"!  It started out kind of quiet... but became another lively Sunday morning.

The Education Hour:
*  The Children's Sunday School focused on Jesus as God's Son.  They're job this week, it to tell someone that Jesus is God's special son.
*  The Confirmation Class focused on the Great Commandments and the fact that how we live, what we value, determines how faithful we are to God.
*  The Wired Word group discussed a family that sold their home, and gave half of the money ($800,000) to a hunger-relief charity!  Their lives improved so much by giving, down-sizing, and spending time together as a family...  They're challenge to others is what do you have to give?
*  And Bettie's Caring Ministries has been talking about listening skills, how to support others who are suffering, and how to be an active listener. They've learned about different approaches to helping and why some are not as helpful as we might think, and others are wonderfully supportive and helpful. Sounds like a great class!

In worship, we focused on worshipping here and now - there's no right or wrong time - just do it!  We even had the opportunity to sign a covenant between ourselves and God, committing to worship whole-heartedly and often.  Jill gave another great children's chat - reminding the kids that we are like "ships" - unique and different, and that we should look at worship in a new way:  We Offer R SHIPS (selves).  WORSHIP is offering our whole self to God.  (The kids even got ships to take home as a reminder!)

Next week, we'll begin focusing on PRAYER.  I hope you'll join us!