Recent Services and Series
This Sunday we will finish our WiseUp sermon series with a look at wisdom as it pertains to money. We know that money can open many doors. If you have a fat wallet you can afford to send your children to private schools, you can take annual vacations to swanky foreign destinations, you can own a large home and many other possessions. That’s why money is often viewed as the universal passport to anywhere.
But as we’ll discover on Sunday there is one door that money cannot open. As Jesus encounters a young, wealthy man, we find that his money owns him. Money, not God is whom he worships. How can we better view our money as a tool to be used, rather than a treasure to be hoarded? Join us Sunday as we dig deeper and gain wisdom in how to manage our money.
Have you ever been harassed or bullied either as an adult or child?
Bullying is on the rise in Canada. One reason is that various technology platforms makes it easier than ever for perpetrators to target someone for bullying, and these attacks can occur 24/7, 365 days a year without bullies ever meeting their victims face-to-face. This anonymity often emboldens bullies to be even more cruel and persistent.
But Jesus tells us to “To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more payback. Live generously. (Luke 6:27-30 THE MESSAGE)
WHAT?! You may exclaim. Is Jesus is asking us to be chumps? Doormats that people can walk all over regardless of how they treat you? Isn’t this just an invitation to more bullying?If these are your questions, I invite you to join us Sunday as we explore just what exactly Jesus is trying to teach us about dealing with bullies or enemies of any kind.To prepare, read ahead: Isaiah 41:1-13; Luke 6:27-36 and 2 Timothy 3:1-5.
It’s a new year, and perhaps many of you are hoping to improve in one or more areas of our life. Often, in order to improve, we week out experts in various fields. If we wish to improve our finances, we engage a financial advisor to help us. Want to lose weight? Maybe a personal trainer is in order. Yet how often do we view our Bible as perhaps the best source of advice and wisdom of all? In this new series for a new year, we’ll look at what wisdom God’s word provides on a range of topics, but first we’ll look at wisdom itself…what it is and how do we acquire it?
To prepare please read: Proverbs 13:12-18; Psalm 14; James 1:2-8.
Rev Lloyd R. Ayre is in the pulpit this Sunday with the message Galilee and 2024. Scripture is Genesis 1:1-5 and the 29th Psalm. Join us for this first service of the new year.
Our own Brenda Roxburgh is in the pulpit this Sunday with a New Year’s Eve message of Resolutions and Revolution. Join us for a joyous and thoughtful service!
Whether you’re still attending school, or your school days are long behind you, your learning day began with the teacher pulling out her class roster and taking attendance. As you heard your name called, you would yell out “here!” or “present!”
This Sunday morning will be our last in Advent…our time of watching and waiting for the Christ child to be born is almost over!As with last Sunday, our focus on Sunday will be on Mary and her encounter with the angel Gabriel. Gabriel tells Mary she has been chosen by God to bear HIS son. We can imagine that she was not only surprised but also overwhelmed — who me? This sounds less like a volunteer assignment, and more like being “voluntold” doesn’t it? Mary, to her credit, accepts the assignment and agrees to have the Christ child dwell within her. Talk about being present with “THE” present!What about us? Do we accept God’s assignment for us even as we feel underprepared, and unqualified? What blessings do we forgo if we take a pass until (or if) we feel ready? Join us Sunday as we reflect on making ourselves present for God himself!
Our culture sells us an ideal that joy is experienced only when we arrive at something we do not yet have.One day…..One day….when I get married.One day…when I am healed of this illness.One day…when I score that dream job.One day…when my spouse changes.One day…when I get out of this funk.On the other side of the coin is our inner judge, reminding us of the regret of missed joy that’s now gone forever.If only…If only…I had savoured that moment.If only…I had been more intentional.If only…I had never made that mistake.If only…I had been a better version of myself.If only…I hadn’t lost that opportunity, relationship, etc.This is the type of joy that slips between our fingers, leaving us empty.But as we look at the story of the teenage, unwed Mary in our Bible, we see a different picture of joy. Despite the hardship that lay before her, Mary is filled with joy because she has been noticed by God and selected for a very important mission in this world.
This season, let us CHOOSE joy, as Mary did, not because everything about our lives are perfect…but because God has come near and chosen us, selected us, loved us enough to save us. Like Mary he sees something in us he can use and work with in his kingdom-building enterprise. It may be hard, it may be inconvenient…but it is oh, so worth it!
To prepare for the service, I invite you to read Isaiah 61:1-4; 7-11; Luke 1:41-55 and Psalm 126:1-3.
So often in our ‘go-go-go’ world we find ourselves multi-tasking or obsessing about something that isn’t quite right or settled or the particular way we like it. We are very accustomed to a preoccupied mind that often has little peace. In this season we will consider how we can slow down and turn back once again to the “Prince of Peace,” the one that John the Baptist announced as he stood in the Jordan river. Jesus came into a world that was less-than-peaceful and it seems that not much has changed! As our world continues to experience poverty, war, disease, racism, corruption and oppression we may wonder why hasn’t Jesus returned to bring the promised lasting peace? If this and other questions are robbing you of peace, we invite you to join us on Sunday for some timely answers!
We live in an increasingly distracted world. Smartphones and the internet mean that we can be reached 24/7. The ping of a notification can entice our attention away from being fully present with the people we love. When we fail to give our full attention, when we are not fully present to the people we are with or the task we are working on…relationships suffer and productivity takes a dive.
In our Advent series this year we are celebrating the gift of being truly present – to each other and to the call of God to make this world a better place. We can be the gift of hope with those who are despairing or grieving. Even if we are poor – whether in resources, in body or spirit, we can simply be a gift of presence when we give our attention and hearts to others.
As we journey to Christmas we are reminded that Christmas was about God coming to be present with us. Advent is not only a time to prepare for the cute babe in the manger, but also for the recreation of this world when Jesus returns again. Are we present, alert and watchful for signs of his work among us?
Series – Autumn 2023
Standing Strong Sermon Series: 1 Thessalonians
How can we “Stand Firm” in our Christian faith in 2023? Events in our lives and in our world can, at times, cause us to doubt in a good, loving and faithful God. Yet we remember that Jesus told us that “in this world we will have trouble, but to ‘take heart’ because He has overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
The early church in Thessalonica needed to be strengthened in their faith and they wrote to the Apostle Paul for clarification about Christ’s return and how they should live in light of it. Paul’s words were an encouragement to them and to us today! You can watch the whole sermon series here.
We are observers and participants in a global shift which began some two thousand years ago and is just lately showing itself as worldwide turmoil that is affecting species of life and the planet itself. It began with a man and continued with an instruction book giving us a roadmap to survive this world and transition to another which is ethereal, promising life to be eternal.. God is in the midst of it, orchestrating his creation. Here are the clues..
St Paul’s own Eric Prugh leads the service.
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 4: 1-14 Revelation 7: 9-17 Matthew 5: 1-12
Series – Autumn 2023
Generous Sermon Series: The Beauty in Giving
Did you know that being generous is good for you? It’s true! Researchers are discovering and documenting the benefits that come as people engage in generous practices. Being generous has a measurable, positive impact on an individual’s body, mind, and spirit, as well as on wider society.
But sometimes we hold back on giving to others…why is that? Well our world today runs on a scare-city mindset. The world plugs into our fears and worries and tells us there isn’t enough to go around, and so we hoard what we have which weakens our neighbourhoods and communities. This series teaches us about God’s generous character and his promise that if we give, we will be blessed, and so will others! Click below to access the complete series.
Thanksgiving Sunday we will be considering three kinds of gifts: (1) Expensive gifts (those that cost the most) (2) Precious gifts (those that mean the most) and (3) expensive AND precious gifts. As we know some expensive gifts end up in the landfill as they become obsolete, break, go out of fashion or no longer apply to our age or stage of life. These cost the most, but don’t qualify as “precious.” Other gifts…like a hand-knit sweater from our mom, or a card of encouragement at a moment we are feeling low may not cost much, but lift our spirits even years later. As we consider God’s small and great blessings to us, we will consider how we can turn on our “tap” of gratitude.
We live in a world of constant distraction. Email notifications, the “ping” of a new text message, a blinking light from Alexa or Google, all compete for our attention.
In such an environment, can we hear quieter voices….like the gentle whisper of God? Can we see something miraculous in what once was mundane as Moses did with a commonplace bush…that was burning but not consumed? Can we take our hands off the wheel of our own lives and let God be the driver, by accepting “the cross” he might have us carry?
Join us this Sunday as we welcome Rev. Tim Purvis to our church. Tim will help us study the story of Moses and the burning bush and Jesus’ call on his disciples to “take up their cross and follow him.”
Does God still call people today? If Jesus is on the line…do we pick up?
If someone picked up your smartphone and scrolled through your music selections…what would be the “soundtrack” to your life? Would the one snooping find a selection of sad songs or would your list be full of upbeat joyous music?
Church is one of the few places that public singing still occurs, and those singing don’t need to audition beforehand. The only requirement is a desire to join in singing praise to our creator God.
But sometimes songs of worship break free of our church walls into other public spaces…such was the case when a flash mob startled unsuspecting shoppers at the Seaway Mall in Niagara Falls with a moving rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. Their performance transformed the crowd from the stress of Christmas shopping to the joyful reality of the reason for the season.
This coming Sunday, our guest speaker Susan Wallace will help us consider how we too can rediscover the joy of worship such that we joyfully sing and live out the melody of the love of Christ such that we can once again astonish and transform a weary world with the beauty of the gospel message. What’s on God’s soundtrack? Join us Sunday to find out!
One of the legacies of Covid seems to be a long list of organizations and companies that are experiencing service disruptions. Some of this is due to supply chain disruptions that have been unable to keep up with the surge in pent-up consumer demand once Covid restrictions lifted. In other cases, continuing labour shortages are to blame.
I’m sure that you, like me, have at times been frustrated or even dismayed (think of the closing of some hospital emergency departments) as these service disruptions continue. What if I told you that even our church is experiencing labour shortages too? What is happening to Christ’s body when some have taken themselves “out of service?”
This Sunday we’ll consider that question and our response as we study a portion of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in ancient Corinth. In it he says we are all members of the body, each one with a gift to contribute…but what happens if we withhold our gift?
Series – Summer 2023
Pathways to Character Sermon Series: How to build a character of integrity
Few of us would argue that western society is facing an integrity crisis. Whether it’s politicians who are indicted for breaking the law, churches and government who tried to abolish a culture and heritage through a program of residential schools, police forces accused of racism and brutality, price-fixing by supermarkets or entrepreneurs and royals accused of sex with minors the list goes on and on.
And the question is, how did we get here? What prompts individuals and institutions to make choices based more on self-interest than the common good? Choices for personal pleasure and gain even as they come with harmful consequences for the most vulnerable?
In our summer 2023 sermon series we studied the characters in Book of Ruth and learned how we can, by following their example, develop a character that protects us from the temptation to compromise our values, and help us make life-giving rather than life-destroying choices. Character that is Christlike in that it only seeks the welfare of others before ourselves. Click below to access the complete series.
Series – Winter 2023
Looking For Love Sermon Series:
Like the lyrics of the popular country song, isn’t it true that today so many of us are “lookin’ for love in all the wrong places”?
Dating sites and apps proliferate, Facebook social and neighbourhood groups populate our feeds, and yet loneliness is on the rise. According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 10 people surveyed reported being “often or always” lonely. It is a paradox that our generation is the most “connected” electronically, reachable instantly 24/7, and yet this connectedness isn’t resulting in deep, fulfilling relationships with others.
We distract ourselves from this reality by finding short term distractions as we chase the shinier, easier treasures in life. Looking for love in “wrong places” results in a fleeting joy, and a shallow peace.
Love is found by simply turning back toward love’s very source: God. Throughout this series, the name of God or Jesus is often “Love.” We are, indeed, looking for God when we look for love. Lent is a time to make more room for God and assess what we understand to be “treasures” worth our time, our attention, and therefore our love.