“A change would do you good” Sheryl Crow sang in a song that came out 11 years ago. Is that always true? It seems that we’re not always all that happy about change. Where is God when change happens?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for May 8, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

It seems like there is plenty to be anxious about in our world today. There is much to worry about. But hasn’t this always been true? And doesn’t the Bible have something to say to us about that?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for May 1, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

The Rev Dr. Steven Tuell will be the guest preacher Sunday, April 24. Having recently retired from the faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Steve hold the title of James A. Kelso Professor Emeritus of Hebrew and Old Testament. His sermon will be “Comedy Is Hard” from John 20:19-31 and Psalm 150.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for April 24, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

As Holy Week goes on, it seems like the powerful are going to crush the hopes and dreams of Jesus and his disciples. Their expectations will be dashed. But in those expectations not being met, new ones that are better emerge. They emerge for us, too, as we let go of how we want it to be.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for Holy Week April 10-17, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 7 PM on Maundy Thursday and 7 PM on Good Friday. Easter Sunday worship will be at 10 AM. You have three options to attend all three of these worship gatherings: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Holy Week—the commemoration of the last week of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion—begins with Palm/Passion Sunday, Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into Jerusalem where the crowds proclaim him King. And then it doesn’t quite pan out the way the people expected it to.

Yet it was still triumphal. How so, if it turns out so badly? Do we have triumphs in our own lives that don’t really look like it?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for Holy Week April 10-17, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 7 PM on Maundy Thursday and 7 PM on Good Friday. Easter Sunday worship will be at 10 AM. You have three options to attend all three of these worship gatherings: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

“Church”. Chances are we have two thoughts when we hear that word. The first is a building, and the second is what happens in that building. In the second case, “church” calls to mind Sunday morning when people gather for worship.

Why has that Sunday morning worship service it been the focal point of church life for centuries? Why does worship matter?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for April 3, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Some things in life we do by ourselves. Other things we do with others. Engaging with the Bible ought to involve both. Why? What is the difference?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for March 27, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

For those who enjoy reading, it is a joy to read a book cover to cover. But usually it is a process that doesn’t involve “searching”. John Wesley encouraged the practice of “searching the scriptures.”

What does that mean, and what do we get from it?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for March 20, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Another of the six “practices” of following Jesus is prayer—with the emphasis on family and private prayer (moreso than praying only in gathered worship). What happens when you pray?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for March 13, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask is optional), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

We’ll be looking at six “practices” we engage in in our lives as followers of Jesus—six practices that help us tap into the reality that we’ve not merely following Jesus, we are walking WITH Jesus. One is Holy Communion.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for March 6, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

In figuring out how to stay in love with God, it is useful to consider how we stay in love with each other.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for February 27, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

“Do good.” Just as with “do no harm” it seems obvious, and simple, and clear. How much do we seek to do good?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for February 20, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Do no harm. Seems obvious as a guideline for our lives, doesn’t it? Seems easy enough, right? Or is it?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for February 13, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

What good is a gift that is given which we don’t choose to receive? This question relates to God’s gifts to us—in particular, to the gift of forgiveness, love, and new life. Given in grace.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for January 30, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

We find ourselves in situations that seem to happen “before we know it”. We don’t usually think back to what might have been happening before our awareness—but when we do, we realize that things we don’t control bring about our opportunities. That is something like God bringing about the opportunity within which we then can choose one thing or another. Grace is like that more than we realize.

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for January 23, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

An article about out United Methodist celebration of Human Relations Sunday says this: “In recognizing Human Relations Day, we are called to make an impact in communities where people struggle because they don’t have the tools or resources to reach their God-given potential.”

What does that mean? What tools and resources? What is someone’s God-given potential? What impact can we make?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for January 16, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Baptism is celebrated in the church. Why? What does it mean? We barely scratch the surface of all that it means any time we discuss it—but one thing it means is conveyed in the sermon title, when God says “When you pass through the waters I will be with you.”

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for January 9, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

What do we look at when a light comes on? The light itself? Whatever the light makes it possible to see? How much do we allow ourselves to see—or how much do we try to see?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for January 2, 2022 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

At Christmas we celebrate that when Jesus was born “God moved into the neighborhood.” What does that mean? How does that give a deeper meaning to Christmas, and indeed the whole year?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for December 24, 2021 for further thoughts. We will worship at 7 PM on Christmas Eve, with candle lighting. If you’ll be worshiping online, with Facebook Live or Zoom, be certain to have a candle to light during the worship. And on Sunday, December 26, we will worship at 10 AM. You have three options to attend both on Christmas Eve and on Sunday: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce

Jesus is called many things. One of them is “Prince of Peace”—and when the shepherds are invited by the angel to visit the newborn Jesus, the heavenly host proclaims glory to God and peace to those on earth. Have we known peace? What is peace? How does Jesus bring that?

Follow this link to the Pastor’s Ponderings for December 19, 2021 for further thoughts. We worship at 10 AM this Sunday. You have three options to attend: attend in person at the church (wearing a mask), tune in on Facebook Live, or connect on Zoom with your phone, computer, tablet, or whatever other device works for online connecting.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Bruce