Past Worship Services

This Advent season, we rejoice in the affirmation that God's love has drawn near to us by taking on flesh and experiencing what it is to be human. We will also ask God to draw closer to us and to the spaces in the world that are broken, even as we draw nearer to God by leaning in to wonder, justice, truth, and one another. 

Our world seems to be consumed with division, while the Golden Rule challenges us to seek common good with our relatives, friends, and neighbors – even those who we might consider to be on the “other side.” We’ll turn to scripture to consider how to cultivate compassion, humility, and respect for one another and for the greater good.  

In our August and September worship services, we reflected on Saint John's values of openness, inclusion, connection, mission, and justice, and explored how those values guide us. But how do we make these values a lived reality? The simple answer to the question of “how” is “you.”

In our next series, Because of YOU Our Church Changes Lives, we will dig deep into the parable of the sower, parable of the talents, and the story of Jonah. We will dive under the surface to understand how the spirit shapes us individually through worship, discernment, and giving. At the end of the series, we will be invited to consecrate our financial commitments for the coming year. Thank you for participating in generosity, Saint John’s. Join us Sundays, October 13, 20, and 27.

Again and again, Christ teaches us to live out our faith in loving relationship with others. We are not meant to live in isolation or to practice Christian faith individually. The Church community brings us the opportunity to live into Jesus’ teaching of sharing life together, and (at its best) exists to embody the liberative good news of Christ for ourselves and for the world.

Being a part of the Saint John’s community also means upholding our common values of openness, connection, inclusion, mission, and justice. Let’s intentionally live these values in intergenerational community together.

During the season of Lent and Easter, we focused on Jesus' farewell, death, and resurrection in the gospel of John. And there is so much more! The way John describes Jesus' identity is one-of-a-kind. We'll focus on these distinct attributes of Jesus through John's gospel at the end of summer.

In this year's Summer Bible Camp (formerly VBS), we celebrate Christmas in July. Among the many gifts God has given us, the most important is the gift of community. 

How do you stay close to God? How do you gather God's strength and direction to love your neighbor? What helps you understand how God is calling you to both learn and unravel? How do you stay connected to God's visions and dreams? In this series, we will encounter the Ten Commandments (what Godly Play creator, Rev. Jerome Berryman calls "The Ten Best Ways to Live"), especially considering where their lessons show up elsewhere in scripture, and how their lessons move us to live closer to God today. 

Throughout this series, we will pay attention to what God has called us to be and do at Saint John's, and how we can continue to answer that call into the future. Each week, our emphasis will be on an aspect of God's call to us: to reach out to the world outside our doors, to be in community with each other and the world, to give sacrificially, and to carry our work into the future. 

From Jesus’ triumphant arrival in Jerusalem and death on the cross, to the joy and promise of the resurrection, join us for services and activities throughout Holy Week.

There are prayers and creeds we know so well the words seem to roll off our tongue. Their words spell out what we believe and give us daily strength and guidance. At times, though, repeated prayers lose meaning when we say them so often that we stop listening. This Lent, as we journey with Jesus, we will rediscover the meaning of the prayers and creeds which have shaped our faith and taught us about Christ.

When does God call us to witness? Who does God call us to learn from today? In the season after Epiphany, we will share Biblical prophets’ stories about God’s priorities in the world. These ancient lessons have relevance for us even today. 

This Advent season, we will explore the theme of generations, not just within our own families and communities, but also in the biblical account of Jesus’ birth. From the prophecies of Isaiah to the witness of Matthew, we will learn how generations viewed the coming of the Messiah.