July 24, 2021

Dear Beloved St. Paul’s UMC and Wesley Foundation Family,

Grace and peace to you, my dear friends.

Last week we talked about what it means to be the church together, and this week, as we continue our journey in this new season, we are looking at the hope we have for the church. This is not about our hope for the institution, or for some perceived success for St. Paul’s, so much as it is about the good news being proclaimed and embodied by our community of faith. Do you have hope that we can do this in new and creative ways? Or are these days marked more by despair?

As we wrestle with these questions, join us in person tomorrow, July 25th, at 10:00 AM in our sanctuary (you no longer need to sign up, but we do ask you to wear your mask for the entire service), or, if you prefer, connect with us online via our livestream, which you can find on YouTube on our channel, St. Paul’s UMC State College. In order to find our live service (which will go live around 9:55 AM), please click here, and then click on the box near the middle of the screen that says “live” in red on the bottom right corner. The service will begin at 10:00 AM, and we hope you will join us at that time.

If you miss worship at 10:00 AM, do not worry, you can always join us by watching it in its entirety later, by navigating to the link above.

Small Group Discussion
Let’s keep the conversation going! Now that we have transitioned to in-person worship and a livestream, we are continuing to meet together on zoom at 11am for some small group discussion regarding the themes of worship, while some of us join from the church following the worship service. We would love to have you join us on Sunday, July 25th at 11am on Zoom. You can join us by clicking here (if you are using the Zoom App, the meeting ID is: 859 0584 5591 and the Password is: stpauls). It’s never too late to join with others in relationship!

As we hold to our hope, let us be the church together, meeting, making, and moving in ways that are full of the power of God, which is made perfect in weakness.  

Grace|Peace,
Pastor Greg
Order of Worship
Prelude
Ryan Ditmer

Greeting
Rev. Greg Milinovich

Call to Worship
One: Can God’s love be measured?
All: However long the measurement, God’s love would be longer!
One: However deep the drilling, God’s love would be deeper!
All: Tougher than titanium, and softer than a feather;
One: more electric than lightning, more vast than the universe:
All: God’s love is more than we can get our heads around. 
One: But it fills our hearts, and our lives; we feel it and know it!
All: Let us praise the holy name of God!

Opening Hymn: “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” (vs. 1-4) (UMH 79)

Prayer of Confession
Rev. Becky McGee
Wisdom's Heart: deep within, we know how we have failed to be your people. Our hardened hearts are closed to the love of Christ; our lust for more and more blocks the fullness of your grace from transforming our lives; our trust in the powers of
the world reveals our foolish nature.

Have mercy, God of every generation. Pour out the rich blessing of forgiveness on our parched souls. Feed us with Heaven's Bread, so we might be nourished by your gentleness. Shape us as your people, and restore us to faithful living, as we seek to follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in service to everyone we meet.

Words of Assurance
Grounded in love, rooted in discipleship, we offer ourselves in service to others,
recognizing the limitless grace which is ours to share in Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Passing the Peace

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21 (NRSV)
Peggy Hoover
 
Affirmation of Faith: UMH 888
Rev. Sarah Voigt
One: This is the good news which we have received, in which we stand, and by which we are saved: 
All: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared first to the women, then to Peter and the Twelve, and then to many faithful witnesses. We believe Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One of God, the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead, in whom all things hold together, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell by the power of the Spirit. Christ is the head of the body, the church, and by the blood of the cross reconciles all things to God. Amen.

Children’s Message
Shannon Milinovich

Message: “Glory in the Church”
Rev. Greg Milinovich

Pastoral Prayer

Offering

Closing Hymn: “In Unity We Lift Our Song” (FWS 2221)

Benediction

Postlude
Ryan Ditmer
Discussion Questions:

  • Can you imagine how the words about the church in Ephesians would have sounded to the early Christ-followers who were seeing the apostles killed by the empire, and the Jewish temple in ruins?

  • What about today? As the church in the United States seems to have grown increasingly irrelevant to the culture; wracked by controversy; forced by a pandemic to worship digitally and other ways; and weakened in witness by disunity and polarization, how do you hear these words to the Ephesians?

  • The text today refers three different times to power. Remembering that God’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), how do you hear these good words that “by the power at work within us, (God) is able to accomplish far more than all we can ask or imagine”? 
St. Paul's United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation
250 East College Avenue | State College, PA 16801 | 814-237-2163 | stpaulsc.org