January 8, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, Happy New Year! Tomorrow, we celebrate new beginnings. Daniel Shinabarger joins us as our new Director of Music. We also kick off a new worship series: For Sake of Life. What do we do in our daily lives for sake of life? Lately, our practices have been focused on mitigating…
January 1, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, Happy New Year! As we turn the calendar, may we leave disappointment, hatred, and resentment behind, and start the year with faith, hope, and love. Let us find new, familiar, and ever-faithful ways to remain, Together in Christ…Committed to Serve. Heather **I am taking some sabbath time with my family,…
December 24, 2021 The Work of Christmas When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry,…
December 18, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, How do you know you’re home? It’s more than an address, and for some may have little to do with biology or genealogy. It is a feeling of belonging, of safety, and security to be exactly who and whose you are. For some those feeling are evoked by a song,…
Please read the correspondence below from Brother Ken Diebner of the Veritas Foundation. He reached out to our congregation asking for donations of bandanas for the School of the Blind. Happiness in Sierra Leone Bandanas Sent to UMCO Hello Pastor Baker, From all of us at the Veritas Foundation, we wanted to thank you and…
December 11, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, How are you? A friend of mine, when I ask this question, often responds, “I’ve got all the feels.” In this holy season of Advent, as I talk with people, that’s what I’m hearing, all the feels. There’s the warmth of home and hearth, sadness at so many losses, excited…
December 4, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, When I go home, one of the things I love is seeing my loved ones in a new light. My sister and I almost immediately revert to our younger selves, filling roles we claimed as children. And yet, I remember watching the change as my baby sister became a mother…
Today is #GivingTuesday! Giving Tuesday, often described as a global day of giving or a global generosity movement, is held each year on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving. Since this first annual day of giving in 2012, nonprofits in the United States have raised more than $1.9 billion. In 2019, nonprofits in the US raised more…
November 27, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, When do you begin to play Christmas music? Do you put on the carols as you take down the jack-o-lanterns? Or do you wait until a special day: after Thanksgiving, December 1, Christmas Eve. Music so often captures so many feelings of the season. It goes deeper than the to-do…
November 20, 2021 Beautiful Beloveds, Tomorrow, we celebrate Thanksgiving Sunday. In this season of reflection, as the year draws to a close, what are you grateful for? I’m grateful for my family, my home, vaccines and booster shots. I’m grateful for you and the missions and ministries of our church. I’m grateful for ordinary everyday…