To help us stay connected and sustain this kind of life together, we make commitments that clarify how we will live with God and with one another. Scripture speaks of these commitments through the language of covenant. A covenant is more than an agreement; it is a bond that joins people together with the responsibilities and commitments of family.

 

When we join the church, we are not simply becoming members of an organization; we are entering more fully into the family of God. We receive one another as siblings in Christ and accept the responsibilities that come with belonging to one another. That is why we promise our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. These promises are not simply obligations attached to membership. They are the tangible ways we live as members of God’s family - caring for one another, sharing responsibility for the life of the church, and participating in God’s work of transforming the world.

 

Our fall worship series, WE – Bound by Covenant, will explore what it means to live as the family of God and to take seriously the commitments we make to one another. We will talk about belonging, showing up, giving, serving, remembering, leading, and responding to Christ’s call to share responsibility for the life we have together. Along the way, we will hear about the ministries our congregation makes possible and celebrate the ways our people, leadership, resources, and generosity help care for this church family and extend that care into the wider community.

 

During the previous worship series, Sing a New Song, we focused on preparing our hearts and minds for the new things God may be doing among us. Now we begin the practical work of discerning how we will participate in what comes next. As we look toward 2027 and celebrate 140 years of Methodist ministry in our community and 40 years in this building, we will consider what it means to live as part of the family of God – as a people bound by covenant…

October 4 – World Communion Sunday  (Communion)

• Scripture: Acts 8:26 - 40
• Worship Theme: WE Belong - The first mark of our covenant is belonging. When the Ethiopian eunuch asks, “What is to prevent me from being baptized?” the answer is nothing. He is not simply being welcomed into a religious institution; through baptism, he is received as part of the family of God. The boundaries that divide people by race, nationality, gender, sexuality, status, or circumstance are human boundaries, not God’s. The Church betrays its calling whenever it becomes more concerned with deciding who belongs in the family than recognizing those whom God has already welcomed. We are not called to be known by the people we exclude, but by how relentlessly we make room for everyone God already calls beloved,

October 11

• Scripture: Mark 2:1-12
• Worship Theme: WE Show Up  - We promise our presence because belonging to the family of God means making ourselves available to one another. In Mark 2, the paralyzed man is carried to Jesus by people who refuse to leave him alone in his time of need. That is part of what covenant asks of us. Yes, we show up to worship, but we also show up in grief, illness, crisis, loneliness, and need. No one should have to face the hardest parts of life with no one to call and no one willing to come. And just as importantly, we learn to let others carry us when we are the ones who need help. Covenant means becoming the kind of family where people know they are not alone when life is hard.

October 18

• Scripture: Deuteronomy 15:7–11
• Worship Theme: WE Give - Giving is not simply an act of personal generosity or charitable kindness. It is part of how the family of God cares for one another and for the people around us. In Deuteronomy, God commands the people to open their hands when a neighbor is in need. Covenant means that what we have is not only for ourselves – but our resources become part of how we respond together. Our giving becomes food, care, ministry, staff, space, children’s programs, community partnerships, and the ability to help when someone is in need.

October 25

• Scripture: Matthew 25:31-46
• Worship Theme: WE Serve - Our covenant does not end with the people who worship beside us. It extends outward to those with whom Christ identifies - the hungry, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned, and those in need. In Matthew 25, Jesus refuses to separate our devotion to him from the way we respond to them. If Christ is present in our neighbor’s need, then serving that neighbor becomes part of what faithfulness to Christ requires.

November 1 – All Saints Sunday  (Candles & Communion) (Also Daylight-Saving Time Change)

• Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-3
• Worship Theme: WE Remember - The covenant we share with God and with one another did not begin with us. It has been carried through generations - from the named saints of scripture, through countless faithful people who lived and died keeping those same promises, to our own parents, grandparents, teachers, pastors, and others who helped nurture our faith. Hebrews describes us as “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,” but remembering them is not simply about looking backward. We remember forward. We receive what their faithfulness made possible and carry it into our own time, using what has been entrusted to us to build a future they could not yet see. The best way to honor those who came before us is not simply to preserve what they left behind, but to continue the work they began.

November 8

• Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-27
• Worship Theme: WE Lead - Paul tells the Corinthians that God has intentionally brought different people, gifts, and abilities together into one body. No one person has everything the Church needs, and no member is unnecessary to its life. Covenant means recognizing that belonging to the body also gives us responsibility for its health and its future. Leadership is not about status or authority, nor is it work that should be left to the same few people. It is the willingness to recognize what God has given us, take responsibility for our part, and offer it for the good of the whole. The Church needs the participation of its members because God has placed something the body needs within each of them.

November 15

• Scripture: Joshua 24:15-27
• Worship Theme: WE Commit - Joshua does not make the people’s decision for them. He asks them to choose for themselves what they will commit to and how they will live. The same is true for us. No one can make us offer our prayers, presence, gifts, service, or witness. We have to choose to participate. And ultimately, the church we become will reflect the commitments we are willing to make together. If there is something we hope the church will do, someone we hope it will reach, or a ministry we believe ought to exist, we have an opportunity to help make it happen. Covenant is more than saying what we believe or describing the kind of church we want. It is choosing to live and act in ways that help make that kind of church possible.

November 22 – Christ the King Sunday

• Scripture: Colossians 1:15-23
• Worship Theme: WE Follow - Covenant ultimately requires us to surrender the idea that our lives are entirely our own. We belong to Christ, and together we are learning to order our lives under his Lordship. On Christ the King Sunday, we proclaim that Jesus is the head of the Church and that his kingdom - not our preferences, ambitions, comfort, or the values of the world around us - determines how we live. To call ourselves siblings in Christ and children of God is to become part of a family that lives differently because we follow a different Lord. We belong, show up, give, serve, remember, lead, and commit because we are following Jesus.

For more information about participating or leading in worship, please click the following links:

• Sunday Morning Worship Information
• Stilwell UMC's Worship Ministries