Sermon by Markus Watson June 29, 2008

This is the first sermon in the series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Theme - Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is all about coming together–specifically for Paul, the issue was bringing Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians together.  Today we have all kinds of issues that divide us.  The Good News is that all who place their faith in Christ are united because we all share in the same inheritance.  Jesus is the one who unifies us.

 

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Nate is founder and director of the Urban Youth Collaborative, a network of church and parachurch partnerships that holistically shares the good news of Jesus Christ with ~700 students each week at 18 lunch clubs at middle schools and high schools in San Diego.

Nate has become a regular with us at Northminster.  A summary of our relationship with Nate may be found –> Here

Theme - God is calling us to bring youth back to Jesus.

 

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Sermon by Markus Watson June 15, 2008

This is the third sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - What does it mean to age well–to finish well? In looking at the story of Caleb, we discover that three things are necessary: a wholehearted faith, a challenge, and a community.

 

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Sermon by Markus Watson June 8, 2008

This is the second sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - What does it take for today’s younger generation to start strong in their faith? A generation that is growing up in a world that’s not as safe as it used to be. A generation that has in many ways been abandoned by the culture. What does it take? It takes an older generation that is committed to loving them, caring for them, and doing whatever it takes to pass on the faith to the next generation.

 

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Sermon by Markus Watson June 1, 2008

This is the first sermon in the series titled “Generations”.

Theme - There’s something about the family that brings up deep longings within each of us. That’s because the family was created by God to be a reflection of who God is. Sadly, because of sin, families often don’t reflect God’s goodness. Because of this, Jesus created a new family—the church.

 

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In a Peanuts cartoon, Lucy demanded that Linus change TV channels, threatening him with her fist if he didn’t. “What makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?” asks Linus.

“These five fingers,” says Lucy. “Individually they’re nothing, but when I curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is terrible to behold.”

“Which channel do you want?” asks Linus. Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, “Why can’t you guys get organized like that?”

I don’t know about you, but I think there’s real wisdom in that little joke! As a church, being united is so important! Not that we’re gonna beat anyone up the way Lucy might, but there is real power in unity.

This weekend (June 1) is our first Sunday with a new worship schedule. This Sunday, we begin worshiping together. This Sunday, we begin a new phase in our journey of discovery—discovering who we are, who we can be, who God is calling us to be; discovering together God’s future for our church!

This coming together as a single worship service really has nothing to do with worship styles. Sure, there will be conversation, discussion, maybe even some tension, over the styles of worship that we’ll be experimenting with. But worship style is not the important thing.

What is important is that we are together, united as we move into God’s future for us. We certainly won’t always agree on whether we liked everything about a given worship service—but that would be true even if we all leaned one way or another in terms of worship style.

Instead, let’s focus on what we do agree on: 1) God loves us; 2) God has redeemed us through Jesus; and 3) the reason we, the church, exist is to give God glory and make God’s presence real to a hurting world.

I can’t imagine that any of us would disagree with that! As we move into the future, let’s focus on those things, asking God to help us live out those realities in our lives as we worship, serve, give, and love in every aspect of our lives.

–Pastor Markus Watson

Sermon by Jim Hagelganz on May 25, 2008

Theme - Why do some suffer and others don’t? Where is God?

 

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Sermon by Markus Watson on May 18, 2008

Theme - As Christians, we often tend to be fairly clear on what we’re supposed to do or how we’re supposed to act. But we’re not always as clear on who we are. 1 Peter 2:9 tells us who we are; we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

 

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On Thursday evening, May 14, the Session of Northminster Presbyterian Church gathered to discuss where God may be calling us in terms of our Sunday morning worship. We spent two and a half hours discussing, deliberating, and even learning together.

There’s no question that the style of worship at Northminster has been an ongoing issue. And it has, in my view—as well as in the opinion of many of you—had some negative effects on this congregation. The most unfortunate effect of having two differntly styled services has been the “us” and “them” attitude that we seem to have developed toward one another. Those who prefer contemporary worship think of those in the second service as the “those heritage people,” and those who prefer traditional worship think of those in the first service as “those contemporary people.”

It’s my belief that in order for us to truly be the people that God is calling us to be, we have to eliminate all labels of “us” and “them,” and “heritage” and “contemporary.” I believe that we need to come together for, not only our common good as the body of Christ, but also for the good of those in our surrounding community. We can’t be a blessing to those outside the church if we’re not united inside the church. We can’t be outwardly focused if we’re not inwardly strong.

We need to be inwardly strong.

For this reason, Session made two decisions on Thursday night. The first decision was to go back to having one service at 9:30 a.m. for the summer, beginning June 1, 2008. We need to be unified as a church, and bringing us together to worship is a step toward bringing about greater unity. However, no decision was made as to the style of worship that this service should be. In fact, I believe that we all generally agreed that we need to eliminate the labels of “heritage” and “contemporary.” We simply need to worship together.

The second decision was to create a “Worship Imagination Team” consisting of people who have in the past attended the Heritage service and people who have attended the Contemporary service. This team will be chaired by the pastor. The purpose of this team is simply to be creative with forms of worship, orders of worship, styles of worship, etc., etc. They are to experiment with aspects of worship that may be considered more traditional and aspects of worship that may be considered more contemporary. Over time, we may, as a body, find a style of worship and an order of worship that authentically fits who we are. Or we may find that we actually enjoy being creative with different forms and orders of worship.

I don’t know where this will lead. No one does. The important thing here is to continue to be open to the leading of God’s Spirit.

I want to close this article with two quotes from our Presbyterian Book of Order (believe it or not!):

The church is…free to be innovative in seeking appropriate language for worship. While respecting time-honored forms and set orders, the church may reshape them to respond freely to the leading of God’s Spirit in every age. (W.1.2005)

The Church has always experienced a tension between form and freedom in worship. In the history of the Church, some have offered established forms for ordering worship in accordance with God’s Word. Others, in the effort to be faithful to the Word, have resisted imposing any fixed forms upon the worshiping community. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) acknowledges that all forms of worship are provisional and subject to reformation. In ordering the worship the church is to seek openness to the creativity of the Holy Spirit, who guides the church toward worship which is orderly yet spontaneous, consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future. (W-3.1002)

May God help us to focus on him in this time of transition. And may we, as a church, be “consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future.”

–Pastor Markus Watson

Sermon by Markus Watson on May 11, 2008

Theme – On Pentecost, we celebrate the day that God sent his Holy Spirit to those first disciples. There was a sound like a violent wind. There were tongues of flame on their heads. They spoke in all kinds of languages. Sounds pretty incredible! But what if we believed that God could do that again today? What if we really believed that the Holy Spirit was with us today in the same way the Holy Spirit was with those first disciples? How might that affect the way we lived?

 

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