Posts tagged prayer

Teaching Children to Pray

It is never too early to teach children to pray.

“Bible stories and prayer are the two greatest gifts we can give to children,” said the Rev. Leanne Hadley, minister to children and their families at First United Methodist Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. “Prayer is that anchor that is going to hold them when life’s storms hit.”

Even the youngest “children have very real experiences with God in very simple ways,” she continued. “We help children knock on the door and God opens it.”…

[Interpreter Magazine, January-February 2013, Featured Stories, Digital only — Teaching children to pray]

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St. Matthew’s Worship Audio - 5.12.2013:  Pastor Brian Johnson leads us in the final worship of the sermon series, Encountering the Divine Through Prayer, with the message: Going to the Place of Prayer. Acts 16:16-34; John 17:20-26. 

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St. Matthew’s Worship Audio - 4.28.2013:  On this 5th Sunday of Easter, Pastor Denise Honeycutt leads us in worship with the message “Poplar, Pine, Periwinkle and Prayer.”  Psalm 19:1-6; John 16:12-15. 

Chuck Knows Church — BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. If you’re Episcopalian, you likely know all about this book. However, if you’re United Methodist, you may have never even heard of it. Find what it is with a chuckle and a smile as Chuck explains.  Find more Chuck Knows Church at www.chuckknowschurch.com.

Prayer changes everything.  Don’t be anxious, pray instead.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  His grace is sufficient.

Prayer changes everything.  Don’t be anxious, pray instead.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  His grace is sufficient.

landarants

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Join Pastor Denise Honeycutt as she begins our new sermon series, Encountering the Divine Through Prayer, with the message, It Needs to Be Real for Me. Psalm 150; John 20:19-31. 

Encountering the Diving Through Prayer: Christ is alive – we are resurrection people!  We now enter into the great 50 days of Easter – in which the disciples encountered the living presence of Christ.  We are beginning a yearlong focus on prayer.  Our Sermon Series for the 50 days of Easter will be: Encountering The Divine Through Prayer.  We will look at how the disciples talked with, and related to the resurrected Christ, and how that might inform our prayer life.  We will examine what Jesus taught about prayer.  During the 50 Days of Easter we will be unpacking some of the problems of prayer, how we do it, what it means, how can it be meaningful part of our lives and not just another thing we have to add to a ‘to -do list’?    We will explore different ways of praying that may be more suited to our participate personality or situation in life.

Encountering the Diving Through Prayer: Christ is alive – we are resurrection people!  We now enter into the great 50 days of Easter – in which the disciples encountered the living presence of Christ.  We are beginning a yearlong focus on prayer.  Our Sermon Series for the 50 days of Easter will be: Encountering The Divine Through Prayer.  We will look at how the disciples talked with, and related to the resurrected Christ, and how that might inform our prayer life.  We will examine what Jesus taught about prayer.  During the 50 Days of Easter we will be unpacking some of the problems of prayer, how we do it, what it means, how can it be meaningful part of our lives and not just another thing we have to add to a ‘to -do list’?    We will explore different ways of praying that may be more suited to our participate personality or situation in life.

St. Matthew’s April Prayer Focus: “Christ is Risen, Alleluia”

St. Matthew’s April Prayer Focus: “Christ is Risen, Alleluia”

The St. Matthew’s April 2013 Newsletter is now available.  Click here for a PDF copy.

The St. Matthew’s April 2013 Newsletter is now available.  Click here for a PDF copy.

Our Sr. High UMYF shares the benediction that they use to close every meeting.  Take a look!

Chuck Knows Church - THE LORD’S PRAYER.  It’s the most common prayer spoken in church each Sunday.  But where does it come from?  And what does it mean?  Chuck gets serious on us as he leads us in the Lord’s Prayer.

Watch the story of 4 year old Joel and his family, as they use their faith and prayer to face Joel’s heart breaking diagnosis and find grace in their daily lives.  (You might want to grab a tissue before you watch.)

“Joel was diagnosed with an Atypical Teratoid/ Rhamboid Tumor (AT/RT) in January of 2010. He had a surgery to remove the tumor and was undergoing 54 weeks of treatment including chemotherapy and radiation. In October of 2010, he had a tumor recurrence. Joel is 4 years old now. And has survived thanks to his family’s faith and positive thinking.”

St. Matthew’s daily Scripture readings for January 27th - February 23rd.  Find out more at: www.stmatthewsumc.org/worshipministires.php.

St. Matthew’s daily Scripture readings for January 27th - February 23rd.  Find out more at: www.stmatthewsumc.org/worshipministires.php.

“It must grieve the very heart of God to see the harm we inflict on one another. At this time of year when we rehearse God’s great love for us how sad to hear of the violent death of those in CT. We pray for their families, for those who are injured and for the shooter.” -Pastor Denise

“It must grieve the very heart of God to see the harm we inflict on one another. At this time of year when we rehearse God’s great love for us how sad to hear of the violent death of those in CT. We pray for their families, for those who are injured and for the shooter.” -Pastor Denise

Calling All Bakers! Kairos Prison Ministry Team Needs 600 Dozen Cookies!

The St. Matthew’s Kairos team is looking for a few good bakers!  (Actually, we could use more than a few.)  Randy Jones will be helping a new Kairos team going into the Sussex II State Prison October 24th-28th.  The rest of us are headed back to Greensville Correctional Center November 7th-11th.  

In all, we need 500 dozen cookies! Cookie instructions and ziplock bags are available in the Information Hallway. Please consider blessing the men in the Sussex and Greensville prisons with these gifts of love. They can be brought to St. Matthew’s as soon as you have them ready, or frozen and brought in at your convenience, as long as we have them by Wednesday morning, November 7th.  (We’ll be storing them in the church kitchen freezer.)

We’ll also have place-mats for decorating during the church-wide Fall Service Day on Saturday, October 20th.  This is another way to play an important part in our Kairos Prison Ministry.

In addition - we are looking for prayer partners to pray for the retreat while it is ongoing. There will be a signup sheet along with prayer vigil suggestions sitting beside the cookie info.

Many thanks from the St. Matthews Kairos team for this fall (Dick Tobey, Bob Jennings, Randy Jones, Tom Weaver, Mike McEntire, and the Reverend Pat Watkins)