Discipline is hard and we often don't like it. Discipline can be a punishment we receive the purpose of which is supposed to help us not make the same bad choice again. When little discipline might be you have to go sit with your nose in the corner not talking to anyone. When older discipline might be receiving a ticket for speeding that will require you to pay a monetary fine. So we often don't like that type of discipline. There is also the hard discipline that people put into being able to be good at something or achieve something grand. Discipline is what allows us to have amazing athletes that sometimes are able to do things with their bodies that most of us can't. They achieve these amazing feats by following a disciplined regimen of training that includes proper nutrition and workouts. Discipline also helps us connect with God. We are better able to connect with God when we discipline ourselves to devoting time to prayer, to read our Bible, to worship, to spend time just listening to God's still small voice. Discipline requires hard-work and effort and the results often don't happen quickly. When all the hardworking and effort doesn't give good results quickly we can often give up and say it doesn't really work. As Christians we have to learn discipline and allow ourselves to be disciplined. And the greater the feat and reward the greater the discipline that is required. For our Christian task that is eternal its magnitude, why would it be easy? We are going to explore the call for us to be disciplined this Sunday worship.
Attached is the bulletin that you can view or print out for Sunday morning. It is a communion Sunday so if you are worshipping from home bring your own communion elements to the service. If you are joining us in the sanctuary your communion elements will be at the sign-in table. At the sign-in table you will take a bag with a piece of bread in it and also a little cup of sealed juice. These are your communion elements that we will bless during the service.
Here is some further details about ways to access our services this Sunday at 8am and 10:30am both in person and online. Just a reminder that 8am is a traditional service with most of the songs being hymns and the 10:30am service is contemporary with newer praise songs.
When coming to worship in the sanctuary some things have changed. You will need to wear a mask or face shield into the building. If you forget or do not have a mask or face shield a mask will be provided to you to wear while you are in the building. There will be a sign-in station where you can get a bulletin and other items so keep walking when you come through the door until you get to the sign-in table. At the sign-in table there will also be a place to put prayer requests. If you put them in before the service they will be included in some form during our prayer time. We will not pass the plate during the service but your monetary offering can go in the wooden box that is next to the sign-in table and there is also another box near the altar rail. There are hand sanitizer stations throughout the church and they are there for you to use them. You are NOT required to have received a vaccination in order to attend worship. In the sanctuary we have not roped off pews so there is not a guarantee of being 6 feet apart. I will not be wearing a mask while on the altar and any singers we have on the altar will not be wearing mask. Currently, we will not be having a fellowship time downstairs in order to increase health safety.
You can catch the Facebook Livestream at: https://www.facebook.com/tomscreekumc .
We will try start the Facebook Livestream at @ 7:50am and 10:20am and you will see messages on the screen and hear music playing. This is the best option if you want to interact with others online. Feel free to chat to each other before and during the service. You can put prayer requests in the chat. This is great way to be able to interact with others if you watch it live with others in your church family who are staying home but want to worship as part of an online community. It will continue to be there to watch later and feel free to share or create watch parties in order to share it with others.
You can catch this livestream on our Toms Creek UMC channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6E7eCwH2ZGYspkSCF0CGw/featured. We will TRY to start the YouTube Livestream at 7:50 am and 10:20am and you will see announcements scroll and hear music playing. This format is best if you are watching on a television or large screen with lots of people gathered around. You can have it fill the whole screen and just watch it without any distractions. There is a way to chat on YouTube but it normally has a lot less people and is normally a lot less chatty than the our Facebook livestream. If you subscribe to our channel it will let you know when we go live in future weeks. Later in the day another shorter version of the service is posted but for this coming series I recommend taking in the entire worship experience.
You can go to our website here https://www.tomscreekumc.com/service-videos and by Monday morning there should be a version of our service. Sometimes the whole service is there instead of the shortened version depending on different factors. Sometimes it will be from the 8am service and sometimes it will be from the 10:30am service.
For just the 10:30am service you can use a phone to listen to our service by calling 857-799-9465 from any phone starting at 10:20 am. This will only have sound coming through and you will not be able to see anything that is occurring. If you would like we can we make a DVD of the service for you to watch just let the church office or Pastor Heath know.
To give your financial offering you can sign up to give electronically here: https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/Vanco_ver3.vps?appver3=oo37DPDB_IkRvUYRT4XYFR9HODrOVn_HRoRVzfIf6wIC8Jr39BzhtDTFkxI3DZSBugLUwNICM4mn_Vn6Yqj7ze3avdPht8ScFTxSmF__f6NGGfZi-D-1l6WdFZHC1c8U
OR
you can text 844-406-0358 with an amount as the text. It will set up to give over text and from then on you just put in the amount and your donation to the church will go right through
or
you can go to our website and hit the donate button on our webpage, https://www.tomscreekumc.com
OR
you can mail your offering to:
Tom's Creek United Methodist Church
10926 Simmons Road
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Just making worship a weekly commitment is an act of discipline. It is not easy to do and at first you might not see results. Yet after a time you will start to feel a change in your demeanor after committing to worship. Also, you can develop true friendships with others that are part of God's family. You will start to be more comfortable as you worship more often and that allows you to more easily feel God's love for you and allow the Holy Spirit to more fully work within you to bring you peace and joy. Feel free to share the opportunity to worship with us with others as you commit to join in worship yourself.
Blessings,
PH
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