Worship With Us This Sunday!
This coming Sunday, July 7th , is a Holy Communion Sunday. That means that all three of our pastors will preach. This week, all three are using Mark as their gospel passage. You have the opportunity, either by in-person
attendance or viewing on your screen at home, to get three different takes
on that passage. Where else can you find such a homiletical smorgasbord?
Join us for Word and Table this week!
Pastor Vann
Overheard
From the J.C. Ryle Facebook page:
Imagine if our Christian view of the end times was centered on:
Christ rather than an antichrist;
The mark of the lamb rather than the beast;
Redeeming the earth rather than escaping it;
Hope rather than fear.
Q & A Sermon
Pastor Spivey will do a "Question & Answer" sermon on Sunday, July 28th. This does NOT mean he will take questions from the congregation AT the service. If you have a clear, concise question you’d like him to address--or a particular passage of scripture you’d like him to examine--please send your request to him at vannspivey@centenarychurch.com or drop it off at the Church office by July 21st. He'll address as many as he can in a 20-minute sermon and try to write up answers to the others over the next few months. Thanks for participating!
Notable Quotes from the 2024 NC Annual Conference
From Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton’s Opening Address on June 13
Our world desperately needs a witness that people with differing perspectives can love and respect one another. Might the United Methodist Church embrace our role in the world? Might we be THE witness?
I’m deeply aware that many congregations in North Carolina do not see yourselves welcoming a gay pastor. If your church is in that category, don’t be misinformed. As is our practice, the Cabinet would never intentionally send any pastor to a church who would not welcome them.
Some churches cannot see yourself hosting a gay wedding at your church. The changes in The Book of Discipline do not force pastors or churches to act contrary to their conscience. Clergy have ALWAYS discerned what weddings they would officiate. And now clergy and laity will discern TOGETHER in the local church’s missional context, about weddings.
We all agree to love; that’s the non-negotiable. That’s the non-negotiable: We all agree to love.
Let me have a little aside here. Churches—please don’t leap into writing policies right now regarding same-gender weddings. Hammering out wedding policies is done through relationships with real people. Don’t create unnecessary division in your church over hypothetical weddings. And churches who are welcoming same-gender weddings, be good connectional partners to our more traditional United Methodist churches should they reach out to you for support for maybe someone who’s a part of their community.
Let’s do this connectional work well together. We are connected through Christ, we need one another, and we need to learn from one another.
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