This Sunday was a much-anticipated annual event at COA: Youth Sunday!

This means that the entire service was designed and/or led by our youth group members. This year, three of our seniors graduating from high school (Nathan Lime, Audrey McNeal and Hannah Urlock) presented a sermon. They chose the music, and the scriptures and they also led a very special Message for all Ages.  The theme of this service is EXPECTATIONS.

The service also includes a blessing for all of the Class of 2021 with a special guest offering the prayer: former COA Interim Pastor Rev. Alison Halsey.

Make sure you watch this service and be ready to be inspired!

This Sunday, we continue on with Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia and come to a pretty famous line that says that now after Jesus, “here is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28). What does such a promise even mean in our divided world today? What does it look like? Does unity demand that we all be the same? How can we as Christians model communities of diversity AND equity AND inclusion all at the same time? This issue is more timely today than ever, so please prayerfully think about it along with us at COA.

Link to readable sermon PDF

This week’s sermon goes deeper into one of Paul’s epistles, or letters to a congregation he founded. They are still such a new project and still figuring out who they are. They are impressionable to all kinds of public opinion, not the least of which is a group among them that says they are making faith way too easy. They need to show a sign of their commitment. They need to prove they are “real Christians”. Paul has some strong and challenging words for them about this, and lays out this idea of being justified by the faith of Christ. We are going to explore more what that means. Maybe we can all stop trying so hard and white-knuckling our way to what we consider perfection, and instead try to let go and allow God’s grace to work in our lives (and in our churches).

Link to readable sermon PDF

This Sunday is Mental Health Awareness Sunday, in honor of May as Mental Health Awareness Month. The sermon today focuses on a story in the book of Acts about the early Church’s first major conflict about what people needed to do to be considered a part of the community. What are the requirements to belong? What barriers are still in place today that make people feel apart from us? How can we work together, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to break down these barriers as part of our mission.

Link to Pastor Jessie’s fundraising page for the 2021 NAMI Walk (National Alliance on Mental Illness)

Link to readable sermon PDF

This week, we start reading passages from the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles—all of which are centered around the formation of the earliest Church in different communities. Starting something new is never easy! There are no clear rules and guidelines; people seldom agree on the best actions to take; conflicts can threaten the whole enterprise. And yet, here we are as the global Church thousands of years later. This new thing was not perfect, but it worked.

The story in Acts today shows how the good news about Jesus (God’s love embodied) reached someone who was both a foreigner and a sexual minority. It all started with them trying to understand the Bible. Is that something you struggle with today in 2021? We learn better together, so let’s think about this story together…

Link to readable sermon PDF