Come Home to Church

Post date: Sep 17, 2021 6:27:23 PM

Dear Middletown Reformed Church Family and Friends,

Blessings of Pentecost joy be with you.

This Sunday is Rally Day, which means our fall programming resumes. Yes, we are back at it with our ministries, albeit masked and practicing safety and caution. But still, here we go again. We have already started Adult Choir rehearsal, and will begin our Children and Worship teaching schedule, Adult Education study on Thursday evenings, and Bell Choir rehearsal. In addition, we have a special brunch planned after worship in the Education Building. And I goofed last week and forgot to announce our Deacons’ Offering, so we will receive that offering on Sunday.

Beloved, whether you have been attending regularly in person, been away for the summer, or haven’t been to worship for 18 months or more, you are warmly invited to “come home” to church this Sunday. It has been a long and challenging year+ with the pandemic, and being back together to worship our gracious God of hope may be just what you need to refresh and enliven your body and soul. 

Let us gather at 10:30 AM in person or on FaceBook live (Page: Middletown Reformed Church) this Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. The Joyful Noise Adult Choir will be singing “Thy Word” for our anthem. I will be preaching from Habakkuk 2.1-3 and Acts 2.14-18 and my sermon title is Dreams and Visions. In addition, we have resumed congregational singing and since the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 is present in our state, and Monmouth County is a high transmission zone for the variant, everyone must wear a mask for worship and indoor church events. Thank you for your cooperation in loving yourself, your neighbor, and keeping everyone safe and healthy.

The pandemic may have closed down our buildings, but it did not shut down we who are the church. It cannot put on pause the ministry of Christ Jesus. And it will not stop God’s vision of love and grace for the world. 

So, come. Come home to church.

In gratitude for the privilege of being your pastor and the holy call of loving you,

Pastor Trish