VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE DECEMBER 22, 2024

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds calls us to worship with a poem based upon Psalm 24. Michael Blanco and Luisa Fernandez light the fourth Advent candle, the Candle of Peace. Chaplain David Saltzman gives our opening prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop and Juan Marvin lead us in our praise singing. Albert Ramseyer takes up the praises and concerns of the church and our world in the Prayers of the People.

 

In his sermon, “Light in the Darkness,” Martín Mumm reminds us that to get to the joy and peace of Christmas we sometimes have to go through darkness. Looking just at our own problems, it does not seem possible to find peace. Yet in both John 1 and Genesis 1 it is God who creates and sends the light to overcome the darkness. Jesus came into our world from the darkness and vulnerability of the womb so that we could become children of God. As in our own lives, birth is just the beginning of the story. As children we all must be loved and nurtured. Peace on earth did not arrive with Christmas, and the challenge to each of us is what we can do to cause peace to grow. One way to nurture the light that came into the world at Christmas is to practice forgiving those who we have grudges against and to reach out for forgiveness from those we have hurt.

 

Verdugo makes its Sunday sermons and select worship services available to you on Facebook at https://facebook.com/verdugochurch and posts audio copies of the service and sermon at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com.

 

Prayers of the People have been edited to respect the privacy and confidentiality of those participating or mentioned.

 

All song titles, lyrics, and music are used with permission. CCLI license # 2486815.

 

Verdugo Community Church is a Free Methodist congregation serving the Glassell Park, Eagle Rock, and Glendale areas in Los Angeles. It is located at 4300 Verdugo Road, Los Angeles, CA 90065. Our email address is verdugofmc@gmail.com. Contact Pastor Gail at (323) 500-3343.

 

Worship service copyright 2024 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2024 by Martín Mumm and Verdugo Community Church.