VERDUGO COMMUNITY CHURCH WORSHIP SERVICE JANUARY 15, 2023

We open our service in song. Pastor Gail Linstrom welcomes all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds calls us to worship with a reading from Psalm 139, and Luisa Fernandez opens us in prayer. Kim Cox, Jessica Jimenez, and Ed Manacop lead us in our praise singing. Albert Ramseyer takes up the concerns of the church and our world in the Prayers of the People. In her sermon “Light Amidst the Darkness,” Pastor Gail concludes the Christmas narrative of Mary and Joseph after the visit of the Wise Men, when God directs them to flee to Egypt to protect Jesus’s life, and later to return to Nazareth when the threat is gone. From their story and those of other Biblical people and her own, she shows that God as a plan for each person’s life – and that he will care for them through trials and challenges if they trust him on their journey with him. By following God’s guidance and not culturally-driven expectations and our own desires, we receive unexpected blessings and further God’s plan of salvation.

 

Pastor Gail then leads us in Communion, so you are invited to have bread or crackers and a beverage ready to participate in this sacrament.

 

Verdugo is again meeting in person but makes its Sunday sermons available to you on Facebook and posts audio copies of the service and sermon at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com.

 

Prayers of the People has been edited to respect the privacy and confidentiality of individual prayer requests. All CCLI songs are performed under Verdugo Community Church’s license with CCLI.

 

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.

 

Verdugo is online at www.facebook.com/verdugochurch and www.verdugochurch.org.

Worship Service copyright 2023 by Verdugo Community Church and Sermon copyright 2023 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.