The Verdugo Community Church’s Podcast

Pastor Gail Linstrom begins our service by welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds calls us to worship with the reading of Psalm 67, and Louisa Fernandez opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop, and Caroline Sandoval lead us in joyous singing. Albert Ramseyer gives us a report on the Annual Conference and takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Pastor Gail concludes our service by leading us in Communion, with she and Louisa leading us in a responsive reading based on the Lord’s Prayer. You are invited to participate.

 

In his sermon, “Love and Truth,” Chaplain Daniel Whipple looks at the promise in John 14 that the Holy Spirit would bring Jesus’s words and deeds to mind in his followers. He points out that this has been an ongoing gift. Although the Gospels were written down years later, then copied and translated over the centuries, they retain their truth and power. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us discern what we see or hear is true and whether is leads us to Jesus. One way to decide if a statement about Jesus is true is to remember that Jesus refused every offer of political or military power, and always called for loving and helping others. We need to follow the example of Jesus’s life and teaching and not be distracted by the false calling of the world.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by Daniel Whipple and Verdugo Community Church.

 

In his sermon, “The God Who Sees Us,” Chaplain David Saltzman uses the story of Hagar from Genesis 21 to illustrate how God sees and hears us when we cry out for help. Hagar was thrown out of Abram’s household into the desert, with her child Ishmael, and both faced death. God did not abandon them. He reassured Hagar that they would live, her son would become the father of many nations, and, opened her eyes to a well of water so they could go on. God shows us the same compassion and help in overcoming our problems. God’s love and plan is for us to accomplish the great things he has planned for us and through us.

 

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 services and sermons at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family and calling us to worship with Psalm 100. Dale Reynolds presents the Opening Reading from Psalm 86, and Albert Ramseyer opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop, and Caroline Sandoval lead us in joyous singing. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Pastor Gail concludes our service by leading us in Communion, and you are invited to participate.

 

In his sermon, “The God Who Sees Us,” Chaplain David Saltzman uses the story of Hagar from Genesis 21 to illustrate how God sees and hears us when we cry out for help. Hagar was thrown out of Abram’s household into the desert, with her child Ishmael, and both faced death. God did not abandon them. He reassured Hagar that they would live, her son would become the father of many nations, and, opened her eyes to a well of water so they could go on. God shows us the same compassion and help in overcoming our problems. God’s love and plan is for us to accomplish the great things he has planned for us and through us.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family and calling us to worship with Psalm 100. Dale Reynolds presents the Opening Reading from Psalm 86, and Albert Ramseyer opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop, and Caroline Sandoval lead us in joyous singing. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Pastor Gail concludes our service by leading us in Communion, and you are invited to participate.

 

In his sermon, “The God Who Sees Us,” Chaplain David Saltzman uses the story of Hagar from Genesis 21 to illustrate how God sees and hears us when we cry out for help. Hagar was thrown out of Abram’s household into the desert, with her child Ishmael, and both faced death. God did not abandon them. He reassured Hagar that they would live, her son would become the father of many nations, and, opened her eyes to a well of water so they could go on. God shows us the same compassion and help in overcoming our problems. God’s love and plan is for us to accomplish the great things he has planned for us and through us.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.

In her sermon, “Believing and Trusting,” Pastor Gail looks at Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, and how Ananias’s faith and trust in God’s instructions to care for Paul in his blindness so that he could be healed and complete his mission to spread the Word to the gentiles and beyond. We likewise need to affirm our faith by not only believing and trusting but by listening and hearing and obeying God’s leading us to help others.

 

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 services and sermons at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds and Pastor Gail lead us in a Responsive Call to Worship, and Dale continues this with a reading of Psalm 32. Michael Blanco opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop, and Caroline Sandoval lead us in our joyous singing. Ed Manacop gave us a report on the dinners he and Albert Ramseyer serve to the unhoused families through HomeAgain Los Angeles. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Pastor Gail concludes our service by leading us in Communion, and you are invited to participate.

 

In her sermon, “Believing and Trusting,” Pastor Gail looks at Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, and how Ananias’s faith and trust in God’s instructions to care for Paul in his blindness so that he could be healed and complete his mission to spread the Word to the gentiles and beyond. We likewise need to affirm our faith by not only believing and trusting but by listening and hearing and obeying God’s leading us to help others.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.

In his sermon, “Believing Is Seeing,” Chaplain David Saltzman looks at how Jesus’ conquest of death demonstrated that God had begun a new creation, one where belief leads to seeing, not the world’s point of view that belief only comes after proof. In Acts 5 the Disciples’ faith in what God had done through the death and resurrection of Jesus compelled them to disobey the orders of the religious leaders to be silent. In John 20 Jesus appears to the disciples, demonstrating that he is alive and gently helping Thomas regain his faith. Just as God breathed life into the first creation, Jesus breathes on the Disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit. They are commissioned to go out with the good news of this new creation, doing so with forgiveness and compassion to others.

 

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 services and sermons at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds and Pastor Gail lead us in a Responsive Call to Worship, and Dale continues this with a reading of Psalm 146. Luisa Fernandez opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar and Ed Manacop lead us in our joyous singing. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Pastor Gail concludes our service by leading us in Communion, and you are invited to participate.

 

In his sermon, “Believing Is Seeing,” Chaplain David Saltzman looks at how Jesus’ conquest of death demonstrated that God had begun a new creation, one where belief leads to seeing, not the world’s point of view that belief only comes after proof. In Acts 5 the Disciples’ faith in what God had done through the death and resurrection of Jesus compelled them to disobey the orders of the religious leaders to be silent. In John 20 Jesus appears to the disciples, demonstrating that he is alive and gently helping Thomas regain his faith. Just as God breathed life into the first creation, Jesus breathes on the Disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit. They are commissioned to go out with the good news of this new creation, doing so with forgiveness and compassion to others.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.

In her sermon, “After the Clouds of Doubt …. Jesus Remains,” Pastor Gail uses John 20 to show us that the resurrection is more than just a story we can take or leave. It shows us the first Easter was not the joyous day we celebrate, but one full of the doubts and fears that the followers of Jesus had in trying to believe what had happened and what it meant. Jesus on Easter and then for forty more days demonstrated that he was alive and reassured them that the relationship they had with him had not stopped but was as alive as he was. Today, as then, we struggle with doubts and fears regarding what is the true meaning of our faith. We should be reassured that our relationship with Jesus is alive and that he will be with us now and in the future.

 

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 services and sermons at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.

We begin our service with Pastor Gail Linstrom welcoming all to worship and to participate in the life of our church family. Dale Reynolds begins our time of worship with an Old Testament reading from Isaiah 9 and 25. Dale and Pastor Gail lead us in a Responsive Call to Worship, and Pastor Gail opens us in prayer. Nick Baltazar, Ed Manacop, Caroline Sandoval and Marvin Juan lead us in our joyous singing. Greg Hart takes up the praises and concerns of the church, our city, and our world in the Prayers of the People. Chaplain David Saltzman concludes our service by leading us in Communion, and you are invited to participate.

 

In her sermon, “After the Clouds of Doubt …. Jesus Remains,” Pastor Gail uses John 20 to show us that the resurrection is more than just a story we can take or leave. It shows us the first Easter was not the joyous day we celebrate, but one full of the doubts and fears that the followers of Jesus had in trying to believe what had happened and what it meant. Jesus on Easter and then for forty more days demonstrated that he was alive and reassured them that the relationship they had with him had not stopped but was as alive as he was. Today, as then, we struggle with doubts and fears regarding what is the true meaning of our faith. We should be reassured that our relationship with Jesus is alive and that he will be with us now and in the future.

 

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. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by Gail Whitcome Linstrom and Verdugo Community Church.

In his sermon “The Colt, the Cloaks and the Crowd,” Chaplain David Saltzman looks at the events of Palm Sunday described in Mark 11 as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate victory over sin and death. He comes to Jerusalem riding a borrowed humble donkey, not as a victorious leader on a warhorse. The disciples and the crowd throw what was then their most valued possession, their cloaks, in front of him, showing how valuable Jesus is to them. Yet because Jesus is not coming as a victorious military leader, the same crowd will, in a few days, go from adoration to demanding his crucifixion. Many people today reach the same conclusion about Jesus and reject his message of love, grace, mercy and self-sacrifice. Jesus shows us that following him means servitude, not conquest, but he enters our hearts bringing peace and love. When we show this peace and love to others, they will see Jesus as well.

 

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 services and sermons at https://verdugochurch.podbean.com. Please note that video copies will be deleted after 90 days under Facebook rules.

 

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 2025 by Verdugo Community Church. Sermon copyright 2025 by David Saltzman and Verdugo Community Church.