Watsonville First United Methodist Church

You are invited to the in-person Worship on February 5 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Fifth Sunday of Epiphany with Holy Communion
Sunday, February 5, 2023, 10 am

This Sunday is In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
the teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.

Children’s Time     “The Story of St. Seraphim and the Bear”        Pastor John

Message  Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project           Rev. John Song
Part 4) “The Ark: Darkness Before Light”

The 5-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project continues. In Part 4) The Ark: The Light”, Pastor John will share what came after 5 years of searching for meaning that culminated in the mystical white-light experience of union with God. He shares what he learned from that profound spiritual experience about the nature of God, reality, and his relationship with God and the world.

       “Our brokenness shapes us but does not define us.”
~ Marilyn Jones

“Although I am not God, I am not other than God.
Although I am not you, I am not other than you.”
~ James Finley

“My deepest me is God!”
~ St. Catherine of Genoa (1447–1510)

You are invited to the in-person Worship on January 29 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Fourth Sunday of Epiphany 
Sunday, January 29, 2023, 10 am

Children’s Time   “Let’s Build an Ark” by Pastor John

Special Music               Waltz by P. Tchaikovsky                     Marina Thomas

Message                 Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project          Rev. John Song
Part 3) “The Ark: Darkness Before Light”

The 4-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project continues. In Part 3) “The Ark: Darkness Before Light“, Pastor John will share his search for meaning following his near-death experience of getting shot one evening at a dance party right after high school. His 5 years of searching culminated in the mystical white-light experience of union with God. He shares what he learned from that profound spiritual experience about the nature of God, reality, and his relationship with God and the world.

       Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the desolate pit,
out of the mud and mire.
He set my feet upon a rock,
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my heart,
   a song of praise to our God.

You are invited to the in-person Worship on January 22 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Sunday, January 22, 2023, 10 am

This Sunday is In-Person Lego Sunday!
First, children will be in worship. Following the Special Music,
our Sunday School teacher, Joan Culbertson, will lead our children to the Nursery Room.

Special Music                           Why Me Lord                             John Song, Solo
Words & Music by Kris Kristofferson 

[By the early 1970s, Kris Kristofferson was one of the biggest names in Nashville and country music. But it was this classic country gospel song “Why Me Lord” that would become the biggest hit of his career. The song reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Country songs list (the only solo number one of his career). It was also a certified gold record. 

The song was written by Kristofferson during a low period in his life. He was inspired by a profound religious experience he had at a worship service. Kristofferson said, “I carried around a big load of guilt from my past. I knelt and I was just out of control, crying. It was a release. It really shook me up.” “Why Me Lord” is about a man who, after living a wayward life and lost, was now ready to come to the Lord and humble himself before Jesus.]

Message          Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project        Rev. John Song
Part 2) “The Ark”

The 3-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project: : Part 1) “The Flood”, Part 2) “The Ark”, Part 3) “The New World”, is an attempt to look at Noah’s story to see if there is a message of hope and the pathway out of our current human predicaments. In Noah’s story of The Flood, God regrets ever having created humans and sees His original creative Adam Project as a failure. God chooses Noah who is found to be the only “righteous man” among humans and decides to start all over with the Noah Project. It’s like the artist who shreds all unsuccessful drafts and retains only the one that approximates His original intention. The Noah Project represents a readjustment of human’s relations with God and the world.  It is God’s hope that Noah will neutralize the primal curse of Adam.

In Part 2) “The Ark”, Pastor John will explore Noah’s experience of being shut in the darkness of the ark for 12 months before God commended him to “Come out the ark.” (He will explain why the duration inside of the ark was 12 months and not 40 days as most people believe.) Pastor John will share his own personal journey of darkness that culminated in the mystical white-light experience of union with God. He shares what he learned from that profound spiritual experience.

Psalm 142 (The Message)
David Prays for Deliverance in the Cave

I cry out loudly to God,
    loudly I plead with God for mercy.
I spill out all my complaints before him,
    and spell out my troubles in detail:
 “As I sink in despair, my spirit ebbing away,
    you know how I’m feeling,
I’m up against the wall, with no exit—
    it’s just me, all alone.
I cry out to God:
    ‘You’re my last chance, my only hope for life!’
Oh listen, please listen;
    I’ve never been this low.
Get me out of this prison!

Gary Larson “Far Side”

Gary Larson “Far Side”

You are invited to the in-person Worship on January 15 at 10 am. The bulletin for this Sunday is available for viewing HERE. 

You can worship live on ZOOM by clicking the link below:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9658816441 or Meeting ID: 965 881 6441

You can also watch Sunday services at your convenience by going to our website “watsonville1stumc.org” and click YouTube or Facebook. Each Sunday worship will be uploaded on Sunday afternoon for your viewing.

Third Sunday of Epiphany
Sunday, January 15, 2023, 10 am

Children’s Time    “The Flood and The Noah’s Ark”      Pastor John
Children will learn the story of The Flood and the Noah’s Ark.
In addition they will learn to sing Noah’s song, Rise and Shine.

Choir Anthem       God Hath Not Promised
Music: Alfred B. Smith, Words: Annie Johnson Flint

Message: Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project: Part 1) “The Flood” by Rev. John Song

This Sunday begins the 3-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project: Part 1) “The Flood”, Part 2) “The Ark”, Part 3) “The New World”. I was inspired by Dr. Haley’s message on “The Flood” from Noah’s story last Sunday. I watched on YouTube on our church website. (Our weekly worship is posted on the front page of our website under “YouTube”.)

The total rainfall in California over the past few weeks has been seven times its average level, according to federal officials. It feels like we are living through Noah’s story of the flood that lasted “40 days and 40 nights” that destroyed all living things, save the Noah’s Ark. As we are all going through these unprecedented, unrelenting rain storms, I am wondering if this might not be an anomaly but a new norm. Effects of climate change and global warming are upon us in a way that leaves us feeling uneasy, anxious, helpless and hopeless about our unknown collective future.

The 3-part Sermon Series on Replacing Adam Project with Noah Project is an attempt to look at Noah’s story to see if there is a message of hope and the pathway out of our current predicaments. In Noah’s story of The Flood, God regrets ever having created humans and sees His original creative Adam Project as a failure. God chooses Noah who is found to be the only “righteous man” among humans and decides to start all over with the Noah Project. It’s like the artist who shreds all unsuccessful drafts and retains only the one that approximates His original intention. The Noah Project represents a readjustment of human’s relations with the world.  It is God’s hope that Noah will neutralize the primal curse of Adam.

Gary Larson “Far Side”