The first Sunday in Lent. First fruits and the power of remembering.
Recently global representatives of the United Methodist Church gathered in St. Louis for a special meeting to try and find middle ground on the issue of changing the language in our denominations rule book about LGBTQ persons to be more inclusive. The results were less than pretty. Here is my sermon immediately following that conference. To my friends who can no longer be my friends because of my stance and belief on this subject all I can say is I'm sorry. Your friendship means a great deal to me but it does not mean enough for me to ignore the harm our denomination is doing in the world when it comes to LGBTQ+ people. St. Louis, among other things, obliterated the center and since I can no longer stand there in good conscience I must stand where all who follow Christ should, with the oppressed and the marginalized.
This is the third and final sermon on giving beyond ourselves. Please feel free to come and check us out in person sometime. Our service times are 9:30am at St. Matthew's in Ypsilanti (1344 Borgstrom Ave. Ypsilanti, MI) and 11:00am at Cherry Hill in Canton (321 S. Ridge Rd. Canton, MI). We look forward to seeing you and journeying with you.
Sermon 2 of the 3 part series on giving. If you are interested in helping with the needs of The Hope Clinic please follow this link: https://thehopeclinic.org
This sermon is the first in a three part series by Pastor Mike during our recent pledge drive. Our focus this year was giving above and beyond our own needs. During this sermon Pastor Mike shows two videos. The first, you can pause your listening and follow this link to view the video in its entirety: https://www.facebook.com/therealmikedesotell/videos/vb.100004109559185/1203542886459352/?type=3 For the second the audio has been spliced into the podcast so you can hear the information being given about UMCOR's global migration advance. If you would like more information about or to give to the global migration advance please follow this link: https://www.umcor.org/Search-for-Projects/Projects/3022144 God bless you.
Pastor Mike explore the meaning of the only childhood story of Jesus that we find in the gospels from Luke 2:41-52
This recording is from our 11pm candle light service. You can read the birth narrative found in Luke 2:1-20 for scriptural context.
*Note: We will be skipping week 3 of the Advent sermon series as the message from week 3 will be in the form of the children's Christmas Pageant.
It's the first week of Advent. Please enjoy this sermon. Special thanks to my friends Nic and Dianna for allowing me to share part of their story.
Pastors Mike and Corey sit down with Bishop David Alan Bard to talk about their Holy Land experience today.
I finally got Bri to sit down and do an episode with me. I had a blast recording this episode. I hope you all enjoy it. @revmikeumc on twitter revmikeumc.com
Pastor Mike sits down with Ron DePentu of Cherry Hill UMC to discuss Romans 13, a passage that made news last July during the crisis surrounding the separating of refugee children from their parents. Have a listen as Pastor Mike and Ron discuss this scripture and several other topics that come up along the way.