February 2023 at the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz

Welcome to the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, as we seek to be faithful to God by being fully inclusive.  We have open hearts, open minds, and open doors.  Join us as we deepen our resolve to share love generously.  This is a time for sharing the love of Jesus Christ with our neighbors and the world as we grow deeply in our faith.    Join us as we seek to build relationships with spiritual depth, reaching out to the world.   We remain committed to offering a healthy and safe ministry in the midst of this COVID Pandemic, offering Hybrid Worship and Hybrid/Zoom Small Groups.  Check out our website for the latest information, and “Like Us” on Facebook!   

Whoever you are and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome to grow with us!

Zoom participants, remember your ‘holy snack’!  Matthew 5:13-20.  Are you making a difference in this world ‘being like salt’, or have you lost your ‘saltiness for life’?!  Are you ‘light’; are you shining and engaging in the world’?  How are you living spiritually in the Beloved Community? 

Be encouraged as a receiver and distributer of God’s Grace! 

May you be a full participant in the “Community of God”. 

In the midst of the struggles of living faithfully in the world, Paul reminds us (1^st Corinthians 13), to live the way of Love!  Love is not simple … or maybe Love IS simple … How are you living the breadth and depth of God?!  Where is love growing in your life?  How are you planting, nurturing, and sustaining the experience of God’s love … are you sharing that love in the world around you?  Love … such a gigantic task … and So Worth It!!!

We welcome Haley Feuerbacher, Ph.D., who will lead us in an amazing interpretation of Matthew 14:13-31.   Moving from the popular mantra, “I am enough” and being very aware that we simply are not … we can pass on our mission responsibilities to others or run ourselves ragged to respond – expecting others to do the same.  Today we will discover from scripture and earth lessons, ways to flip our way of doing church and ministry.  We will explore the radical ways scripture and life gives us permission to be human with all our needs/limitations, discovering the pathway to answer our call as the Church!

We begin a new season in our spiritual development.          Lent …a time of purging our behaviors that are contrary, so we can focus ourselves on the richness of responding to God’s opportunities.  We begin this Sunday in repentance.  Ashes remind us of dying to the self and rising in God’s Grace.  Genesis 2:15 and Matthew 4:1-11 can offer us ways to respond to God’s call to deepen our spiritual awareness … to ‘move into’ into our spiritual home.

Our visual this day comes from Pat Verheul.