From Rev. Ben – Please join us for an online service for Christmas Eve. Bring some candles, set up your preferred device, and join us at 5:30 PM when the service will premiere on YouTube! (We do recommend being ready at 5:30, but if you want to watch it later you are also welcome to do so). This is a very different…

From Rev. Ben – This is the last Sunday in Advent! We hope you will join us online for worship, as we get ready for Christmas. We also hope you will join us on Christmas Eve at 5:30 PM for a special service that many people are working on even now. This week’s service is focused on the themes of winter and…

From Rev. Ben – As we journey toward Bethlehem this week we will be focusing on Mary’s story and lighting the third candle on the Advent wreath which traditionally is pink.  Thank you to everyone who put together this week’s service! You can submit comments and prayer requests via our Comments Form at mpcfamily.org/comments . We’d love to hear from you! If you are…

From Rev. Ben – Join us on Sunday for Celebration! It’s the second week of Advent, and we are grateful to all of you who have sent in your advent candle photos. It’s lovely to see what you’ve done creatively with the raw materials that the Celebration Committee gave out. We hope that this season of waiting is a blessing to you,…

From Rev. Ben – Blessings to you on this, the first Sunday in Advent—and the first day in the Church year. Advent is the season when we prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas with a special emphasis on the ways our faith brings illumination to our lives. Even when the nights are long and cold, still God’s loves shines on us and warms…

From Rev. Ben – This week’s celebration marks the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and I’m glad it does. I don’t always feel very successful in the patriotism department, but I am happy to live in a country that sets aside a day for giving thanks. This Sunday also is the last Sunday in the liturgical year and it is the feast of Christ the…

From Rev. Ben – When I was starting out as a pastor—more than 27 years ago now—it was traditional in Presbyterian churches to designate a Sunday in early to mid November as Stewardship Sunday. The assumption behind this designation was that congregations would tie their annual budgets to the calendar year, and having a Stewardship Sunday in November would give the session…

From Rev. Ben – In uncertain times, worship becomes more important, at least that’s how it has been in my life. And we are living in uncertain times. As I write this note (Friday afternoon), the election is trending in ways that I personally find to be encouraging, but I’m trying not to hold my breath. In all of the craziness, I…

From Rev. Ben – Happy Halloween—and a Good Reformation Day to you. This week’s service is organized as an observation of Remembrance Sunday, which we Protestants observe (when we observe it) on the first Sunday of November, as close as possible to All Saints day and All Souls day (which this year are tomorrow and Monday). Thank you to everyone who put together…

From Rev. Ben – In this week’s celebration we are observing “Reformation Sunday,” which falls each year on the Sunday closest to October 31, the date when Martin Luther kick started the Reformation by posting his 95 Theses, or questions for debate, on the door of the chapel at the University of Wittenberg in Germany. In honor of Reformation we are singing…