Welcome Message
HELLO! WELCOME TO WPC
from WPC – Get Sermon
Westminster Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles invites you to experience Virtual Worship. Scroll the page to participate in Virtual Sunday Worship and join us on Sunday’s at noon for the Video Chat Coffee Hour on Zoom. See you soon.
Shhh, Virtual Worship is Starting
Opening Prayer:
Persistent and loving God, you are forever seeking for your will to be done on Earth. You yearn for all creation to live in harmony. Forgive us for growing weary of the struggle for peace and justice, and for courting despair. Loosen our need to see the full results and to feel hopeful. Sustain us with an abundance of friends and a measure of faith. Give us the willingness to do the loving thing and to be faithful in the small acts of caring.
God of the hidden seed and the promised resurrection, work your surprising and amazing grace in our lives and in our broken world.
Amen.
Opening Praise:
“And Can It Be” – Dan Forrest
CHURCH NEWS & GIVING
Announcements:
FELLOWSHIP COFFEE HOUR via Zoom
Sunday at 12:00 p.m. / Noon
Fellowship with your Westminster Family. Let’s join one another for a check in and fellowship following the morning virtual worship service via zoom. Join the Zoom Coffee Hour Meetings – Let’s Chat! – CLICK HERE
Attention Westminster Family
~ DRIVE-IN COMMUNION SERVICE ~
Sunday, November 1st, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.
Nov 1, 2020 – Daylight Saving Time (Back 1 hour)
PLEASE ARRIVE 9:30-9:45 A.M.
On Sunday, November 1st we will be having a special drive-in Communion service in our parking lot. Please pay close attention to upcoming emails this week about instructions for the service. So hold the first Sunday date at 10am and join us in the WPC parking lot for our Westminster drive-in Communion service.
PREVIEW
DRIVE-IN COMMUNION SERVICE TODAY
~ Click Here ~
PRAYER MEETING:
Wednesdays at 5:30pm
Please join us for the via conference call.
Phone: (339) 209-4324 – (no code is needed)
BIBLE STUDY
Wednesday at 1:00 p.m.
As of Wednesday, September 9th, we will meet for our Bible Study at 1pm as to not conflict with the food giveaway ministry. Join Pastor Rhoden for our weekly zoom virtual Bible Study. – CLICK HERE
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BIBLE STUDY & PRAYER:
Wednesdays at 12 Noon
Interaction Based discussions/Scripture Translation will continue until the end of the summer. – GET DETAILS!
*** FOOD GIVE AWAY ***
Thursdays at 11:00 a.m.
We know that times are tough. Thanks to our partnership with Immanuel Presbyterian Church, we’re giving away FREE FOOD to the community. Come and get your free box of food in the parking lot of Westminster Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles on Thursdays.
LEARN MORE ~ Click Here
*** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS ***
MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
OCTOBER 18th – noon
Ballot Review for Nov. 3rd Voting
OCTOBER 25th – 1:00 p.m.
Congregation Gathering – Presenting what Worship will be for the upcoming Holiday months.
Prayers of the People:
O God, you call us into agreement with one another. You urge us to end the divisions among us. How is this even possible? With fists clenched and jaws set, we grip tightly our perspectives and opinions, ready for battle with any who would challenge us.
We worship the god of Being Right. Desperate to belong somewhere, we claim allegiance to tribes of our own making — tribes of doctrine, of politics, of social location. Our quarrels reach your ears, and even as we stammer out our excuses, we know it is not your way.
Your way is excellent. Your way is relationship, discipleship, neighborliness, servanthood. Your way transcends the dim truths we might fashion from earthly assets. And your way seems impossible for us to imagine.
Help us to imagine it, O God, as we come to the table. Let the fellowship we have while at table continue when we leave the table. Help us to imagine sitting down together and breaking bread. Let the magnanimity we feel and express there go with us as we leave the table.
Imagine it for us, gracious God. Imagine it within us. Show us how to drop the nets, filled with our meager catch, which we clutch to ourselves, our paltry security, our self-made identity.
Teach us to share. You have a better identity in mind for us. Make us into your fishers of people. Or perhaps we must simply allow ourselves to be caught by you first. Let us be one community, a tangle of faults and foibles, yet held in your net of grace. This is your way. We long for it, too.
Amen!
Offering Song:
“Hold On” – DEM
Offertory Prayer:
Holy God, source of all good things, you have blessed your children with many gifts, and each of us can serve and help build your kingdom here on earth. We know at times we have denied our giftedness and dismissed the impact our gifts can have. As we ask you to dedicate our tithes and offerings today, we remind ourselves that you seek not only that we open our wallets but open our hearts and our whole being to the work of making your love and compassion the norm, not the exception in this world. We pray this in Christ’s name.
Amen.
Tithes and offerings:
SERMON MESSAGE
Sermonic Songs:
“I Need Thee/Great Is Thy Faithfulness” – Terrian
Sermon:
“Don’t tell me not to worry!”
~ Philippians 4:1-9 ~
By Pastor Carlton Rhoden
SCRIPTURE READING
SERMON by Pastor Carlton Rhoden
Did you miss any of the Virtual Worship today? If so, Click Here and start from the top.
And we’d love to here your thoughts. Leave a comment below for our moderator to approve.
CLOSING SONG
“Father Can You Hear Me?” – Tamela Mann
Closing Prayer:
We are called to be witnesses to God’s glory. God urges us, encourages us, pleads with us to take this call seriously — to live a life worthy of God. Jesus is our Model and Ideal, and also our Savior and Hope. When we fall short, it is the Spirit who supplies all our needs. Go from this place, committed to be witnesses to God, disciples of Christ and a community of the Spirit, through the power of the triune God.
Amen.
We hope you enjoyed Virtual Sunday Worship.
ADD YOUR COMMENTS BELOW, SHARE THE WORSHIP,
& JOIN US FOR COFFEE HOUR on ZOOM at NOON on SUNDAY, October 11th.
MEET PASTOR RHODEN
Rev. Carlton A. Rhoden
Westminster Presbyterian Church / Los Angeles
Rev. Carlton A. Rhoden became the Pastor/Head of Staff of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in April, of 2014. Rev. Rhoden comes with a wealth of experience, having formerly served as Senior Minister of the First Baptist of Los Angeles from 2006 until 2013. Rev. Rhoden earned a Masters of Divinity from the American Baptist Seminary of the West in Berkeley California in 2005. Upon graduation Rev. Rhoden was awarded “The J. Alfred Smith Sr. Award for Outstanding Ministry in the Black Church”. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School Summer Leadership Program class of 2005. Rev. Rhoden received a Bachelor of Science in Social Work with a minor in African American Studies from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in 1999. While at Stockton, Rev. Rhoden was a member of the Men’s Basketball team, a member of Student Government, and pledged Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
He is also active in community organization, most recently with Oakland Community Organizations. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in this field and has provided advice and consulting for community organization groups from coast to coast.
Carlton is married to Nikki Thomas-Rhoden. Nikki holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration. They have two children, CJ and Maya. Nikki is a Social Worker who has a great concern for children in need. She is a graduate of Richard Stockton College of N.J. (B.A.), and a Master’s of Public Administration from Cal State Hayward. She is currently employed at Penny Lane Centers as a Site Director of Wrap Around. She is devoted to her family and the ministry of Westminster Presbyterian Church Los Angeles. Most importantly she is the best wife and mother a man and his children (Maya and C.J.) can have.
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