We will worship online this Sunday, April 11th. We will broadcast via Facebook live on our church Facebook page located here: https://www.facebook.com/cmpcusa. The live stream will begin around 10:15 am and the service will begin at 10:30 am. Rev. Scott Hoffman will lead us in worship. The sermon will be "The Cover Up". The scripture readings are Psalm 16 and Matthew 28: 11-15.
Anyone with an internet connection can access CMPC's live and recorded worship services (and other Facebook content). You do not need to have a Facebook account to access our worship services. Click on the link on our main website (www.cmpcusa.org) to access our public Facebook page for worship (or see other inspirational posts). Bulletins for all the services are posted here. If you are having difficulty getting to the content, please contact Kathleen (office@cmpcusa.org).
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Communion Sunday
This Sunday is Communion Sunday. How to prepare:
The sacrament of Communion is meant to be accessible to all; remember bread and wine were on the Passover table and available to everyone regardless of status. Our time of celebrating Holy Communion is to be intentional about remembering God’s love and grace for us. As such, we encourage you to take time to prepare at home (just like the Elders and Deacons at church prepare for us when we celebrate Communion at church!) Here are ways you should prepare the table at home:
Create a worship space.
Consider what cup and plate is meaningful to hold the elements.
Gather the bread and the juice/wine ahead of time. Don’t have grape juice or wine? Substitute what you think appropriately embodies God’s grace.
Be sure to have all of this prepared before we begin worship on Sunday morning. If you are unable to join us for worship live you are certainly permitted to observe the sacrament whenever you “tune in” to the recording. However, we do highly encourage everyone to make every attempt to partake of the sacrament during the livestream Sunday morning so as to more fully participate in the communal aspect of the Lord’s Supper.
“See” you Sunday morning!
End of Life Series 4
Please join us at noon on April 18th as we hear from Leonard Byrd, Funeral Director of Donaldson Funeral Home in Clarksville, MD. Topics covered will include arrangements for an unexpected death, preplanned arrangements, families of mixed religions, viewing, casket, urn, grave, mausoleum, donate the body to science, Veteran and other organization arrangements, and Maryland laws and regulations. RSVP here.
Weekly Prayer Time
All are invited to join Pastor Scott for a weekly virtual prayer time on Thursdays at noon. These prayer gatherings will take place via zoom and anyone with an internet connection and/or phone can join. We will review the prayer chain requests as well as take new requests in the meeting. The next weekly virtual prayer time will take place on Thursday, April 15th. Please use the link below to join.
Bible Basics Has Returned
Pastor Hoffman has resumed the weekly Bible Basics class. The class meets each Tuesday at 11:00 am on Zoom. If you would like to join the class please email Pastor Hoffman (pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org) for the meeting link. All are welcome to attend!
The Monday Morning Women’s Bible Study
Join the CMPC ladies on Zoom for our study using the book The Last Days of Jesus by Matt Williams. The book and accompanying DVD provides an overview of six major events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. The group meets at 9:30 a.m. virtually on the second and fourth Mondays of each month through May. For information and Zoom access, please contact Barbara Petro at 410-300-6279, bapetro@aol.com or Miriam Miller at 410-302-9651, jtmillerj@verizon.net
Is That You?
Friends, we know that many who do not have a Facebook account are joining us for Sunday morning worship, but we do not know who. If you are amongst those who join us each Sunday or even occasionally, but do not have a Facebook account please email Pastor Scott at pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org just to let us know you’re there. We miss you and would love to know if you’re “with” us for our virtual worship.
Investing in Our Future
In addition to the tremendous support from the congregation through our capital campaigns, the renovation and construction work for our Ministry Expansion is being financed by borrowing from the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP). In order to qualify for the best interest rate, we need to have $300,000 invested in the PILP program by members and friends of CMPC. Many of our members and friends are already participating, but our investment total recently fell below the $300,000 minimum. If you have investments that you could transfer to PILP, or if you could add to your existing PILP investment, it would greatly benefit CMPC by keeping our interest rate low. PILP offers term notes (like CDs) and money market type accounts. If you have a self-directed IRA, those funds can be invested in PILP as well. For more information about how to invest and the benefits of investing with PILP, please visit their website at https://pilp.pcusa.org/. If you would like to speak to someone who has already invested please contact Bob Ashman (rta3512@gmail.com) and he will be happy to connect you with someone. Thank you for your continued support.
Email Scam
From time to time we have been notified that church members have received suspicious emails appearing as though they are from Pastor Scott often asking for a reply or even for some sort of financial contribution. When we get word that this is happening we try to act as quicky as possible to let everyone know not to reply and certainly not to send any money or gift cards. Though this has not happened for a few weeks it is likely to happen again at some point. A few things to know before the next email is sent out:
Pastor Scott will never ask for money or gift cards through email
Pastor Scott’s email address is pastor.hoffman@cmpcusa.org. If you receive an email claiming to be from him, but showing any other email address (including variations of his actual email) delete the message immediately. In the past suspicious emails claiming to be from Pastor Scott have had email addresses that look like his, but are clearly not upon further inspection.
If you should receive an email and you are not sure if it is from Pastor Scott or not please do not reply to that email. Simply send a new email to him and ask if the previous email was indeed from him.
Church Assistance
We have heard from a few of our members that there are brothers and sisters in our church family in need during these difficult times. If you are in need (spiritual, emotional, financial, etc.) please feel free to contact Kathleen (410-997-8011 or office@cmpcusa.org) and rest assured any conversations and/or requests will be kept confidential.
Conversely, if you have a desire to assist those in need please know we always welcome donations to our Crisis Intervention Fund—which we use to assist people facing financial difficulties. Donations to the fund can be made by writing “Crisis Intervention” in the memo line of a check and mailing it in or by choosing “crisis intervention” from the dropdown menu in our online giving form located at https://cmpcusa.org/contribute/ .
