Search Results
Individual Events Matching Your Search Query
Building Relationships - 1 - An Active Relationship with the Lord
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 22 Nov, 2020
The vision of New Church Westville is to be a community that builds relationships, with the Lord and with other people. This Sunday we’re going to talk about how to build a relationship with the Lord. Our vision statement describes the kind of relationship we’re striving to build with the Lord like this: “We each have an active relationship with the Lord – walking with Him and asking what He wants us to do, turning to Him in times of need and joy, getting His help in turning away from what is harmful, learning from Him.” Let’s talk about how we each can make progress towards this vision. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Nature - Part 4 - Humanity and Usefulness
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 15 Nov, 2020
So far in our series on nature we have seen how the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms all reflect the Lord and His relationship with us. In our concluding sermon we turn to humanity itself. Everything that the Lord created, He did so for the sake of humanity. We are to subdue the Earth and have dominion over the animals. Yet that does not mean we can take creation for granted and abuse it. Our dominion is solely for the purpose of what is useful and good. We are stewards, rather than the owners, of the world that God has lent to us. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Nature - Part 3 - Animals and Ecosystems
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 8 Nov, 2020
In our third sermon on the natural world we’re going to consider the animal kingdom. Why are there animals in this world we live in—from the smallest insect to the biggest whale—why are they here? Why are they part of the world that the Lord created and what purpose do they serve? This will also be an opportunity to reflect on topics like the theory of evolution from the perspective of New Church teachings and how we can cultivate a good spiritual ecosystem. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Nature - Part 2 - Vegetation and Growth
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 1 Nov, 2020
We continue our examination of the natural world in light of its spiritual source. Last week we saw the order inherent in minerals and all physical things, reflecting the presence of God even at the atomic level. This week we move beyond inert rocks and turn towards living, growing vegetation. Within every seed the Lord has placed the potential for infinitely expanding life, reproducing, if given a chance, eternally and infinitely. In this we see the inherent quality of life from the Lord: it never ceases to grow, and would, if given the chance, fill the entire universe with Divine Love. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Nature - Part 1 - The Mineral Kingdom and Structure
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 25 Oct, 2020
For the next few weeks we’re going to have a bit of a change of pace—we’ll be doing a sermon series on the natural world and its connection to the spiritual world. This Sunday we’ll be talking about the least alive parts of the natural world—the rocks and minerals. In future weeks we’ll talk about vegetation and animals. This Sunday we’re also going to talk about the structure and design of it all with maybe a little chemistry and physics thrown in for fun. The goal is that you’ll come away from the sermon looking at the world around you with a fresh perspective. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Stages of Life - Part 4 - Old Age
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 18 Oct, 2020
Old age can be a time of great reflection: looking back on what has been, looking forward with wonder to what is to come after death. It can also be a time of trial and tribulation: as the body and mind fail, doubt and despair can creep in. Moses, at the end of his life, was able to reflect on the past and from that gracefully hand over his wisdom to the next generation. As we look at this concluding stage of life in this world, we will look at how we too can gracefully age and handover to the next generation. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Cecilie Young Memorial Service
Memorial Service - 17 Oct, 2020
On 9 October 2020, Cecilie Francina (Buss) Young peacefully passed away at the age of 104. If you know Cecilie, you'll know that she has been ready for some years to pass on and so we can celebrate with her that she is finally done with her earthly life and can move on to the spiritual world where so many of her loved ones already are. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Stages of Life - Part 3 - Adulthood
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 11 Oct, 2020
In our series on the stages of life, this Sunday we come to the stage of adulthood. We will follow the story of Moses as he is called by the Lord to do something great. And we will also see how he tries to get out of it any way that he can. Moses eventually grows into one of the greatest leaders of the Children of Israel but he also experiences a lot of ups and downs, victories and defeats along the way. Such is adulthood and the Lord’s Word can help us to find our way through it. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Stages of Life - Part 2 - Teenage Years
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 4 Oct, 2020
This week we continue our exploration of the stages of life as seen in the story of Moses. As a young man Moses faced the challenges of putting his ideals into practice. On the one hand he could see with clarity the injustice his people faced. On the other hand, he struggled to reconcile how his own people treated each other, and in the end was forced to flee to a foreign land. These experiences illustrate well the dichotomy of the teenage years: a growing sense of right and wrong, tempered by growing awareness of the complexity of life. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Stages of Life - Part 1 - Childhood
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 27 Sep, 2020
Are you an adult still trying to figure out what it means to be an adult? Are you a teenager or young adult trying to figure out where you fit in the world? Or, are you feeling like you might actually be getting old now? Over the next few weeks we’re going to be using the story of Moses as a way of exploring the challenges and opportunities of the different stages of life that we go through in our lives. This Sunday we’re going to start with the story of baby Moses being put in a tar covered ark in the Nile river and what this can teach us about the first few years of our lives. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Technology - Useful Tool or Useless Distraction
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 20 Sep, 2020
We live in a world of technology, all the more so since the advent of COVID-19. This pandemic has highlighted the blessing of technology, as it allows us to carry on work safely, to connect with loved ones around the world, even to attend church while not being able to attend in person. But it has also highlighted the downsides of technology, as we yearn to get back to in-person connection and struggle with the frustrating limits of technology. As with any tool, technology will be useful or useless depending on how much it is used in the service of what is spiritual. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Soulmates? Therefore....what? Part 2: After You Get Married
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 13 Sep, 2020
What do you do if you’re pretty sure that the person you’re married to is not your soulmate? That’s a big question and we’ll be doing our best to answer it on Sunday. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Relationships, Part 3: Distinctly One
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 6 Sep, 2020
The ultimate expression of love is to feel the joy of another person as if it were your own joy. This is expressed in the great commandment that we are to love others as we love ourselves, such that we rejoice in their happiness and feel pain at their hurt. At the same time there are limits and boundaries to how much we feel another as ourselves. Even as we empathize, we also need to maintain our independence, lest we get sucked in and lose ourselves. The Word gives us guidance on how to both reach out and remain separate in a healthy way. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Soulmates? Therefore....what? Part 1: Before You Get Married
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 30 Aug, 2020
Do you believe that you have a soulmate? Can you know when you’ve found your soulmate? These are philosophical questions, in one sense, but the conclusions that you come to about whether or not you think someone is your soulmate can have huge consequences in your life. This Sunday we’re going to talk about how your beliefs about soulmates can impact the decisions you make before you get married and in 2 weeks we’ll talk about after you get married. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Relationships - Part 2 - What God Has Joined Together
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 23 Aug, 2020
Relationships, including marriage, fulfil many human needs, from basic economics to deep companionship and beyond. But the deepest component of marriage is spiritual. It is not just about the relationship of a husband and wife with each other, but also the relationship of each with the Lord. Working on this part of the relationship, and working towards it even as a single person, deepens and enriches all the other pieces that go with marriage. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Relationships - Part 1 - When the Wine Runs Out
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 16 Aug, 2020
We’re starting a series on relationships. With the pandemic and lockdown regulations, relationships have been under additional strain for almost half a year. This Sunday we’re going to focus on how to work on our relationships in these weird and hard times and we’ll be using the story of the Wedding at Cana. The story begins with the wine running out at a wedding and this seems to relate to times when all the fun and joy seems to have run out in our relationships. Can the Lord help? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Beyond the Prayer
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 9 Aug, 2020
Over the last three weeks we have looked at the Lord’s Prayer. In our services, we often follow the Lord’s Prayer with the familiar phrase, “Lord, forgive us our trespasses; as we forgive those who trespass against us.” This is based on the teaching that Jesus gave immediately after giving His disciples His Prayer. Having prayed, it is a useful reminder that we must also live the words that we have spoken; that we must actively work on repentance from sin so we can forgive and be forgiven. So this week we leave the Prayer behind as a spoken conversation with the Lord and turn to how we live it in our daily lives. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 3 - Lead Us Not Into Temptation
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 2 Aug, 2020
This Sunday we will finish revisiting of the Lord’s Prayer by reflecting on the last two sentences of it. We will be focusing particularly on how the Lord teaches us to pray in times of temptation, crisis, and evil. Sometimes it takes things getting pretty bad to make us resort to giving prayer a try. But, especially if we’re out of practice with praying, and our desperate prayer seems to go unanswered, that can be pretty hard to take. Let’s revisit how to pray about hard things and when things get hard. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 2 - Freely Gotten, Freely Given Away
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 26 Jul, 2020
As we continue our way through the Lord's Prayer the focus pivots away from the God who we pray to and comes to rest on us: we ask that He give us our daily bread and that He forgive our debts. In these two phrases we see the immensity of what we receive from the Lord, and our inability to repay it. Thankfully, He does not ask that we repay. Simply that as we have received, we in turn give. In giving away what we have to others and forgiving our debtors, we also receive from the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Revisiting the Lord's Prayer - Part 1 - Our Father
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 19 Jul, 2020
We say the Lord’s Prayer regularly but because of that familiarity we can sometimes forget the meaning and significance of the words that we’re saying. Over the next three weeks we will be revisiting the prayer that the Lord taught us so that it can become all the more meaningful for us when we say those familiar words. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Fools for Christ
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 12 Jul, 2020
The wisdom of God seems like foolishness to the world, and so following God's wisdom inevitably leads to us feeling foolish. The pressure to give in and embrace the "wisdom" of the world can be strong. Resisting takes sacrifice, from passing on a promotion, to ending a relationship, to letting go of ego, and beyond. But until we are willing to be seen as fools by the world, we are not able to fully follow the Lord. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
You Have Enemies and You Need to Love Them
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 5 Jul, 2020
If I asked you, "Do you have any enemies?" you would probably answer, "No." I think most people don't think that they have any enemies. So does the Lord's revolutionary command to love our enemies not really apply to most of us? Well, we all have people that we treat as enemies and we need to recognise that fact. And then we need to learn what it means to love them and then do it. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Comings and Goings
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 28 Jun, 2020
Psalm 121 speaks of the Lord protecting your going out and your coming in. This speaks to times of transition, times in which it is especially crucial that we remain in the Lord’s care. A prominent example is the Children of Israel coming out of slavery in Egypt and going in to possess the Promised Land. But this story also illustrates the struggle of times of transition: between coming out of Egypt and going into the Land there was forty years of wandering the wilderness. As much as we would like to directly leave hardship and enter good times, more often than not there is an intermediate stage of trial and growth that the Lord must lead us through. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA
Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World, Part 3: The Future of the New Church
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 21 Jun, 2020
What's going to happen in the future of the New Church? What are things going to look like in the next 50 years or the next 1000 years? Will there be a need for another new church? This Sunday, as we celebrate the founding of the New Church 250 years ago, we will try to get a picture of the future of the New Church and an understand of what our role is right now. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith , Westville, RSA
Living in a Post-Apocalyptic World - Part 2 - New Foundations
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 14 Jun, 2020
The New Church teaches that the Apocalypse has already taken place: in fact, it took place over 250 years ago, as the New Church was being born into the world. Understanding the spiritual events from that time period can help us better understand the world we live in today. Last week, Malcolm talked about how the mere existence of the New Church did not automatically make people better: even New Church people have, and still can, support abhorrent practices. This week we will talk about the difference the New Church does make, and why it matters that a New Church was established and continues to exist. | By Rev. Joel C Glenn , Westville, RSA