Sunday, September 29, 2013

Videos for 9-29-2013

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon - "Rest and Reflection for Today's Christian" - Exodus 20:8-11 - Burt Yin, Lay Speaker

English Ministry News and Notes 9-29-13

  • Jr High Gathering ~ An afternoon and evening of fun and fellowship beginning with Mini-golf in Castro Valley, and ice cream and games at Becky & Al's. Parents can join in for a BBQ dinner at 5pm. Connect with Becky for more info!

  • World Communion Sunday Joint Worship Celebration ~ We will celebrate this special Sunday on October 6th at 10:30a.m. We welcome the Rev. Chuck Cordes to be with us. Please note that there will not be any Sunday School that morning. Worship will be followed by a simple bread and soup luncheon. Thanks too the following volunteers who will be providing soup: Mabel and Roy (CM side), Arlene, Aeri, Donna, and Laura (EM side). And thanks to Peggy and her friend, Nancy Frank-Radin, who will provide the bread from Metropolis Baking Company.

  • SING with the choir that will be part of our World Communion celebration! Practice will be at 1:30pm on Saturday, October 5th. ALL are invited to join in!

  • LMUMC Food Pantry Ministry Work Day ~ October 12th. Please connect with Jane for more information.

  • Hosting Hospitality Hour ~ Our time immediately after service is an important time of fellowship. There is where we catch up with friends and meet new ones. Food is an important way we extend hospitality. If you are willing to pitch in by hosting and sharing food, please sign up on the big board in the social hall. The last quarter of the year is quite open at this time!

  • Watch for news about VIM leader training beginning in mid October.

Renewal by Jane Yin

Spiritual renewal, we all long for it. We yearn to have those moments where we experience God's holy presence and true peace in our lives. Often times we are able to find moments of spiritual renewal through reading the Bible or praying or journaling or other life giving activities. Such moments are gifts to be cherished. But it's not easy even though we are intentional. Sometimes the day just gets away from us and we have at least ten things calling to us at one time.

I believe that spiritual renewal requires that we step away from whatever claims our attention and fully engage in activities that nurture renewal. On one of our camping trips, Burt and I stopped by a United Methodist Church and read an invitation to attend a Centering Prayer session. I learned that Centering Prayer is a way to spend time in quiet communion with God. It does not require "praying." Rather, this spiritual practice bids us to being still for at least 20 minutes soaking in God's presence. When I practice Centering Prayer, the purpose is to dwell on God's presence and listen to what God is saying to me.

I have routinely practiced other forms of praying but found Centering Prayer to be most helpful. It is especially during those times when I feel anxious and unsettled or feel dry and stagnant and somewhat disconnected from God. But the loving Spirit sees to it that deep within me I hear God call my name and I am happy to sit and listen to God. Centering prayer restores and renews my spirit and revives within a deeper relationship with God.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Videos for 9-22-2013

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon - "Renewing the Image of God Within Us" - Colossians 3:7-17 - Becca Cramer

English Ministry News and Notes 9-22-13


  • Hosting Hospitality Hour ~ Our time immediately after service is an important time of fellowship. This is where we catch up with friends and meet new ones. Food is an important way we extend hospitality. If you are willing to pitch in by hosting and sharing food, please sign up on the big board in the social hall . The last quarter of the year is quite open at this time!

  • World Communion Sunday Joint Worship Celebration ~ We will celebrate this special Sunday on October 6th at 10:30 a.m. We welcome the Rev. Chuck Cordes to be with us. Please note that there will not be any Sunday School that morning. Worship will be followed by a simple bread and soup luncheon. Thanks to the following volunteers who will be providing soup: Mabel and Roy (CM side), Arlene, Aeri, Donna, and Laura (EM side). And thanks to Peggy’ and her friend, Nancy Frank-Radin, who will provide the bread from Metropolis Baking Company.

  • Don’t miss our new Adult Sunday School series led by Aeri,,“24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life”. The series started this morning and runs for four weeks. Come and learn how holy rest can transform our lives.

  • Small Groups will officially launch a new season during the 3rd week of September. Small Groups will meet regularly in Castro Valley, Union City, and at church. Connect with SG facilitators to get involved: Burt, Jane, Brenda, Becky, Charlie, Steve.

  • Adventures in Faith ~ We would love to continue our ministry to the children attending Homework Club! If you are available on the last Wednesdays of the month, please connect with Donna or Becky to pitch in!

Renewal by Pastor Derek Lang

There is a green plant outside my front door. It was there when I moved in 13 years ago. I do not know what kind it is. It is just green, and it grows whether I water it or not. Recently, it bloomed beautiful white flower buds. Never seeing it bloom before or knowing it even could, I was struck with a brief moment of awe. “Wow,” I thought. My spirit actually felt energized and uplifted in seeing God make something new out of something old and never-changing.

Life has been a whirlwind of activity - work, church, volunteering, and personal life. There are moments when I feel run down. But I have also found myself filled with renewed energy through two activities: talking with God in prayer and talking about God with others. Over the past 12 months, I have been intentionally setting aside time for prayer as well as keeping prayer in the background of my daily life. I have also been attending meetings with clergy or meeting with people about church activities. As a result, I seem to be more attuned to seeing God’s presence in things all around me. Prayers are amazingly answered, and things happen that one might call coincidence but are really God moments (moments when God does things to remind you of God’s presence).

I think renewal is like that. When we intentionally set aside time for God, we become keenly aware of God’s presence and God’s energy all around us. Those “wow” moments are like light bulbs turning on in our souls whenever we witness God creating something new out of something old.

“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Videos for 9-15-2013

Chinese Choir


Chinese Sermon


English Sermon - "Renewal as Listening for God" - Romans 12:1-2 - Becca Cramer

English Ministry News and Notes 9-15-13


  • We again welcome Becca Cramer! She will be sharing God’s words with us today, next Sunday, and again in November! Becca has served as the Christian Education Director and Youth Minister at several United Methodist Churches. Most recently, she served as the Associate Pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Loomis. Becca is taking a year off of pastoral ministry to spend additional time in discernment about with which vocation God is calling her to use her gifts and passions. In her free time, Becca is an avid hiker and karaoke singer. She can often be found reading a novel while cuddling her cat.
  • Great thanks to all who served at the LMUMC Food Pantry Ministry Work Day yesterday.
  • World Communion, October 6th: Thanks to the following volunteers who will be providing soup: Mabel and Roy (CM side), Arlene, Aeri, Donna, and Laura (EM side). And thanks to Peggy’s friend Nancy Frank-Radin who will provide the bread from Metropolis Baking Comany
  • Don’t miss our new Adult Sunday School series led by Aeri,,“24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life”. The series started this morning and runs for four weeks. Come and learn how holy rest can transform our lives.
  • Small Groups will officially launch a new season during the 3rd week of September. Small Groups will meet regularly in Castro Valley, Union City, and at church. Connect with SG facilitators to get involved: Burt, Jane, Brenda, Becky, Charlie, Steve.

Renewal by Charles Ho

When asked to write this article, I have to admit, I had hardly a clue. So I started googling some of the words that came to mind: renewal, rest, Bible. That led me to “Sabbath”, i.e. the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” I wondered why there were so many laws about the Sabbath? Maybe it was not so simple for the Jews of old – like the way we would think of weekends.

It is interesting that pretty much the entire world observes a 7 day week today, though it was not so in the days of old. From what I googled, the Jews were one of the first to observe a day of rest every seven days. There are even Jewish laws related to the “shmita” or Sabbatical year, and “Jubilee” – the last year of the seventh shmita. The world, it seems, is still catching up on Sabbatical and Jubilee practices.

For me, it is good that our worship leaders had the foresight to pick this topic. Not only did the ancient biblical wisdom awed me in a new light, but it gave me a needed push to look at what rest and renewal means personally.

So what I got out of last Sunday’s sermon was that what we often think we want, such as relaxation or rest; is contrary to what we really need, which is renewal. If I recall, our speaker, Becca, put it simply: renewal = rest/relaxation + breath of God. I am anxious to learn other insights as this series continues and from our upcoming study “24/6” in Sunday School.

As you read this essay, I will be in southern California relaxing. I hope that I will consciously take a deep breath here and there, and remember that the air I breathe is holy.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Videos for 9-8-2013

Chinese Choir


Chinese Sermon


English Sermon - "The Case for Renewal" - Ezekiel 37:1-14 - Becca Cramer

English Ministry News and Notes 9-8-13

* Welcome Becca Cramer! She will be sharing God's words with us today and several more times in the weeks to come! Becca has served as the Christian Education Director and Youth Minister at several United Methodist Churches. Most recently, she served as the Associate Pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Loomis. Becca is taking a year off of pastoral ministry to spend additional time in discernment about with which vocation God is calling her to use her gifts and passions. In her free time, Becca is an avid hiker and karaoke singer. She can often be found reading a novel while cuddling her cat.

* Thanks to all who showed up to lend their muscles for our church spiff upday yesterday!

*LMUMC food pantry work day! Saturday, September 14th from 9am to 1pm. Connect with Charlie to volunteer!

* World Communion Sunday is on October 6th. If you would like to bring a pot of soup to share during our luncheon following service, please let Peggy know!

Renewal: Inside and Out by Pastor Emily

A young person recently came by my office and described just how "full" his life had become. There was classes and all the attendant homework, a part-time job, and a large plate of family obligations. As he recounted all this, he commented, "It sucks to be an adult!" He then asked, "Is there always so much stuff to juggle? Is it always so stressful and overwhelming?"

I confess, at that particular moment, given my own looming to-do list, I was tempted to respond in the affirmative: "Yes! There are always a million and one things to juggle. And yes! It is always stressful and overwhelming."

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, however, I felt sad. While I am certain every last one of us can relate to the sentiment of this young person - of being overwhelmed and stressed by all that there is to do - I am also certain that every last one of us wishes it could be different, that life could be full of joy, ease, and moments to savor. We long for a pace of life that leaves us feeling whole, and enough space in our lives so that we stand in balance. Yet, I venture to guess that almost none of us know how to get there. How do we live like that? How do we move beyond the cycles of stress and overwhelm and dwell instead in the rhythms of joy and grace?

Wayne Muller, a minister, therapist, writer, and community advocate, writes in Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives, "In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. When action is universally prescribed as more useful than rest, we inevitably lose our way. We bypass the nourishment that would give us succour, and we reject the quiet that would give us wisdom. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing striving and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger."

Over the next 3 months, we will explore the concept of rest and renewal during worship and ask what they have to offer us as individuals and as a community. There will be two parts of this theme, "Renewal: Inside and Out." The first will explore renewal "inside", that is renewal for us as individuals. We have invited Becca Cramer, a gifted preacher and designer of worship, to be with us. She will not only make a case for renewal, but invite us into practicing different aspects of renewal in our lives: through listening to God, and through renewing the image of God in us. Burt, one of CCUMC's certified Lay Servants, will wrap up the series with a closer look at the practice of Sabbath, or holy rest.

During the second half, we will hear from a dynamic group of preachers who will crack open our imaginations to rethink what church might be all about. This is the "Out" part of our theme. They will each complete the sentence, "What if church were..." to prod us in exploring renewal as a community of faith.

I am excited for us as we embark together on this journey of renewal. I so look forward to returning in December to hear about how the Spirit has made inroads into your life and sharing the same with you. This journey of renewal is important work, and it begins with stopping for long enough - whether it be for a few hours, a few days, or even a few months - to remember who we are, what we know, and to taste the amazing gifts of Spirit and eternity. For life is far too precious to be spent getting lost in the busyness and being stressed and overwhelmed.

May God hold us close through the process of being made new, and may we find ourselves surprised by joy even as we are transformed.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Pastor Vathanak Heang Cambodia VIM presentation

Pastor Vathanak Heang co-led a VIM team to Cambodia this past summer.  He shared his experiences, and brought the amazing news that the team is on the road to buying property and starting a local UMC in Cambodia!


Monday, September 2, 2013

Videos for 9-1-2013

Chinese Choir - Praise Dance

Chinese Choir

English Sermon - "Sabbath Reconsidered" Luke 14:1-6 Pastor Emily

Sunday, September 1, 2013

English Ministry News and Notes 9-1-13

*Great Thanks for all who pitched in for Street Fest Sunday! Some reckless sowing of seeds was surely going on. Let us continue to pray that some of those seeds found good ground to grow in!

*A New Season of Learning Kicks Off Today! - Both our children and youth as well as adult Sunday School begin anew today. Great thanks to our teaching ministry team headed up by Charlie: Gloria, Donna, Steve, Laura, Anita, Leily, and Richard. Let us hold this faithful, bold team in prayer each week.

*Coming Up in Adult Sunday School:
Visioning a New Season (9/1 & 9/8) : The English Ministry Council will share their discernment of how God might be leading us in the time ahead. Your input is so important!
24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life: Aeri will lead us in a 4 week series beginning on 9/15 exploring the question of how we find rest in a 24/7 world. Come and learn how holy rest can transform our lives.

*Missions in Cambodia - Come and hear about Pastor Vathanak Heang's recent Volunteers in Mission (VIM) trip to Cambodia, Sept. 4th, at 6:00 p.m. Please sign up on the clip board during fellowship time!

*All Church Work Day - Please pitch in and spiff up the church building on Saturday, Sept. 7th, any time between 8:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Your presence is needed!

*Small Groups Start Up Anew - CCUMC's Small Group Ministry (SGM) will officially launch a new season during the 3rd week of September. Small Groups will meet regularly in Castro Valley, Union City, and at church. You are strongly encouraged to be a part a group that can keep your faith vital, dynamic, and strong. Please connect with SG facilitators to get involved: Burt, Jane, Brenda, Becky, Charlie, Steve.

*Subscribe to the Upper Room Daily Devotion - The Upper Room is a wonderful resource to connect with God through scripture, prayer, and inspiration daily. A 1 year subscription is just $6 and you will receive 6 issues (2 months each) in total. Large print is available. To subscribe, connect with Charlie.

And.....I'm Off!

Dear Beloved Community –

It is with much anticipation that I begin my renewal leave tomorrow, Sept. 2nd. I will be away from CCUMC for 3 months and return on Nov. 29th. I give great thanks for the generosity of the church for allowing me this time to rest, to reconnect with family and friends, to renew my spirit and listen again for God’s call on my life. What a gift! I am incredibly grateful.

Many people have asked me what I will do during this time and whether I will be in the area. There is so much I want to do: learn the ukulele, hike the trails all over the Bay, visit my family in New York and Chicago, move into our newly renovated house, take weekend trips, connect with a spiritual director, go on retreat, and more. I will be both travelling and staying put.

CCUMC has always had strong lay leaders. This is one of the amazing assets of this church. During my renewal leave, you can be assured that this community will stand together, pitch in wherever needed, and that all will run smoothly. And should there be bumps along the way, we can get through it together. Here are a few connections that I think will be important:

  • For all pastoral care issues and needs, please connect with Jane (janepyin@gmail.com / 510.582.4368) and Aeri (aeriaeri@yahoo.com / 408.499.7779). We also give thanks to our caring shepherds: Jane, Donna, Ed, and Brenda who can offer presence and accompaniment. Finally, we have a great team of clergy colleagues on standby ready to respond to and address any issue that may arise.
  • For all ministry related queries and concerns, please contact our co-Lay Leaders, Becky (rebeccawong8@gmail.com / 510.889.8509) and Steve (chanfam6@gmail.com / 925.937.9618). They can help problem solve or provide direction for ministry related issues.

During my renewal leave, SPRB’s Renewal Leave Task Force helped to put into place wonderful systems and protocols for responding to possible issues and concerns. Please know that our Minister of Discipleship, Meina Ko, stands ready to be of service even as her main focus will be with the Chinese Ministry. You are
encouraged to connect with Meina through any of the 4 leaders named above.

As a side note, I will not be checking email or responding to phone messages throughout my renewal leave. I would appreciate it if you might hold onto any emails and send them upon my return. This will assure that I see and can respond to your email in a timely manner.

Each of you plays an important part to sustaining and growing this faithful community. I urge you to be in unity during this time, to practice extravagant generosity with one another, and to hold the church and our leadership in daily prayer. I also covet your prayers for myself. Please pray with me as I seek to nurture a
more grounded, more balanced, more whole, and more connected rhythm in my daily life. And I will certainly hold you in God’s great light.

Until we meet again, may God’s bubbling joy and far-fetched grace surround you and keep you.

Peace, Emily