2016-6-26 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

Chinese Testimony

English Sermon

What does it mean to be a “Community” Church?

What does it mean to be a “Community” Church, as our name states? How would Jesus have us stand with the folks who live and work and shop around our four brick walls? How do we live out the theme of our Annual Conference: “Engaging Faith in the Public Square”? In recent months, Richard, Becky and Pastor Emily have been invited to participate in a group called the “Oakland Chinatown Coalition” (OCC). Representatives from many neighborhood organizations, including Asian Health Services, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Lincoln Recreation Center, and Asian Pacific Environmental Network, have been meeting regularly with a focus on advocating for community needs in the face of a flurry of development projects in Chinatown. We quickly became aware that Chinatown is in a key position for huge developers to make money, causing rents to rise, displacing low-income residents, impacting schools and businesses, and oftentimes with little regard for the impact on the quality of life for the community.

We decided to sign their Membership Agreement and lend support in ways we feel called. One way to support is to share information with you, the CCUMC community, and discern together how to get involved. As an opener, there is a meeting Monday, June 27 th at Peony, 6 PM, to review a huge development on the entire block of 12 th , 11 th , Harrison, and Webster Streets. The community is urged to attend and raise questions and concerns.

The mission of OCC is to ensure an active, vibrant, safe neighborhood that serves the community. Some of the needs are to prevent displacement, provide access to affordable housing, community facilities, open space, strengthening small businesses, and ensuring that Chinatown is treated as a cultural and economic asset.

Please keep your eyes open for further updates and be in prayer about how God is leading us.

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-6-26

• Great Thanks to all who pitched in for the Family Day Party! Special thanks to our planners, our preppers, our game leaders, and our hosts. Let us hold the families in God's light.
• Congratulations to the graduates! We celebrate our grads this Sunday!
• Save the Date for Kumi Update - Aeri recently visited our friends and partners in Kumi. She will be sharing during Mission Moment on Sunday, July 10th, followed by a more in depth update after worship. Please plan to attend!
• Kumi Benefit Dinner Planning Kick Off - While the Dinner isn't until October, planning is getting a kickstart by our excellent lead, Michelle, on July 10th (following the report back). Come and pitch in!
• Fill the Barrel - Great thanks to Donna for re-introducing the food barrel ministry to us last Sunday. The barrel is in the social hall today and ready to be filled! July’s specified needs are Canned Meats and Canned Fish! Let’s get to it!!
• Being a Community Church: CCUMC will be lending its support to the Oakland Chinatown Coalition (OCC) in order to help ensure the vitality of our neighborhood. Please read the following insert and attend the upcoming meeting if you are able.

Mentoring

In today’s reading, we see Elisha take up the mantel of Elijah. This provides a great opportunity for us to consider how we best mentor one another into the fullness of faith. Here are some ideas from the wider world of mentoring:


1. Commit time. Share your most limited resource.

2. Show empathy. Demonstrate a genuine interest in the mentee as an individual. Work to feel the mentee's concerns and to understand his or her hopes and aspirations.

3. Listen actively. Eliminate distractions to focus your full attention on the person you're mentoring. Ask questions to make sure you understand what he or she is saying, probe for insight on the mentee's situation and help the mentee clarify his or her own thinking.

4. Serve as advocate. Represent your mentee to others, argue on his or her behalf and defend his or her efforts.

5. Express positive expectations. Continually encourage your mentee. Remind the mentee of his or her abilities, potential and purpose. Help the mentee recognize his or her future prospects.

6. Build trust. Prove trustworthy, and thus build trust, by maintaining confidentiality, providing candid feedback and honoring commitments you make, like meeting times.

7. Engage in discussion. Serve as a sounding board for the mentee. Question the mentee's assumptions so as to stretch his or her thinking, ask questions that invite reflection and continually ask what he or she is learning. Also, provide candid and constructive feedback that helps the mentee better assess his or her own strengths and weaknesses.

8. Debrief teachable moments. Look for those rare opportunities that provide powerful new insights, then help the mentee to fully assess and analyze those insights. Teachable moments may occur spontaneously, and the observant mentor makes the most of them when they happen.

9. Serve as a model. Your very position, role or status serves as a powerful example of what may be possible for others. The presence of the mentor thus gives proof that the journey can be made. The mentor as role model provides a realizable goal for the mentee.

10. Provide a mirror. Your own experience serves to illustrate what the mentee seeks to accomplish. Be worthy of imitation. Looking at you, the mentee should see something of himself or herself in the reflection.

11. Chart a course. Play a key role in helping the menteee look ahead and chart his or her own course in life. By helping people understand and appreciate their own unique gifts, you assist them in overcoming obstacles and taking advantage of opportunities.

2016-6-19 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-6-19

• Pitch In! You are invited to reach out, connect, and celebrate families today with our Homework Club community. We will spend time after worship preparing before the party officially begins at noon. Please connect with Pastor Emily or Michelle if you're ready to participate.
• Prayer Invite - Our Homework Club Summer Program is in full swing. Please lift up our program director, Christine Li, our team of tutors, our AiF staff, and all the students in God's care and light. This year's session will end on Aug. 12th.
• Celebrating Our Grads - We celebrate our grads next Sunday, June 26th.
• Save the Date for Kumi Update - Aeri recently visited our friends and partners in Kumi. She will be sharing during Mission Moment on Sunday, July 10th, followed by a more in depth update after worship. Please plan to attend!
• Kumi Benefit Dinner Planning Kick Off - While the Dinner isn't until October, planning is getting a kickstart by our excellent lead, Michelle, on July 10th (following the report back). Come and pitch in!
• Fill the Barrel - Great thanks to Donna for re-introducing the food barrel ministry to us last Sunday. The barrel is in the social hall today and ready to be filled! June’s emphasis is Peanut Butter and Powdered Milk! Let’s get to it!

God is Still Speaking, Quietly, Rev. Jerry Carpenter

The Old Testament lesson for today is the story of Elijah running away from the wrath of the queen, Jezebel. While in the wilderness, God is revealed to Elijah through the world around him.

Elijah figured that a God as mighty and powerful as YAHWEH would be revealed in the power of the world. So, when an earthquake happened, Elijah thought God's voice would be heard in the earthquake but it did not happen that way. Then a fire appeared and Elijah thought that surely God's voice could be heard in the fire but that was not the way it worked either. After that there was nothing but sheer silence. No noise at all, just a silence peaceful assurance that Elijah would be okay.

Elijah needed God's assurance that God would care for Elijah even in the midst of the threat that Jezebel had uttered against him. He told God all that he had done to bring about righteousness in the land of Israel. "I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away," Elijah told God. (I Kings19:14c)

God listened to Elijah's complaint and, I believe, understood what Elijah needed in order to feel cared for. He needed to know that God knew what he had gone through and that he was not alone. God's word for Elijah in this instance was: ..."all the knees have not bowed to Baal..." (I Kings 19:18b) Elijah was not alone in his quest to bring worship to the One God of Israel back. There were others who would assist Elijah if he needed them.

Sure enough as he went done the road toward Damascus he met the one who would be his helper, the prophet Elisha. Elisha was plowing with oxen when Elijah met him and threw his mantle around him. Then, after making peace with his family, he "set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant." (I Kings 19:21c)

We all go through times of loneliness and despair. Perhaps it is because of our ill health or due to circumstances that are beyond our control and we think that no one cares or understands what we are enduring. We may even think that God does not care for us because we have not recognized God around us in a long time. We may think that God speaks through the dramatic in our lives and expect it to happen in a thunderstorm as the lightning flashes or when the skies are threatening. Those circumstances could speak to us, but more often God speaks to us in the quiet moments of life when we have the time to really listen for God's voice.

God's voice is often heard in the quiet working out of history such as when the wall of Communism fell in 1989 and suddenly people who had been held captive by an oppressive society experienced personal freedom for the first time in many years.

God's voice is often heard in the daily lives of ordinary people as we are around them. People quietly doing their jobs in the world often have something to say that encourages us and lifts our spirits, perhaps in the way they smile at us or say something cheerful to us.

God's voice may be heard in the birth of a child or a wedding or even at a funeral. God is present in joy and in sorrow and there at times that those events make us slow down enough to listen for God to speak to us.

God is still speaking, even in the midst of tragedy. I am writing this on the day after our country experienced the worst mass murder by a gunman in our history. Fifty persons going about their daily lives were murdered by a person whose own life was taken in the conflict also. God did not cause this event to happen but God wept for those whose lives were taken by this act of violence and hatred. And in the midst of the bloodshed and confusion, God was present and speaking through the actions of courage and bravery and love as humans helped other humans in need, and as first responders worked diligently to save the lives of many who were wounded.

God still loves humanity and God still speaks even in the darkest of hours to reassure us that we are not alone. God is with us. Thanks be to God.

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-6-12

• Great Thanks to all the hands and hearts that pitched in on work day!
• Summer Homework Club Kicks Off - Monday, June 13th. Please hold this vital ministry and all its staff in prayer.
• Celebrate Families, June 19th - Sign up today to be a part of the outreach ministry effort on Sunday, the 19th. We'll recognize transitions, give thanks for service, and play teamwork games. Making connections on this day enables us to grow as a church.
• Please Note: We will worship in parallel on June 19th (9:30 a.m. in the Annex). There will be no Sunday School that day.
• Cal-Nev Annual Conference, June 22 - 25th - Please note that Pastors Emily and Meina will be out of the office for Annual Conference. For urgent issues or emergencies, please contact them through cell phone or email. Please hold this important gathering in prayer.
• Celebrating Our Grads - Please mark Sunday, June 26th as a special time to celebrate the grads among us!

Speaking Truth To Power , Rev. Courtney McHill

Barbara Brown Taylor writes in one of her sermons, “According to John, Jesus died because he told the truth to everyone he met. He was the truth, a perfect mirror in which people saw themselves in God’s own light.” The moment when Jesus and Pilate confront seems to be a pinnacle of the Jesus story. All along Jesus has told us that he is the truth in John and now Pilate asks him head on. “What is truth?” Jesus doesn’t need to respond because the answer has already been given to us. As we continue to look at what it means to be a disciple in this journey, we have to talk about what it means to speak truth to power when Jesus is that truth. We are called to speak out and to work for social justice. What does that mean when Jesus embodies truth?

Now we could have a long philosophical discussion about the meaning of truth and what is true. Here is what we know through our Christian lens. Truth comes from God. Notice I did not say fact comes from God. When truth comes from God, it has to come through the whole grace and perspective lens. In order to interpret truth, we must consider what God values. God lifts up the lowly, the marginalized, the places the empire does not touch. Truth has to reflect that. Jesus did. Everything he embodied lifted up those who were forgotten. This is why Jesus is embodied truth. He is. This is why he doesn’t need to answer Pilate and why immediately, in that silence we are reminded that we must speak up.

In that very moment, we are called to speak to the power that Pilate is. Pilate is the governor of the area. He has been placed for one reason for the Romans. He has been put in that place to keep order in the region. He is not to judge. He is just to maintain. In that face of that kind of authority, truth can seem daunting but Jesus knows that all he has to do is to be in order to create change in that power structure. What must we do to speak truth to power. Truth is God’s love, God’s grace and the constant lifting up against what the empire values. Truth is a constant conversation. Truth is what we know all along if we read what Jesus does. The Gospel of John is constantly playing with what truth is and all John keeps coming up with is that truth is Jesus and we are following it. Because we are following it, we have a call to continue to fight for it.

When we highlight where inequality resides, we are speaking truth to power.

Further Thoughts for Meditation
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ― Oscar Wilde

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner

2016-6-12 Worship Videos

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon

2016-6-5 Worship Videos

Anna Wong Testimony

Chinese Choir

Chinese Sermon

English Sermon

English Ministry News and Notes 2016-6-5

• All Church Work Day, June 11th (Saturday) - Pitch in to steam clean carpets, check light fixtures, scrub pigeon poop, and lots more. Your presence, effort, and energy are needed for this community effort. Please rsvp with Steve.
• Summer Homework Club Kicks Off - Monday, June 13th. Please hold this vital ministry and all its staff in prayer.
• Celebrate Families, June 19th - Sign up today to be a part of the outreach ministry effort on Sunday, the 19th. We'll recognize transitions, give thanks for service, and play teamwork games. Making connections on this day enables us to grow as a church.
• Please Note: We will worship in parallel on June 19th (9:30 a.m. in the Annex). There will be no Sunday School that day.
• California-Nevada Annual Conference, June 22nd - 25th. Please hold this gathering in God's care and light.

Path to Miracle, Rick Warren

When you’re scared to death and vulnerable, you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t know how long it’s going to take, and you don’t know what’s going to happen when you get there, what do you do?
You remember that the path to a miracle is always through uncomfortable territory.
The Bible gives an illustration in 1 Kings 17:8-10: “Then the LORD spoke his word to Elijah, ‘Go to Zarephath in Sidon and live there. I have commanded a widow there to take care of you.’ So Elijah went to Zarephath”.
God told Elijah to walk more than 100 miles during a drought through dangerous territory, where everyone knew who he was, and everyone knew King Ahab had a price on Elijah’s head. When Elijah finally made it to Zarephath, he met a poor widow who was going to feed him, but how could she help defend or protect him from a pagan town full of people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill him?
Miracles don’t happen when things are comfortable. Miracles happen when things are uncomfortable. Elijah didn’t say, “God, there are three things wrong with this plan. One, you’re sending me in the wrong direction. Two, you’re sending me to the wrong location. And three, you’re sending me to the wrong protection.”
Elijah just obeyed.
The path to a miracle is always through uncomfortable territory.
For instance — When Moses led the Israelites out of slavery to the Promised Land, they had to go through the Red Sea first.
Before David could slay Goliath, he had to walk onto the battlefield.
God told Jehoshaphat to put the choir before the army, and he’d win the victory. How much faith do you think that took?
Miracles never happen in your comfort zone, when everything’s great and convenient. You don’t need a miracle when everything is settled in your life. You only need a miracle when you’re on the edge, when you’re scared to death, when you’re insecure, when you can get hit at any angle.
Are you at a place right now in your life where things are a little uncomfortable — financially, emotionally, relationally, or physically? You’re a little nervous, a little on the edge, a little insecure. Congratulations. You’re on the path to a miracle!

Just like Elijah, God wants you to obey, so you can see his miracle at the end of the road.

• What is God asking you to do that makes you uncomfortable?
• What do you want God to do in your life? How have you expressed your anticipation of his miracle in your life?
• Who are the people who can encourage you on the uncomfortable road you may be walking right now?