Sermon Central

On All Saints Sunday, United Methodists around the world publicly remember and honor those who have passed away. All Saints Sunday honors the impact each life has on another.

Abundant Life: Justice and Love by BrecksvilleUMC

Abundant Life Embraces Compassion by BrecksvilleUMC

Today we begin our annual stewardship campaign, and with it, a new worship series. Our stewardship campaign is a time we carve out each year to intentionally talk about the ministry of BUMC and ask you to prayerfully consider how you will support our church community in the coming year. It’s also a great time to think about what it means to “be the Church,” and hold ourselves accountable to that w...

We conclude our Kindness Campaign with a meditation on Finding Common Ground, with guest speaker Rev. Cara Stultz Costello

God's words are not hidden from us. God's will for us has not been kept a secret. God has told us what is good and all that is required of us: To do justice. To live kindness. And to walk humbly with our God. – Micah 6:8

We are in the second week of our sermon series, “Do Unto Others,” campaigning for kindness. It’s the middle of September and we are already deep into election season here in the US. And now, more than ever, we need to be reminded of how we are called to live in the world as followers of Jesus. Last week, Pastor Bruce Hitchcock talked about how in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus shares the Golden Rule...

We begin a new worship series called The Kindness Campaign. What would happen if we each chose to live The Golden Rule: Do unto others...? We see division and polarization in our country, communities and even inside the walls of our own churches. It’s easy to wonder if we will ever go beyond agreeing to disagree, yet Jesus shows us a better way. Jesus taught us that we should treat others as we wa...

Today we conclude our worship series “Uncommon Wisdom.” In a culture that tells us we should do whatever we can to get ahead—even if it means lying, stealing, and manipulation—we have been looking at the seemingly uncommon wisdom of the book of Proverbs. In this book of scripture, we find 100s of short sayings that show us a God-centered path to the good life. Over the past five weeks, we have loo...

Today we continue our worship series “Uncommon Wisdom.” Current cultural wisdom tells us that we should do whatever we can to get ahead—if we want it, we should figure out a way to get it. But that is not the way God would have us act. So in this series, we are looking at the seemingly uncommon wisdom of Proverbs, which shows us a God-centered, path to the good life. Proverbs is a collection of 10...

In ancient cities, a strong tower was a central place where people could run to when an enemy’s army was attacking or they were encountering some sort of danger. It’s where they went for safety and protection. That’s what the name of the Lord is for the righteous—the wise: they run to God first, knowing that it’s God’s very character to protect and care for us. We know that because we see this tru...

Guest speaker Matt Mellott delivers some uncommon wisdom, including a tale about cheese in a hotel mattress.

Rev. Peg Welch, our pastor's mother-in-love, shares some uncommon wisdom with a meditation on Proverbs 12: 15-16

Today we are in the second week of our worship series “Uncommon Wisdom.” Our society’s current strategies for success appear to be exploitation, violence, and smear campaigns. But I’m confident we can all agree that this is not the way God would have it. So in this series, we are looking at the seemingly uncommon wisdom of Proverbs, which shows us another, God-centered, path to the good life. Ever...

Today we begin a new worship series titled “Uncommon Wisdom.” In a society whose only real success strategies appear to be exploitation, violence, and smear campaigns, we are going to look at the seemingly uncommon wisdom of Proverbs, which shows us another path to the good life. Every decision we make impacts not just ourselves, but others. Some decisions are small and cumulative, but none are ma...

Today we are in the last week of our worship series, “I trust in God…” It’s based off our Vacation Bible School theme for this year, that followed a new camp counselor through his nervous-excitement of his first few days of camp. Each day at VBS, the kids learn about a person in scripture who took Psalm 56:3 and put it into action: “when I’m afraid, I put my trust in you.” And throughout the week,...

Today we are in week 4 of our worship series, “I trust in God…” It’s based on our Vacation Bible School theme for this year. Each day at VBS, the kids learn about a person in scripture who took Psalm 56:3 and put it into action: “when I’m afraid, I put my trust in you.” They faced their fears and went on to do great things with God. And throughout the week, the children learn that they can put the...

Today we continue in our worship series, “I trust in God…” It’s based off our Vacation Bible School theme for this year, that follows a new camp counselor (who just so happens to be a firefly) through his nervous-excitement of his first few days of camp. Each day at VBS, the kids learn about ordinary people in scripture who trusted God, faced their fears, and went on to do great things in God’s na...

We continue in our worship series, “I trust in God…” based on our Vacation Bible School theme for this year, that follows a new camp counselor (who just so happens to be a firefly) through his nervous-excitement of his first few days of camp. Kids will spend each day at camp hearing about ordinary people in both the Old and New Testament who trusted God, faced their fears, and went on to do great...

Today we begin a new worship series that’s simply called, “I trust in God…” It’s based on our Vacation Bible School theme for this year, that follows a new camp counselor (who just so happens to be a firefly) through his nervous-excitement of his first few days of camp. They spend each day at VBS, hearing about ordinary people in both the Old and New Testament who trusted God, faced their fears, a...

Today we conclude our short series, “Faith In Action,” where we’re looking at 3 different ways we can live our faith in the world. The United Methodist Church began as a movement dedicated to “scriptural holiness,” to live not just saying we’re Christian, but living it out in our actions—a life dedicated to loving God and loving our neighbor. Our faith is not simply what we believe in our own hear...

Today we continue with our short series, “Faith In Action,” where we’re looking at 3 different ways we can live our faith in the world. The United Methodist Church began as a movement dedicated to “scriptural holiness,” to live not just saying we’re Christian, but living it out in our actions—a life dedicated to loving God and loving our neighbor. Our faith is not simply what we believe in our own...

The United Methodist Church began as a movement dedicated to “scriptural holiness,” to live a life dedicated to loving God and loving our neighbor. Our faith is not simply what we believe in our own hearts and minds, but it is something that moves us to get involved with people; try to change broken systems; and we get our hands dirty, working to make the world better. In this series, we’re going...

Each gospel has a main theme when telling the story of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, and resurrection. In the gospel of John, the theme is choice— we have the choice whether to receive God’s love or not. To acknowledge Jesus as God enfleshed. We also have a choice whether to live out that unconditional, extravagant love in the world like God— “for God so loved the world…” What would it be like if...

Today we continue our worship series, “Climate + Faith.” Our goal in this series is to look past partisan politics to recognize why valuing and caring for God’s creation is fundamentally an issue of faith. We all breathe the same air, drink the same water, and enjoy the same forests and lakes and rivers and creatures. We all suffer in extreme weather, social instability, and mass migration. A liva...