Boone United Methodist Church sermons (main sanctuary): Recent Episodes
Boone UMC
Boone United Methodist Church is located in the High Country of North Carolina. We are driven by our mission of, "Loving our Community and Inviting All to Discover Life in Christ."
Combined Worship Gatheringfrom Luke 2:22-38What is the next faithful step that God is calling you to take? The next faithful thing God is calling you to do? A life spent simply taking that next faithful step and doing the next faithful thing…even though that life may feel ordinary, becomes the grounds in which God not only meets you and encourages you, but also becomes the means by which you become more sensitive to the things of God in order that you may be an encouragement to those around you.w/ Vern Collins
from Matthew 1:18-25The season of Advent is an invitation to pause. An invitation to wait…with expectation for what is to come. More specifically, it is an invitation to slow down and wait and watch and listen for WHO is to come. It is Hope in despair. It is Peace in the midst of chaos. It is Joy in the face of the challenges of life. And it is Love that is redeeming and renewing this world. And at the center of all of these promises is Jesus. The One Who has come. The One Who is coming. And in His coming is a call…a call to experience the Hope, the Peace, the Joy, and the Love that He offers…it is a call Home.w/ Vern Collins
from John 1:35-42
The journey of following Jesus begins with a step…and that first step often begins with an invitation…Come and See.
Who have been your “Andrews?” Who is God calling you to be an Andrew for?
w/ Ed Glaize and Vern Collins
*from our Combined Worship Gathering for our Christmas Cantatafrom Isaiah 35w/ Vern Collins
from John 1:12-13
The wonder…the curiosity…the faithfulness of children shows up throughout Scripture. Jesus welcomed children and challenged His disciples to become more childlike if they hoped to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What can we learn from children about following Jesus? What can we learn from children about what it means to be faithful? What can we learn from children about what it looks like to grow in our relationship with God? What can we learn from children about how we learn to say “yes” when God calls?
w/ Ed Glaize (for our special Confirmation Service, celebrating 13 of our student saying “yes” to life with Jesus)
from Lamentations 3:17-24
In our seven week series, “All Things Made New,” we consider the work that Jesus is doing in this world…a work that we don’t have to wait until time has reached its fulfillment to experience, but that we can experience and be a part of now!
When trying to live into the new life that God has made possible in Christ…when trying to bring His New Kingdom to bear on this earth, what happens when the troubles and trials of life seem too much to bear?
We look to each day as a gift…and each rising of the sun as a tangible example of God’s mercy and faithfulness.
w/ Vern Collins
from 1 Peter 2:4-5, 9-10 and Hebrews 13:1-3, 15-16
w/ Lory Beth Huffman and Laura Byrch
from Psalm 126:1-6, Psalm 103:1-5, and Philippians 4:4-7
w/ Lory Beth Huffan and Vern Collins
from Mark 10:13-16
w/ Colette Krontz and Jeff McClain (and Rodney and Jana Duke introducing Godly Play)
from: 2 Chronicles 7:14, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Romans 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:19 , Titus 3:5, 2 Corinthians 5:17
w/ Lory Beth Huffman and Patti Connelly
from Acts 2:1-12 and 2:42-47
More than simply being the agent that served as the catalyst for the birth of the church, the Holy Spirit is vital to the church continuing to live out God’s mission in the world today.
Perhaps more than ever, we need the invigorating, transforming, inspiring, leading, convicting, restoring power of the Holy Spirit to invade our hearts, and invade the church so that we might be an agent of hope in a hurting world.
w/ Vern Collins and Lory Beth Huffman
from Galatians 6:2-10
Seasons of struggle naturally cause us to have an inward focus.
How am I going to get through this? Does anyone care what I am going through? How am I going to have what I need?
While this is natural, and while we know that struggle is inherent in life, and is profitable for our faith as Christ followers, God calls us to a focus that is not “self,” but “other.” In shifting our focus, we might just find that we begin to tap into that fullness that Jesus came to make possible.
w/ Laura Byrch and Vern Collins
from Philippians 3:1-14
While seasons of struggle are challenging for a number of reasons, perhaps the thing that makes them most uncomfortable, most unnerving…the thing that makes us want to be on the other side of those challenges, is that they challenge our understanding of who we are in ways that we are often unprepared for.
What if instead of fearing what is revealed about our identity in those difficult seasons, we saw it as an opportunity to examine that upon which we have built our lives? What if we saw it as an opportunity to consider that the fullness of life can only truly be found in Jesus?
w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain
from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Isaiah 43:1-3, 18-19, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
How might you walk through seasons of challenge differently if you knew that you were not alone? How might you do so if you knew that God was with you? What if the challenge of this season is not meant for discouragement, but for hope…hope that God is not done with you…hope that God is doing a new thing?!
May you fix your eyes in Him in this season of challenge.
w/ Lory Beth Huffman and Laura Byrch
from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 and 1 Corinthians 9:34-27
While we have this tendency to try to avoid struggle…to avoid suffering at all costs, one of the things that we see consistently in Scripture is that God not only meets us in our place of struggle, but God is able to use our struggle to not only do amazing things IN us, but also amazing things THROUGH us.
As we begin this 6 week series between Easter and Lent, consider we invite you to imagine what God might be able to do if you are willing to be honest about your weakness and create space for Him to meet you there.
w/ Vern Collins and Jeff McClain
from Matthew 28:1-10
The story of Jesus’ resurrection is familiar to so many, but if we allow the story to become to familiar, we run the risk of no longer expecting that we can be surprised by Jesus…we run the risk of losing sight of the fact that Jesus might just be showing up right where we are.
May the hope of the resurrection meet you in a very real way this Easter season.
w/ Lory Beth Huffman and Vern Collins
from Matthew’s Gospel account of the final week of Jesus’ life as well as a look at Matthew 26:36-46
For Palm Sunday we listen to the last week of Jesus’ life told from beginning to end and close with a brief message looking at Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. What might we learn from Jesus’ vulnerability? What might it tell us about Jesus? How might it draw us in to Holy Week?
w/ Vern Collins (message) and Lory Beth Huffman, Jeff McClain, Laura Byrch, and Ben Fitzgerald (readers)
from Exodus 19:1-8, 32:1-14, 19-20
As we continue our series on trusting God, we see God’s grace and sovereignty in inviting us to consider what it truly means to trust God in the midst of such a time of Global and national unrest as we navigate a season of new normal with the onset of COVID-19.
Not only in this trying time, but even in your own every day life, what does it mean to trust God’s leading? What does it look like to trust that God is still good when things around us don’t seem to be? What does it look like to trust that God is not only with us, but that God is still leading us?
from Mark 5:21-43
In this week’s glimpse of Jesus, we find two similar yet very different encounters with Jesus. Both people who come to Jesus are seeking healing, and both experience healing in very different ways.
Perhaps you have longed to see healing in your life or in the life of someone you love. Perhaps you have sought God for that, praying that healing would indeed come. Maybe it did…maybe God answered those prayers in the way you hoped…praise God for that.
But what if it didn’t? What if healing didn’t come in the way you hoped for or expected? Is it possible that Jesus is working to bring healing in your life in places deeper than an injury or an illness? Is it possible that Jesus wants to heal completely…even if it means you may still bear the pain of injury or illness?
What if you sought that kind of healing? What if you trusted Jesus enough to heal in the way you or those you love need most?
from Romans 12:1-21
As we begin our new series, "Ambitious Church," we are invited over the next several weeks to consider some of the foundational elements and practices of the early church were that helped keep them focused on Jesus, rooted in His love, and committed to the work He called them to...
When we are honest about the enormity of the work Jesus has called the church to, and the deep brokenness that exists in the world, to think that the Church can still have an impact does feel more than a bit ambitious...and yet, we are given this promise that Jesus will never leave nor forsake us.
The church is called to be a distinct community in this world...a community that actually shapes the community around it so that it begins to resemble the Kingdom of God. We cannot hope to do this as a church, nor in our lives if we do not give ourselves wholly to life with Christ.
w/ Vern Collins and Lory Beth Huffman
from Revelation 2:8-11
*We regret that technical difficulties kept us from capturing the entire message audio, but pray that you are blessed by what we have been able to offer.