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"Teach Us to Number Our Days..."
Worship Service: Informal Family - January 05, 2020
It's a new decade (or not, depending on how you think about it) and it's a time when a lot of people are thinking about time and all that's happened in the past decade or two. People are also looking to the future and wondering what will happen in the 2020's. With these thoughts on our minds it seemed like it be useful, this Sunday evening, to reflect on Psalm 90 where it says, "teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Grief and Gratitude
Worship Service: Informal Family - December 29, 2019
A different baby was born in Bethlehem, hundreds of years before Jesus was born there. The mother of that baby died in childbirth and soo named her son "son of my sorrow" before she died. Later the father renamed that baby, "son of the right hand" or "son of strength". This story offers an opportunity to reflect on our sorrows and the strength that the Lord has given us through our sorrows and also gives us another way of understanding why the Lord was born in Bethlehem. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Why Was Jesus Born in Bethlehem?
Worship Service: Informal Family - December 25, 2019
Jesus was birn in Bethlehem, a town that did not seem particularly interesting or exciting. And if we want to find our Savious we need to be willing to look in places that also don't seem particularly interesting or exciting. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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We Might Not Want the Lord to Come, But We Need Him To
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - December 01, 2019
As we approach Christmas we often talk about the Lord coming into the world and Him coming into our lives in a new way. At this Sunday’s evening service we will be talking about prophecies from Malachi about the Lord’s coming and why we might not actually want the Lord to come into our lives. That might sound strange but some of the prophecies about the Lord’s coming do not sound very pleasant. But we actually do need to go through those unpleasant things to really be ready for the Lord to come into our lives in a new way. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Invitation
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - November 17, 2019
As a church we are focusing on invitation for the next couple of months. As we work on invitation I want our thinking and our actions to be informed by what the Lord teaches about it. And when you look for it, you can find teachings and stories about invitation and even direct invitations from the Lord throughout the His Word. Let’s learn from the Lord about how to invite. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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"Unless the Lord Builds the House...."
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - October 20, 2019
It's very easy to buy into the idea that if we just work hard enough we can make sure that things work out the way we want them to. But then sometimes the things that we put hours and hours of effort and energy into building still fall to pieces. And then it feels like it's not worth working on anything. But the Lord can help us to find a healthier motivation to keep on working hard, while also leaving the outcomes to Him. This sermon is based on a chapel talk by Thane Glenn. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Life is Hard, Part 2, What Do We Do?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 29, 2019
A few weeks ago we talked about how to cope with how hard life in this world is. This Sunday we're going to focus on the question of what to do about it. What actions should we take in response to hard and terrible things that happen? It's easy to feel quite powerless in the face of tragedies or huge problems. Can we make a difference? What do we do if our best efforts seem to accomplish nothing? Life is hard; what do we do? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Life is Hard, Part 1, How Do We Cope
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - September 08, 2019
There are a lot of hard aspects of life in this natural world—in our personal lives and also in the world around us. What do we do with it all? How do we cope? Is it better to try to ignore the hard stuff? If we don’t ignore the hard stuff, how do we keep from being flattened by it? This Sunday we’re going to try to learn from He who has “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,” about how we can cope with life in this hard world. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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A New Name
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 25, 2019
We get to witness two baptisms as part of the service this Sunday. When someone gets baptised we talk about them being baptised in the Lord’s name. There’s a lot that’s contained in that simple idea. This Sunday we’ll talk about what it means to take on the name of being a Christian and how we can find a new sense of identity in the Lord. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Memorial Service for Edward Palmer
Memorial Service - August 25, 2019
On the 18 August 2019, Edward Palmer peacefully passed away at the age of 86. It's always a hard adjustment when someone passes away, even when they've been sick for a long time like Ted had been. While we grieve his passing, we also are glad for him that he is no longer encumbered with a sick body but instead can enjoy the full use of his spiritual body and can again walk, run, talk easily with people, explore, and eat whatever he wants. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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What Does it Take to Make Good Decisions in a Difficult Moment?
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - August 11, 2019
There's a lot about life that is beyond our control and so it's easy to feel like life is just happening to us and we are being dragged along for the ride. Despite that we do still have choices to make--big ones and little, day-to-day ones. How do we make good choices? What things do we need to have in place in our lives to give us the best chance of making good decisions in the midst of our busy, stressful, or just overwhelming lives? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Samuel, Part 1: Hearing the Lord's Call
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 21, 2019
This Sunday we’re starting a series on the story of Samuel. As an adult, Samuel becomes a pivotal figure in the history of the Children of Israel but his story begins in his childhood. The Lord calls out to him and at first he doesn’t know that it’s the Lord. We too can struggle to distinguish the Lord’s call in our lives from a lot of other inputs. With Samuel we can learn what it takes to recognise the Lord’s call and what sort of messages the Lord has for us. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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We Need Times of Rest
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - July 07, 2019
This Sunday we will be looking at the spiritual significance of the year of Jubilee. This was a law that the Children of Israel had that, every fifty years, they had to let the ground lie fallow and not plant seeds or harvest. Also, any land that had been sold during those fifty years had to then revert to the original owner. What is the spiritual significance of all of this for our lives and our need for fallow times? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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The Spiritual History of the Human Race, Part 3: Christianity and a New Church
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 30, 2019
This Sunday we will finish our series on the spiritual history of the human race by talking about the beginning of Christianity all the way until today. What happened that made it necessary for there to be a new church after the church started by Jesus Christ? And where do we go from here—what do we believe will happen in the next 500 years of the spiritual history of the human race. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Jean Powell Memorial Service
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 26, 2019
Memorial Service of Jean Powell, including eulogies by Malcolm Powell, Victoria (Powell) Browning, and Rodney Harber. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Becoming One - What It Means and What It Does Not
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 23, 2019
In wedding ceremonies and love songs people talk about two people becoming one when they get married. That sounds beautiful and poetic but is it actually possible? To people who are in love it can feel very possible; to people in the midst of a difficult conflict or who have just drifted apart it can feel entirely impossible and naive. And what does "becoming one" even mean? Does it mean always agreeing with your partner? Does it mean you have to lose yourself in your relationship for it to work? These are the questions we're going to be digging into this Sunday. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Ancient Words: What Led Me to the New Church
Banquet Address - June 22, 2019
Paul Mayer's banquet speech at the 2019 New Church Day Banquet at New Church Westville. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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The Spiritual History of the Human Race, Part 1: The Earliest People
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - June 09, 2019
On Sunday we’re starting a series on the spiritual history of the human race. This Sunday we’re looking at the earliest people. What does the Word teach us about what the earliest people were like? How were they different from us and how were they the same as us? And how can understanding what they went through all those thousands of years ago help us to understand ourselves better today? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Children and Parents
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 26, 2019
If you have children, you probably spend a fair amount of time talking about parenting—how things are going for this child or that child, what you’re fighting with your children about (what they’re eating or not eating, screen time, homework, etc.), your worries about their future. But what is the goal? What is the role of a parent meant to be? And what about these children that we’re trying to parent—are they perfect, uncorrupted little angels, are they disrespectful brats that need to be brought into line? There are many opinions about all of these things in the world but what I want to talk about on Sunday is what the Lord says about all of this in His Word. What does He teach us about the nature of children and how does He define the role of a parent? Gaining clarity about this can really help us hold the hard work of parenting in a better way. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Let the little children come to Me...
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - May 12, 2019
This Sunday we’re beginning a sermon series on children with the story in which Jesus says, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them….” The context of this statement is that people were trying to bring their children to the Lord but the disciples were telling them to go away. We might think, why would the disciples try to send the children away from the Lord? But there are actually plenty of times when we might be inclined to do the same exact thing. Let’s take a look. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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The Movement of Easter, Part 2: Baptise and Teach
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 28, 2019
Last week we read about the Lord commanding His disciples to go forth and make disciples of all nations and we talked about what He is asking of us in that command. The Lord didn’t just give them that general command; He also told them specifically to baptise people into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to teach them to keep all the things that He had commanded them. Are we all meant to baptise people? Why did the Lord talk about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Are we all meant to teach other people what the Lord commanded? If we want to take this command of the Lord’s seriously, then we need to really think this through. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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The Movement of Easter, Part 1: Go Forth and Make Disciples
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 21, 2019
There is a lot of movement in the story of the morning of the Lord’s resurrection. Words like go, come, went, ran are used 18 times in the last chapter of Matthew and almost two-thirds of the verses contain some sort of movement. Women go to the tomb, they are told to go and tell the disciples to go to another place. When the disciples go to that place, the Lord tells them to go out to all nations and make disciples, baptise, and teach. What movement does the Lord want from us? It’s easy to celebrate Easter, eat a few too many chocolates, and go back to normal life without anything having changed. Where does the Lord want us to go this Easter and how do we get up and do it? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Can You Recognise the Messiah
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - April 14, 2019
This Sunday we celebrate Jesus riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. When He rode in some people recognised Him as the Messiah, other people didn't know who He was, and other people strongly rejected the idea that He was the Messiah. We hope that we would have been among those who saw Him as the Messiah but, a few chapters later, the Lord warns people not to be fooled by people pretending to be the Messiah. Can we tell the difference between the Lord and people pretending to be the Lord? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Love Over Ego - Part 5 - The Writing is on the Wall
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - March 10, 2019
The phrase “the writing is on the wall” comes from the story that we’re going to be exploring on Sunday. During a wild and profane party, the new king of Babylon, Belshazzar, sees a hand write a mysterious message on the wall. And the meaning of the message, as explained by Daniel, is that Belshazzar has been evaluated, found to be deficient, and so will have the kingdom taken from him. In our process of working to have love triumph over our ego, we will have times when the writing is on the wall for some aspect of our lives. Are we willing to have that part of us die? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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Love Over Ego - Part 3 - The Freedom to Say No
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - February 24, 2019
This Sunday we will be working through the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego and how they were not willing to bow down to an idol that Nebuchadnezzar set up, even if it would mean that they would be burned to death in a furnace as punishment. How did they have such strength in their convictions? Would we be willing to stick to our faith if doing so could result in us facing similarly dire consequences? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Westville, RSA
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