PLYMOUTH UCC (FORT COLLINS, CO)
  • Welcome!
    • I'm New Here
    • I'm a CSU Student
    • LGBTQ+
    • How Do I Join?
    • More Questions
  • This Week at Plymouth
  • Worship
    • What is Worship?
    • Worship Online >
      • Streaming Worship
      • Worship Bulletins
      • Digital Pew Card
      • Memorial Services
    • Learn More >
      • Faith Statements
      • Sermons
      • Music Program >
        • Mark's Music Minute
        • Music Series
      • Worship Sign-Ups
  • News & Events
    • Special Events
    • e-News
    • Ongoing Announcements
    • Calendars >
      • Today's Schedule
      • Mobile Calendar
      • Full Calendar
      • Calendar Request Form
    • News Archive
  • Living Our Faith
    • Christian Formation >
      • Children
      • Youth
      • Nursery Care >
        • Child Care Handbook
      • OWL (Our Whole Lives)
      • Adults
      • Visiting Scholar
    • Outreach & Mission >
      • The O&M Board >
        • Grocery Card
      • Climate Action
      • End Gun Violence
      • FFH
      • Immigration
      • Student Support
      • The Missions Marketplace
      • Youth for Change
    • Labyrinth
  • Connect
    • Find Your Place at Plymouth
    • Contact >
      • Contact Us Form
      • Jobs
      • Clergy & Staff
      • Lay Leadership
      • Building Rental >
        • Church Use Payments
    • Our Community >
      • Fellowship
      • Gallery
      • Calling & Caring >
        • Faith Community Nurses
        • Stephen Ministry
      • Meal Signups
    • Online Connections >
      • Email Lists
      • Church App
      • Text Responses
  • Give
    • All About Giving
    • Pledge Online
    • Other Ways to Give >
      • Text to Give
      • Sustaining Gifts
      • Planned Giving
  • Member Info
    • Member Menu >
      • Budget & Financial Ministry
      • Forms & Resources >
        • General Forms
        • Constitution & Policies
        • Newsletter Submissions
        • Emergency Contact Form
        • Zoom Resources
        • Kitchen Videos
        • Mission Statement
        • Strategic Planning
      • F1Go
      • Weddings & Funerals
      • Library
    • New Members

10/19/2021

A Grateful Response

Read Now
 
Picture
“What are you grateful for, Daddy?” I remember my son Chris’s then-small voice coming across the dining room table as we blessed our dinner. Each of us, in turn, would give God thanks for the things we were grateful for, whether a special moment, a kind word, a dear friend…or a new Lego. I am grateful for those moments of childhood wonder in my sons, who are now young men in their 20s.

Many years ago, my mom wrote a mealtime blessing that I didn’t fully appreciate until I was an adult…when I stopped taking life’s blessings for granted. “For love and friends, for home and health, we are most thankful for this wealth. Teach us, Lord, to be kind to all, and to appreciate your bountiful blessings. Amen.” My mom was no theologian, but I remain thankful for her words and for the fact that she and my dad shared the experience of a life of faith with me and my siblings.

I am grateful today for the United Church of Christ and its bold, faithful witness across hundreds of years. I am thankful for Second Congregational UCC in Greenwich, Connecticut, where I was confirmed and for First Congregational UCC in Boulder, where I was ordained. I am grateful for all the people who reflected God’s love and helped me become who I am today.

I am grateful today for Plymouth…for the generations of people on whose shoulders we stand today. For the Volgadeutsch immigrants who founded this church with the help of the Congregational Board for Homeland Missions, which reached out to immigrant communities. I am grateful for the ministry of my predecessor, Fred Edmonds, who served Plymouth for 23 years and helped transform it into a congregation with a heart for social justice. I am grateful for the hundreds of people who form this church today and that it is a beacon for progressive Christianity in northern Colorado.

It’s important to say, “Thanks!” isn’t it?  It’s important to express our gratitude, both in word and in deed. “Thanks” to all the people who nurtured us along our life’s path, to the people whose hard work built the church where we now worship, to the people with whom we are bound in covenant.

A few weeks ago, I included this sentence from Desmond Tutu as our Call to Worship: “What we are, what we have, even our salvation…All is gift; all is grace, not to be achieved, but to be received as a gift freely given.” Who is the giver? Who makes the gift of life itself possible? Just as it is important to thank the folks who help us along life’s journey, it’s important to say “Thanks!” to God as well, which is why an offering is a part of our worship. In non-pandemic times, we sing our offering forward with a Doxology: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow!”

What are the ways you say “Thanks!” to God?

This Sunday is Consecration Sunday, when we ask for God’s blessing on our pledges of financial support for our congregation in 2022. It will be a celebration you won’t want to miss, either online or in person, with Beatles and Burritos!

It has been an incredibly tough 20 months of pandemic for all of us, but I am grateful that God has not abandoned us, nor have we abandoned one another. We are making it…something that none of us could do on our own. We are All Together Now! Things still aren’t back to normal, but aren’t you grateful for the ways we are able to connect at Plymouth and with God, even now?

I hope you’ll join me this Sunday as we celebrate, offer thanks, and consecrate our pledges for 2022.
 
With gratitude,
Picture
Picture
P.S. If you can’t be with us on Sunday, you can pledge online anytime! Just go to plymouthucc.org/pledge or take a picture of this QR code with your smartphone.

Author

The Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal.

Share

10/12/2021

Taking the Challenge

Read Now
 
Picture
Looking around, Jesus said to his disciples,
"It will be very hard for the wealthy to enter God's kingdom!"
His words startled the disciples, …
"Children, it's difficult to enter God's kingdom!
It's easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle
than for a rich person to enter God's kingdom."
They were shocked even more …, "Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them carefully and said,
"It's impossible with human beings, but not with God.
All things are possible for God."…

Peter said to him, "Look, we've left everything and followed you." …
[Jesus said,] “
…many who are first will be last.
And many who are last will be first."

Mark 10.23b -25, 28, 31 *
I don’t know about you, but Hal’s sermon this past Sunday really challenged me to think again… and again and again….about my financial resources. Hal and I may live in the same house, but we rarely hear each other’s sermons before the worship services on Sunday morning. We often surprise one another. Echoing Jesus’ words, Hal’s words us challenged how we look at ourselves and at our lives as Americans. None of us may be in the top 1% of the wealthiest, but we are in the top echelons of the wealthy in comparison to most of the world’s people. If we have a place to live, food to eat, education, healthcare of some kind and opportunity for work – and meaningful work at that -  we can consider ourselves “rich.”
 
The difficulty of being “rich” in our world is that it has the potential to cut us off from the wealth of God’s kin-dom or realm that is here and now on our earth. The possessions and accoutrements of first world wealth, even middle to upper middle class wealth, can distract us from seeking God first in our lives. We get distracted with taking care of houses and cars, etc., etc. We are distracted with worrying about investments or getting ahead in jobs so we can make more money. We think we have built our small “kingdoms” of family and resources all by ourselves. We forget that God is the giver of all we have! Living in God’s economy, in God’s song of abundance, there is more enough for all!
 
Jesus invites those of us who are “first” in line in the world’s eyes to move to the back of the line. My imagination shows me a line of people waiting to receive food — perhaps in a buffet or cafeteria situation or maybe it’s an abundant potluck. Some of the people are emaciated and look as if they have not eaten for days while others are healthy and robust. It is quite apparent that there is enough food for all on the table. Which group should go first in line? It is too obvious for words. Yet this is not the justice in which our contemporary competitive systems always operate, is it? Even if we care deeply about changing the world for justice, we are often overwhelmed by the challenge.
 
What is an action item we can each do to move from “first” to “last” even as we remember that there is really no linear order in God’s realm. We are ALL God’s people interconnected in love. What can we do – each of us, right now?
 
We can consider our resources, their abundance. Some of us are at a more abundant time in life than others, true, yet we all have something to give. And we can each give out of what we have to build the ministry of Plymouth as part of God’s realm on earth.
 
What can you give that challenges you to acknowledge and celebrate God’s abundance? $10 a month? $25? $100? $150? $300? $500? $1000? More?
 
Give out of prayerful consideration, out of a full and grateful heart!  Yes, you will be helping others as our budget dollars go to our Outreach and Mission partners, to supporting the spiritual formation of children, youth and adults, to facilitating inspiring worship, to building the administrative infrastructure of our church that provides transparent communication and a solid logistical foundation for our ministries. More importantly, you will be intentionally remembering that your whole self, body, mind and soul, live and move and have their being in God and God’s Spirit of Abundance. 
 
The prophet Amos reminds us. Seek the LORD and live, … Seek good and not evil, that you may live; … the [Holy One], will be with you. (Amos 5. 6a,14a) “All things are possible for God," says Jesus. Even giving more than we might imagine at first glance that we can give!
 
Take the challenge with me,
Picture
*Bible, Common English. CEB Common English Bible with Apocrypha - eBook [ePub] (Kindle Locations 39604, 39607-39608).

Author

The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. 

Share

10/20/2020

"All Good Gifts"

Read Now
 
PictureImg: J.A. Ferguson
Friends,

First … a Big Thank You to All who have pledged for 2021! We deeply appreciate your faithfulness in sharing the abundance that God has shared with you!

And it is not too late to pledge…just go to the Plymouth Pledge page on our website to fill out an online pledge card. If you would like to become an Evergreen Partner and have your pledge deducted automatically from your bank account each month you can go to our Evergreen Partner page. Thank you in advance for pledging for 2021!

Performing in the musical Godspell for an entire year during my sophomore year in college was a life-changing and life-shaping experience for me. It still impacts my life. There is a prayer of thanksgiving in the back of our New Century Hymnal, #844, which I have used many times in worship to dedicate the offering because it is good theology – and because it reminds me of one of Godspell’s most beloved show tunes, “All Good Gifts.”

“All good gifts around us come from you, O God. You have given us life, and new life in Christ. As you have given us gifts, so we offer our gifts that we may be gifts to one another, even as Jesus so taught and lived. Amen.”

I offer you the video below this week to celebrate our 2020 pledge campaign, “Pilgrims on a Journey.” It is a beautiful rendition of Godspell’s “All Good Gifts” recorded by the ensemble, “Trumpets.” And it is dedicated by them to all our frontline workers during the pandemic. Here in northern Colorado we can offer up thanks and prayers particularly for the firefighters still working on the front lines of the Cameron Peak Fire as well as all the other folks who have been on the job throughout the pandemic.

With you, my fellow pilgrims, on the journey,
Picture

Author

The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. Read more

Share

10/22/2019

S-T-R-E-T-C-H TIME!

Read Now
 
It's not enough to build muscle and achieve aerobic fitness. 
We need to think about flexibility, too.
Stretching helps!

PicturePhoto by Inspired Horizons Digital Marketing on Unsplash
It’s Stretch Time at Plymouth! We have a Big Stretch Goal in our 2020 budget! Let’s rejoice! Stretching makes us strong! This Sunday is Consecration Sunday, the day we bring our pledge cards to the communion table in worship and ask God to bless them. (If you won’t be here, you can pledge early online or by mail or in the office.) 
 
According to the Harvard Medical School website and David Nolan, a physical therapist at Massachusetts General Hospital: Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints......Regular stretching keeps muscles long, lean, and flexible, and this means that exertion "won't put too much force on the muscle itself," says Nolan. Healthy muscles also help a person with balance...
 
What does this have to do with our 2020 budget? We have grown as a church, built muscle strength in staff and programming. We built a governance structure that breathes life into our aerobic fitness as we agilely recruit volunteers who respond to the crucial issues of our times and develop the spiritual formation of our congregation. We are larger and stronger that we were  ten years ago with more professional staff that give us better infrastructure. 
 
Now it's time to stretch ourselves with a large budget goal for 2020 so that we maintain our muscular flexibility in our growing staff support of God’s work through Plymouth. We need to stretch so we can have a larger range of muscular motion in our extravagant welcome to the northern Colorado community and to CSU students, staff and faculty. With a larger congregation we need to maintain healthy balance in our programming and in balancing the work shared between staff and volunteers. Stretching keeps us flexible and agile, as well as strong and  balance, for the movement of the God’s Holy Spirit in our mission and ministry as a vital congregation. 
 
This past Sunday, our conference minister, the Rev. Sue Artt, thanked us for the great generosity of Plymouth as we are the largest contributor in the conference to Our Church’s Wider Mission that provides basic support to our conference and national staff. We also excel in our four other special UCC offerings and our own community-wide and international mission giving. Sue also challenged each of us to S-T-R-E-T-C-H in giving to our 2020 budget so we can continue our strong work for God’s realm. She quoted the late Joseph Campbell, who said, “Money is neither spiritual or non-spiritual. Money is congealed energy. Releasing it is releasing life’s possibilities.” 
 
The energy of money can release life’s possibilities when spent well. When our intention, integrity, and stretching toward a meaningful goal are aligned, we release the energy of our treasure, time and talent. Generosity is generated in surprising ways! (If you were not hear this past Sunday morning, I invite you to listen to Sue’s sermon.)
 
The strength and flexibility of Plymouth as an outpost of God’s realm in a troubled world will only be maintained through the willingness of each Plymouth member to take the risk of releasing our individual congealed energies of money. Where can you take the risk of stretch in your budget? Some of us can release large amounts of money’s congealed energy. Others small. Either way it’s the s-t-r-e-t-c-h that counts. 
 
Join me in this opportunity to stretch and release God’s possibilities through Plymouth.
 
Blessings,

Picture
PS: Plymouth changes lives! The Stewardship Board has made a series of videos demonstrating how this happens; see them all at plymouthucc.org/give.

Author

The Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson, Associate Minister, is a writer, storyteller, and contributor to Feasting on the Word, a popular biblical commentary. She is also the writer of sermon-stories.com, a lectionary-based story-commentary series. Read more

Share

Details

    Archives

    March 2025
    January 2025
    November 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    December 2016

    Categories

    All
    2020
    9/11
    Abundance
    Adult Formation
    Advent
    All Hallows'
    Alli Stubbs
    Alternative Giving Fair
    America The Beautiful
    Ancient Future Church
    Animals
    Annual Report
    Anxiety
    Apocalypse
    April
    Art
    Ash Wednesday
    Bach
    Back To Church
    Back To School
    Bees
    Being Church
    Being The Body Of Christ
    Being The Church
    Beloved Community
    Benediction
    Beng Alive
    Better Angels
    Birthday
    Black History Month
    Black Lives Matter
    Blessings
    Book Studies
    Boulder
    Breath
    Brooklyn McBride
    Bruce Ronda
    Buffalo
    Calling & Caring
    Campus Ministry
    Candle Lighting
    Carols
    Celtic Christianity
    Chancel Choir
    Change
    Children
    Choices
    Choir
    Chrismtas
    Christian Formation
    Christian Formation For Youth
    Christian Fornation For Children
    Christmas
    Christmas Blues
    Church
    Church Buildings
    Church Governance
    Claudia DeMarco
    Climate Action
    Coffee
    Comma Faith
    Community
    Compassion Camp
    Consecration Sunday
    Covenant
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    COVID Update
    Creation Justice
    Creed
    Cross Generational Worship
    Cross-Generational Worship
    CSU
    DACA
    Darkness & Light
    Database
    David Bowie
    Deacons
    December
    Delaney Piper
    Devotional
    Diana Butler Bass
    Discipleship
    Earth Day
    Easter
    Easter Season
    Education For All
    Egg Hunt
    Election
    Embodied
    End Of The School Year
    Environmental Justice
    Faith
    Fall
    FAQ
    Farewell
    Fear
    Fences & Bridges
    FFH
    Finance
    Fire
    Flexibility
    Flora Cash
    Flower Boxes
    Folklore & Wisdom
    Fort Collins
    Forum
    Forum Series
    Friends & Family Sunday
    Gareth Higgins
    Gender
    Generosity
    Getting Settled
    Giving
    Goals
    Go Deeper
    Godspell
    God Time
    Goodbye
    Goodbyes
    Graduation
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Guest Author
    Gun Violence
    Habitat For Humanity
    Hadestown
    Halloween
    Healthy Congregations
    Heartbreak
    Hobbies
    Holy Week
    Hope
    Housing
    Impermanence
    Inauguration
    Independence-day
    Intentionality
    Interim
    Interruptions
    Interterm
    Introduction
    Italy
    January
    Jazz
    Jesus Has Left The Building
    John Philip Newell
    Joseph
    Joy
    Jubilee Sunday
    June
    Kindred
    Known & Unknown
    Labyrinth
    La Foret
    Lament
    Laura Nelson
    Lay Ministry
    LC Moderator
    Leadership Council
    Lent
    Lessons Learned
    Letting Go
    LGBTQ
    Light
    Liminal Space
    Listening
    Liturgical Year
    Longest Night
    Love
    Magi
    March
    Mark Heiskanen
    Marta CE 2024
    Martin Luther King Jr.
    Mass
    Masterpiece Cakeshop V. Colorado Civil Rights Comm.
    Matthew Shepard
    Ministerial Transitions
    Ministry Highlights
    Ministry Match
    Mission Trip
    Moderator
    Moving
    Music
    Musical Diversity
    Music Director
    Music Ministry
    Music Program
    Myth
    Nationalism
    Negative Energy
    New Eyes Village
    Newness
    New Staff
    New Year
    November
    ONA
    Online Worship
    Optimism
    Ordinary Time
    Organ
    Outdoor Worship
    Palm Sunday
    Pandemic
    Parable Palooza
    Parables
    Parking
    Pastoral Care
    Pastors
    Peace
    Pendemic
    Pentecost
    Phil Braudaway-Bowman
    Pilgrimage
    Plastics
    Plymouth Grounds
    Plymouth Reads
    Plymouth Ringers
    Plymouth Text Connection
    Polarities
    Popular Culture
    Prayer Of Jesus
    Prayer Service
    Psalm 126
    Psalms
    Racism
    Radical Hospitality
    Rebirth
    Reformation Sunday
    Releasing
    Reopening
    Rep. Joe Neguse
    Reproductive Justice
    Retirement
    Rev. Carla Cain
    Rev. Dr. Marta Fioriti
    Rev. Dr. Pam Peterson
    Rev. Hal Chorpenning
    Rev. Jake Miles Joseph
    Rev. Jane Anne Ferguson
    Rev. J.T. Smiedendorf
    Rev. Mandy Hall
    Rev. Mark Lee
    Rev. Marta Fioriti
    Rev. Ron Patterson
    Ring Lake Ranch
    Risk
    Ritual
    Rocky Mountain Conference
    Roe V Wade
    Rooted
    Rosebud Episcopal Mission
    Sabbath
    Sabbatical
    Sabbatical Blog
    Search Process
    Seasonal Music
    Share The Plate
    Signage
    Silence
    Singing
    Sleepout
    Social Media
    Solstice
    Song
    Soul
    Spiritual Growth
    Spiritual Practices
    Stephen Ministry
    Stewardship
    Stewardshp
    Stories
    St. Patrick
    Stranger Things
    Strategic Planning
    Students
    Suicide Prevention
    Summer
    Summer Events
    Taize
    TARDIS
    Teacher Appreciation
    Thanks
    Thanksgiving
    The Church Organ
    The Magnificat
    The Sower
    Three Sisters
    Threshold
    Thrive
    Top Ten
    Touch
    Transfiguration
    Transformation
    Transparency
    Trauma
    Travel
    Tricia Medlock
    Trump
    Truth
    Tulips
    UCC
    Uncertainty
    Unexpected
    Values
    Vespers
    Video Reflection
    Virtual Balcony
    Visiting Scholar
    Voting
    Waiting
    Wanted
    We Are Plymouth
    Weird & Holy
    Wholeness
    Wilderness
    Wisdom
    Work
    Worship
    Yendra Tencza
    Youth
    Youth For Change
    Youth Retreat
    Zoom For 7

    RSS Feed

916 West Prospect Road
Fort Collins CO 80526

​Members,
log into F1Go here

Sundays

9 a.m. Education Hour
10 a.m. Worship
11 a.m. Coffee Fellowship

Contact Us

Threads
Bluesky
970-482-9212

Subscribe to our eNews

* indicates required
© 2025 Plymouth Congregational UCC Church. All rights reserved.
  • Welcome!
    • I'm New Here
    • I'm a CSU Student
    • LGBTQ+
    • How Do I Join?
    • More Questions
  • This Week at Plymouth
  • Worship
    • What is Worship?
    • Worship Online >
      • Streaming Worship
      • Worship Bulletins
      • Digital Pew Card
      • Memorial Services
    • Learn More >
      • Faith Statements
      • Sermons
      • Music Program >
        • Mark's Music Minute
        • Music Series
      • Worship Sign-Ups
  • News & Events
    • Special Events
    • e-News
    • Ongoing Announcements
    • Calendars >
      • Today's Schedule
      • Mobile Calendar
      • Full Calendar
      • Calendar Request Form
    • News Archive
  • Living Our Faith
    • Christian Formation >
      • Children
      • Youth
      • Nursery Care >
        • Child Care Handbook
      • OWL (Our Whole Lives)
      • Adults
      • Visiting Scholar
    • Outreach & Mission >
      • The O&M Board >
        • Grocery Card
      • Climate Action
      • End Gun Violence
      • FFH
      • Immigration
      • Student Support
      • The Missions Marketplace
      • Youth for Change
    • Labyrinth
  • Connect
    • Find Your Place at Plymouth
    • Contact >
      • Contact Us Form
      • Jobs
      • Clergy & Staff
      • Lay Leadership
      • Building Rental >
        • Church Use Payments
    • Our Community >
      • Fellowship
      • Gallery
      • Calling & Caring >
        • Faith Community Nurses
        • Stephen Ministry
      • Meal Signups
    • Online Connections >
      • Email Lists
      • Church App
      • Text Responses
  • Give
    • All About Giving
    • Pledge Online
    • Other Ways to Give >
      • Text to Give
      • Sustaining Gifts
      • Planned Giving
  • Member Info
    • Member Menu >
      • Budget & Financial Ministry
      • Forms & Resources >
        • General Forms
        • Constitution & Policies
        • Newsletter Submissions
        • Emergency Contact Form
        • Zoom Resources
        • Kitchen Videos
        • Mission Statement
        • Strategic Planning
      • F1Go
      • Weddings & Funerals
      • Library
    • New Members