Welcome - October 25, 2026 (Tested)

Welcome to Hope United Methodist Church! We’re glad you’re here. Whether you are visiting for the first time or joining us again, we pray you experience God’s love, meaningful worship, and a warm sense of community. Below is information to help you follow along with today's service. Visit Hope Worship Page to view the digital bulletin.

We’re grateful you chose to worship with us and hope you feel at home at Hope!

Centering Words:  Have you ever felt that God was testing you? What was that experience like? What did you learn about God through that experience? About yourself?

Call to Worship

We are chosen children of God, bound together by the Holy Spirit.
We belong to God, and through God, we belong to one another.

When we feel tested by hard decisions, calls to advocate against injustice, competing narratives, and worrying misinformation, we remember:
We belong to God, and through God, we belong to one another.

When we struggle with damaged trust and the need to repair our relationships with God and one another, when we are called to go against the social current to build communities of mercy and justice, we remember:
We belong to God, and through God, we belong to one another.

Come, let us worship God whose grace surrounds us when we feel tested and tried, empowering us to remain faithful disciples of Jesus Christ when we face chaos, division, injustice, and hardship.
We come to worship God who chooses us, empowers us, and inspires us to live as the Body of Christ in a broken and hurting world. Amen.

Music Selections
Opening Hymn: Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven (UMH 66)
Prayer Hymn: Give Thanks (TFWS 2036)
Choir Anthem: Loving God, Loving People
Closing Hymn: God of Love and God of Power (UMH 578)

Scripture Readings

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 (Responsive)

Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, wherever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

You turn us back to the dust, and say, “Turn back, O mortal ones!”
For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning:
in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, 2 but though we had already suffered and been shamefully mistreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition. 3 For our appeal does not spring from deceit or impure motives or trickery, 4 but, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel, even so we speak, not to please mortals but to please God, who tests our hearts. 5 As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed, 6 nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, 7 though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle[a] among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. 8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.