Saint Matthew United Methodist Church

  • The Christmas Show and Santa

    Jason Hardy

    🎶 Join Us for Our Annual Christmas Concert Tonight! 🎶

    Come experience the joy of the season with beautiful music, fellowship, and fun at our Annual Christmas Concert!

    📅 Tonight, Saturday, December 21

    🕕 6:00 PM

    📍 Saint Matthew UMC

    The evening begins with a mix of festive secular songs and sacred Christmas music, including the Casting Crowns version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. Following the concert, enjoy delicious refreshments and a visit from Santa with gifts for the kids!

    This beloved tradition is the perfect way to celebrate the season with family and friends. We can’t wait to see you there!

  • Friday’s Word – Concert and Christmas Eve—Consider Both

    Max Brennan

    Some of us know what is coming.

    We have before us a time of incompetence and

    corruption like nothing we have seen before.

    Imagine a nation where those in power are not

    constrained by morals or a sense of decency.

    But I do have hope.

    They are expressed in the lines of an old carol, I

    Heard the Bells on Christmas Day:

    “God is not dead, nor doth he sleep. The wrong

    shall fail, the right prevail.”

    We need to know this.

    We need to be reminded of this. That’s why I am

    singing those words in the concert Saturday night.

    Listen, over these next years, we are going to need

    the church.

    No, not that right-wing bunch with a theology that

    makes them ignorant and vulnerable to would-be

    dictators.

    They brought us here.

    We need a church built on the solid rock

    that is Jesus the Christ.

    Built on His love.

    Powered by His grace.

    A church that triumphs over corruption, racism,

    and hatred of gays and immigrants.

    In this space in the coming year, I will be offering

    you opportunities for worship and study.

    I am expecting a response.

    The “mainline” church—for want of a better

    name—along with honest journalism will be the most

    powerful lines of defense against the darkness to come.

    Help us—help us at St. Matthew make a witness in

    dark times.

    We have a concert Saturday night, Dec. 21, at 6:00 p.m.

    We have a beautiful Christmas Eve service, also

    at 6:00 p.m.

    Help us make a witness.

  • Max’s Corner

    Max Brennan

    I Know We Had a Good Time

    Because Jason is on vacation, he needed this page before he left—which means before we had our Christmas Open House last Sunday.

    I’m sure we had a good time.

    I had an ulterior motive for the Open House.

    I wanted to get my house—and my life—in order before the beginning of a new year, and the Open House forced me to do that. (And it was hard!!!)

    With my mobility problems of late, things had fallen apart at my place. I had to get my life and my work back in order. I want to devote all the time I can to ministry, and the way to do that is to get other projects out of the way.

    I am looking to a new day in the life of our church. I want to put my energy toward that.

    Part of that is being able to talk to you more often in the new year. If you are not yet on the church Facebook page, make a friend request. Or send me, personally, a friend request.

    Let’s get ready to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in every way we can in 2025.

    Let’s begin now—with our two great Christmas services: the Christmas Concert and our Christmas Eve Service.

    Bring the family.

    Ask a friend to come with you.

    Let us spread the Good News.

    Unto us a Child is given.

    Come, let us adore Him.

    The Christmas Concert

    Saturday, Dec. 21—6:00 p.m.

    Dinner and Santa after

    Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

    The most beautiful service of the year.

    Tuesday, Dec. 24—6:00 p.m.

    God Bless,

    MB

    BY THE WAY—No Pastor’s Class and no breakfast this Sunday or the next.

    Edward Hjorth remains in rehab and in our prayers after his fall and hip surgery.

    Let me know if this works or if you’d like anything adjusted further!

  • Rediscovering Joy: Celebrating the Third Sunday of Advent – Livestream

    Jason Hardy

    Watch the full service on our YouTube channel by clicking here.

    Register your attendance

  • Friday’s Word – A Dinner—Another Dinner—An Open House

    Max Brennan

    Yes, of course.

    We will sing White Christmas at our concert on Saturday, Dec. 21, at 6:00 p.m.

    We must.

    It is expected.

    In fact, I sing it. But I won’t mean it.

    What kind of fool do you think I am? (Don’t answer that.)

    I’m a preacher. I don’t want a white Christmas. I want people in church.

    No bad weather!

    I’d like to see you (and all your kin) at our concert and at our Christmas Eve service. (We call it “the most beautiful service of the year”—‘cause it is!)

    But back to the concert.

    I sing a couple of things, but our great singers do the hard lifting.

    Our Christmas Concert is a 25-year tradition with us. The music starts secular and moves into the sacred.

    Then we eat, and Santa comes by with gifts for the kids.

    (No, we’re not anti-Santa at St. Matthew.)

    There’s a kids’ time during the concert.

    We do have fun.

    The heart of Christmas at St. Matthew is Christmas Eve. (Also at 6:00.)

    I had an aunt who used to say to people she loved, “I’m just so hungry to see you.” And I would say I’m hungry for Christmas Eve.

    Especially this year.

    We need those “glad tidings of great joy.”

    We need lifting. We need to be reminded that this is still God’s world.

    As the old carol says:

    “God is not dead nor doth he sleep.

    The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.”

    Oh!—I’m singing that, also, at the concert.

    The Casting Crowns version of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

    Come, if you can.

    Sat., Dec. 21, at 6:00.