Worship Services
Worship Schedule
Each month’s plans for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship services appear here. Details about the worship service for the upcoming Sunday also appear on our Home Page. Childcare is always provided without reservations for Worship, Mindfulness Meditation and Forum.
Dec. 7, 2025 – “Catching Our Breath” – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
This month’s theme is: “Survival is not a sprint. It is a breath.” We are in this work of mutual thriving for the long haul. How are we sustained in it, especially when so much feels dire and exhausting? Join us to pause and breathe deep.
Dec. 14, 2025 – Guest Preacher – Rabbi Jeanne Snodgrass
Rabbi Jeanne Snodgrass serves as the Executive Director of Mizzou Hillel, is a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, and serves on the Columbia Public Schools Board of Education. She will be leading us in a service reflecting on Hanukah as our Jewish members, friends and neighbors prepare to celebrate this Festival of Lights.
Dec. 21, 2025 – “Tending the Spark” – All-Ages Solstice Service – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon and DRE Jamila Batchelder
Join us for our annual all-ages Winter Solstice service, as we deepen into the dark of the longest night of the year. Join us to tend to the sparks of hope, peace, and love in our hearts.
Dec. 28, 2025 – “Burning of the Grudges” – All-Ages New Year Celebration – Rev. Dr. Molly Housh Gordon
Join us shortly before New Year’s Eve to share our beloved annual New Year ritual. In this all-ages service, we will dramatically burn away all we want to leave behind and create touchstones for the coming year.
The Zoom address for our 10:30 a.m. Sunday worship is
https://zoom.us/j/380411489
You can also join by phone: 312-626 6799
Webinar ID: 380 411 489
Services are also streamed live to Facebook
Description of Worship Services
We offer a worship service every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.. The current month’s schedule appears above. Services last about one hour.
Children are present for about the first 15 minutes, which includes a stones of joy and sorrow ritual. The children then leave for their religious education classes. Nursery care and our full religious education program for preschool through junior high school are offered at this time.
Although each of our services is unique, services usually begin with a welcome from a member of our Board of Trustees and occasional special announcements.
Interspersed with a variety of music and hymn singing, the typical service also includes the lighting of the chalice, one or more inspirational readings, a sermon or homily, an offertory, an opportunity to express joys and sorrows, and a closing benediction.
After the service we gather for fellowship, conversation and coffee.
Members of a group called the Worship Associates assist in planning worship services and also participate in conducting services.
Lay-Led Worship Services
Our lay-led services honor our commitment to lay involvement in church leadership and our church’s history. We began in 1951 as a lay-led fellowship, and thus all services were lay led until we called our first minister in 1980.
From September through May, we have occasional lay-led services, and many of the services are lay led during the summer. The Worship Associates organize the lay-led services. These services are often non-traditional and unique and allow individuals to speak to a topic of interest or lead the congregation in exploring a variety of activities related to the many facets of worship and spirituality.
2025-26 Worship Arc
This year’s worship arc is “Survival Is a Garden.” To develop the themes for our year, the Worship Associates, the Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group and Rev. Molly took inspiration from a poem by Kyle Tran Myhre called “When It Really Is Just the Wind and Not a Furious Vexation.” In it, the poet reflects that all the post-apocalyptic images of hard-core guys with machetes on motorcycles are false visions of survival. Instead, he realizes, “…in every universe in which / I am alive, it is because of other people.” He lays out a vision of thriving where we all survive because we know we need each other, and then he lays down these two beautiful couplets that have inspired our year:
Survival is not a fortress. It is a garden.
Survival is not a siren. It is a symphony.
In this moment when fascists are trying to sell us a bleak wasteland of survival, built on violent control and betrayal of one another, it is time for us to remember what real, collective survival is… and what it isn’t.
Together with your Worship Associates and Writing for Spiritual Sustenance Group, and some of Rev. Molly’s beloved colleagues, a huge list of things that survival is and isn’t was generated. Nine of them became our themes for the year. They are all worthy of our reflection, and we invite you to bring us even more!
One way we survive is with art, and there will be many ways to creatively engage in collective art and creative prompts around the themes this year, including our new first Friday offering – “Guidebook to the Garden,” when we will explore the theme together in more creative ways.
What is our collective survival, and what is it not? Join us all year to deepen our understanding together.
| Month | Theme | Translation |
| September | Survival is not a fortress. It is a garden. | Abundance. Care. |
| October | Survival is not a siren. It is a symphony. | Collaboration. Harmony. |
| November | Survival is not a promise. It is a memory. | Ancestry. Wisdom. |
| December | Survival is not a sprint. It is a breath. | Patience. Rest. |
| January | Survival is not a prison. It is a candle. | Freedom. Hope. |
| February | Survival is not a factory. It is a poem. | Creativity. Beauty. |
| March | Survival is not a tank. It is a caravan. | Community. Nourishment. |
| April | Survival is not the end. It is a seed. | Possibility. Future. |
| May | Survival is not a wasteland. It is a dance party. | Joy. Thriving. |