Valley Presbyterian Church

Pastor Jenny Warner leads this online worship service for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 29, 2020, focusing on "Wait Just a Minute...".

Celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent with us!

Rev. Jenny Warner addresses Valley Presbyterian Church with a "mini-service" for online viewing.

On March 8, 2020, Valley Presbyterian Church celebrated our second Sunday of Lent, as we continue to explore our "Forgiven and Free" sermon series. Rev. Jenny Warner preached on "The Truth of the Matter is ...", looking more deeply at owning the reality of our stories. Speaking honestly is essential to forgiveness. Scripture describes Nicodemus coming to Jesus in the night with his story. Nicodemus catches a glimpse that there is a different way to hold the story of his life and the story of God that is about grace and not rules. "What's human is mentionable, and if it's mentionable, it's manageable." --Mr. Rogers www.valleypreschurch.org

In her sermon on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020 at Valley Presbyterian Church, Rev. Jenny Warner explored the Bible as "The Book of Transformation." Recognizing that we often want to enshrine the words of Scripture as set in stone, Pastor Jenny suggested instead that we can see them as a living conversation, a relationship into which we are invited and in which we become transformed. www.valleypreschurch.org

At Valley Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2020, Rev. Jenny Warner preached on 'The Book of Growth,' looking at how the Bible invites us to grow. What if some of the "problems" we have with the Bible are actually invitations to embrace complexity and mature? How does the Bible move us towards non-binary thinking and deeper into saying "yes" to God as a mystery of grace and love? We explored these ideas through Paul's letter to the Corinthians. www.valleypreschurch.org

Rev. Jenny Warner preached on "The Book of Justice" on Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020 at Valley Presbyterian, inviting us to not accept "business as usual," and to refuse the inevitability of our times. In Jenny's words: We looked at the Bible "as a book of justice. Cornel West said: “Justice is what love looks like in public.” And the general message of the Bible agrees with him. There is little room for a private and individual faith in Scripture. Instead, our faith should lift up the lowest and seek to balance the scales economically and sociologically. This is how we make real Jesus’ words that we are the light of the world. " www.valleypreschurch.org

Valley Presbyterian Church kicked off a new sermon series for the month of February, focused on understanding the Bible from different perspectives, Over the next month, we'll explore the complex, beautiful, messy and sacred text from this work, each week considering the Bible from a different vantage point. This past Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020, we started by evaluating the Bible through the lens of Jesus. We heard the story of Simeon and Anna, and Rev. Jenny Warner preached on 'The Book of Jesus.'

On Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, Valley Presbyterian Church celebrated the commissioning of Rev. Karen Thistlethwaite as our Executive Pastor. Rev. Dr. Graham Baird, the lead pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Burlingame (https://burlpres.org/staff/), led the service of commissioning at Valley Presbyterian and provided our sermon ("The Commission and the Mission"). What is an Executive Pastor, you may ask? The closest parallel in the business world is a Chief Operations Officer. Executive pastors function as the organizational heart of a church, making sure we are stewarding our resources of people, finances and facilities in the service of our mission. www.valleypreschurch.org

On Jan. 19, 2020, the deacons at Valley Presbyterian Church led Sunday worship. Our Deacon Moderator Barbara Caswell provided the sermon ("The Courage to Be Vulnerable"), speaking from the experience of her illness the last 18 months. Barbara clarified that being vulnerable is a strength, not a weakness; and she encouraged us to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and ask for support when needed, because God is always there. www.valleypreschurch.org

This January 2020 we're starting our new sermon series at Valley Presbyterian "Called to Love." Our primary calling is to receive and BE Love. On Sunday, January 12, Rev. Jenny Warner delivered her sermon entitled "Who Should Wear the Robe and Crown?" www.valleypreschurch.org.

Rev. Jenny Warner preaches to the congregation of Valley Presbyterian Church on January 5, 2020, the first Sunday of the New Year (and New Decade). www.valleypreschurch.org

Rev. Jenny Warner addresses Valley Presbyterian Church on December 29, the last Sunday of 2019. www.valleypreschurch.org

www.valleypreschurch.org

www.valleypreschurch.org

On December 8, 2019, the Second Sunday in Advent, Rev. Jenny Warner addressed the congregation at Valley Presbyterian Church with her sermon "Peace Can't Wait!" www.valleypreschurch.org

Advent began this Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019 as Valley Presbyterian Church enters into the season of preparation and expectant waiting for Christmas. Pastor Jenny preached on "Hope Can't Wait!" www.valleypreschurch.org

On Sunday, Nov. 24, 2019 we celebrated at Valley Presbyterian with a Thanksgiving Service. Pastor Jenny Warner sermon was titled "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart." www.valleypreschurch.org

Valley Presbyterian Church welcomed Andrew P. Quick to the pulpit on November 17, 2019 for "Holy Humor Sunday." Andrew shared his sermon "Blessed Are We" and showcased his unique physical humor to help us connect to one another more readily. In the process, we shared lots of nervous moments, followed by belly laughs all around. The audio file for this presentation will be tough to follow without visual cues, but it's here for those who'd like to give a listen ... www.valleypreschurch.org

Rev. Jenny Warner shared her sermon "It All Belongs to God: Stories from East Africa" at Valley Presbyterian Church, November 11, 2019. Jenny described her past two weeks in Rwanda, looking for "change-makers" with the "African Road" project, providing initial funds to kick-start improvement efforts there. Each donation stipulates that fund recipients will make small but regular contributions (12.5 cents weekly) for ongoing community support, in order to become self-supporting as a community. Jenny also referred to this morning's readings from the prophet Haggai, who encouraged the Israelites to rebuild community resources after their return from exile, in addition to rebuilding personal resources. Jenny noted that community contribution can seem the harder of the two, but the courage and spirit to do so dwells within all of us, as God's abundance is meant for all of us, and is not earmarked for individual ownership or control. www.valleypreschurch.org