Welcome
to Montpelier Presbyterian Church

Join us for worship Sundays 11:00

Prayer

Lord help me to give up my need for success as I too frequently think of success. Instead let me seek success on your terms: being faithful and centered on you and your love, being centered on the needs of others and how to best serve them with practical acts of kindness rather than just more empty words. Help me in all things to reflect your love.

About Us

Montpelier is a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by:

worshipping God,

loving one another,

and welcoming others.

We are a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). We believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and God’s only begotten Son who died on the cross to save us by HIs grace and was raised from the dead to prove to us God’s power over sin and death. We believe the Bible to be the sacred Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. To find more about our beliefs please go to pcusa.org.

What you can expect on Sunday morning: You will be greeted at the front door and receive a warm welcome and a service bulletin. Coffee hour is before church at 10:30 in the church library right off the sanctuary.

Our worship service is traditional with

prayers,
both traditional and modern hymns,
scripture readings
a children’s sermon complete with coloring and puzzle pages
a sermon based on that day’s readings with an emphasis on living out our faith in our every day lives.

We do not take up an offering although there are plates available on our communion table in the front of the sanctuary..

Dress is casual and there’s even a rocking chair in the back of the sanctuary if one is needed.

You’ll find information on our Bible study and children’s Sunday School under Faith Development.

What our members say: “A great group of sweet folks who care and reach out whenever there’s a need…” Will M.

“I’ve been a member for 53 years. It’s home to me. Pastor Pat always finds ways to keep us engrossed in the Bible to strengthen our faith.” Debbie N.

“I’ve been a member for less than a year, but one of the things I like about it is the sense of intimacy.” Leigh-Ann M.

Our Pastor: The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden is known to us all as Pastor Pat. She is in her third year as our part-time pastor and lives in Scotia Village in Laurinburg. She has been ordained for over 34 years and has always served small churches rediscovering who God was calling them to be. Among all her other duties at the church she also teaches our adult Bible study on Sunday mornings. She is single and loves her garden and HGTV as well as storytelling and acting. Before entering the ministry she was an Associate Professor of English and Drama and an academic dean in the University of Kentucky Community College system. She is the author of two books: The Power Of Their Voices and For Such A One As I.

Community Ministries

Church Community Services: Each Sunday we collect food for our local food pantry in response to Christ’s command to feed the hungry and meet the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Scholarship Fund: Founded in 2007, the estate of Johnsie Patterson McFadden from Wagram, NC set up a scholarship fund through Montpelier Presbyterian Church to be given to any Scotland County High School Graduate to further their education with preference given to those associated with the congregation. This year we gave 11 scholarships to deserving students. Contact the church for more information on this program and how to apply.

Partnership With Wagram Public Schools We reach out to students in need by donating through the media center to buy books for those who cannot afford them and we do an annual collection of gloves, scarves, hats, and socks as well as providing backpacks stuffed with needed school supplies.

Special Offerings Throughout the year we collect special denominational offerings such as the One Great Hour of Sharing, the Pentecost Offering and the Joy Gift Offering.

Spring Hill Cemetery Memorial Fund. “Blessed are thy who mourn for they shall be comforted. “. Mt 5:4 Our church, in partnership with the Spring Hill Baptist Church, owns and maintains the local cemetery. The Memorial Fund goes to support the upkeep. For more information on making a donation or buying a plot, please contact the church office.

Donations to the church may be mailed to P.O. Box 407 Wagram, NC 28396. If you’d like the donation to go to a particular cause, please note that on the memo line of your check.

News & Events

Jan. 6 2:00 Epiphany White Elephant Exchange Party

Jan. 8 Women's Circle Book Club

Jan. 10 10:00 Undecorate the Church

Jan. 11 New Officer Training

Jan. 19 6:00 Beat The Blues Community Concert

Jan. 26 11:00 Rev. Dr. Jerrod Lowry General Presbyter and Stated Clerk of Presbytery preaching and dreaming

Commissioning of mission workers to Puerto Rico

Montpelier Messenger

Montpelielier Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 407, Wagram, NC 28396 910-369-2259

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden 269-362-1332

Editor: Barbara Holloway 910-318-3757

(email) hollowaybarbara064@gmail.com

No. 1 Vol. 55 January 2025

Mission Statement: We are a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by: worshipping God, loving one another, and welcoming others.

Celebrating and Sharing God’s Love for 173 Years

Pastor’s Pen: Here it is: the beginning of a brand new year and with it, the annual custom of making a new year’s resolution. But did you know only 44% of Americans make a New Year’s resolution before the night is over? The rest of us are either slackards or realists, because only 31% of people stick with the promises they made to themselves the prior year. A whopping 81% fail by February. Some never make it through the next week.

What are some of those resolutions? You may be familiar with them. One of the most popular is exercise. Many people join a gym those first few weeks of the new year but never show up.

Another resolution is to lose 10 pounds or so. I personally have been trying to lose that same 10 pounds most of my life! I lose it by the end of February or March and put it back on (sometimes with even more) by the end of December!

But I’d like to suggest a New Year’s resolution we can all share and work at throughout the year. Let us resolve to remember how much we are loved, and that that love is not earned but is freely given to us by God who created us out of love, in love, for love. Let us, then, resolve to act on the freedom that love gives us to be ourselves, to risk stepping out into new situations to become the best we can be, using God’s gifts and growing in God’s way.

This year, let’s step out in grace, both as individuals and as a church so that we might realize “the hope to which God called us and the inheritance of God’s kingdom.”

See you in church! Pastor Pat

Thank you so much for your generous Christmas gift. Pastor Pat

Epiphany: We will celebrate Epiphany in church Jan. 5. The actual date is Jan. 6, the 12th day of Christmas when the wisemen traditionally come to Bethlehem bearing gifts. So we will have a white elephant gift exchange, Monday Jan. 6 at 2:00 with snacks. Bring that Christmas gift you wondered what to do with, and we’ll exchange them in a round robin gift theft. Be sure to put it in a bag or, if you want to be fancy, wrap it up so no one knows what it is! And be prepared to have fun. As always, invite a friend!

Undecorating the Church: Yes. It’s time. Taking down the decorations isn’t as much fun as putting them up but it has to be done and many hands make light work.. Meet at the church Friday Jan. 10 at 10:00. Thanks for your help!

Baptism of the Lord will be celebrated with Holy Communion on Sunday Jan. 12.

Beat the Blues! January can be a dark month after the celebrations of the holiday. Spirits can take a tumble so we will have a time together concentrating on chasing away the winter blues. The well known team of Doug and Kathy Henderson will lead us in an evening of music, solos, and hymn singing Jan. 19 at 6:00 along with hymn stories. Their friend Jack Ficklin will join them on the saxophone. Come and invite a friend to this winter concert designed to lift all of our spirits!

The Presbyterian Women Book Circle will meet Jan. 8 at 2:00 to continue our study of If You Want To Walk On Water. Come join us!

Grant: Our congregation has received a $500 grant from the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina’s Matthew 25 fund to help with our work on church growth! The Matthew 25 fund is rooted in Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 25:31-46. This program invites churches to engage in three core pillars: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism, and eradicating systemic poverty. Our work in church growth and our outreach to students in need at Wagram Elementary School and our support for the entire staff there helps us to reach out to others in very practical, very real ways with the Good News of God’s grace and love for all His children.

Jan. 11 is the Presbytery Training for new officers.

Session will meet Jan. 12 immediately after worship to organize for the new year. We will also meet Jan. 26 following worship with Rev. Dr. Jerrod Lowry to dream together about who God is calling us to become as a congregation.

Rev. Dr. Jerrod Lowry, our General Presbyter and Stated Clerk for the Presbytery of Coastal Carolina will be celebrating worship with us on Jan. 26 as he comes to share with us as we dream deams together for the future of the Church and what it means to us to be growing in faith and discipleship. He will be meeting with the session immediately after worship to continue to dream with us about who God is calling us to be as a church and ways we can make those dreams a reality.

Commissioning and Special Offering: We will be commissioning Pastor Pat Ramsden and Betsy Brown on Sunday Jan. 26 for their mission trip to Puerto Rico with a work team from the Presbytery. They will be leaving Sat. Feb. 1 and be returning Feb. 8. They will be working on hurricane relief efforts in San Juan with our disaster relief partners in Puerto Rico. We are taking a special offering that Sunday to help them cover their costs for the trip which runs over $1,000 per person. You may contribute by writing a check to the church and putting mission trip on the memo line or using one of our offering envelopes and writing mission trip on it.

Thanks: Our thanks to Rebecca Cooley and John Lewis for their faithful service and wisdom as they served on session. Their terms ended in 2024 and we welcome Ben Ammons and Betsy Brown as active elders on session.

I am one of the few people in the northern hemisphere who doesn’t hate January. It’s a free month. January is named for Janus, the Roman god of gates and doors, of beginnings and transitions. It’s a month to lay back and think, “What’s next?” So what’s not to like? The holidays are behind and it’s months before they have to be thought of again. It’s probably raining a cold dreary rain so there’s every excuse not to leave the house - just curl up in an afghan with a good book to read. There’s no yard work to be done yet, tax documents have not arrived, there are no pressing chores. Just lay back and enjoy the next 31 days. - anonymousa

Sermons

It Happened At A Wedding Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden

I have been to and performed many weddings during my career and I have to tell you it’s not an unusual event for something to go wrong on a day when everyone wants everything to go right. I’ve had lost marriage certificates, gowns that didn’t quite fit, broken zippers, flowers that wilted overnight, groomsmen who lost the rings, you name it and I’ve seen it - including a bride and groom who decided at the last minute that they didn’t want to be married afterall. So it doesn’t surprise me that when Jesus was attending a wedding something went wrong. They ran out of wine.

Now, the first thing you should notice about this story is that in the gospel of John, Jesus begins his ministry at a celebration of love and joy. You see, Jesus loved a good party. He loved gathering his friends around a table to eat. He loved telling stories. He loved gathering with other people who also loved having a good time. He even got criticized for doing this time and time again by uptight religious types who thought he ought to be more staid and occupied with following the laws of the faith much more seriously. There were those who wanted him to be more like one of the prophets who lived in the desert eating locusts and crying out to the people that they were sinners in the hands of an angry God.

But that just wasn’t Jesus.

Let me give you just a few examples. You remember the story of Zaccheus? The tax collector who climbed a tree just in the hopes of seeing Jesus, this man who preached a gospel of love and forgiveness for just such as a one as he? What was Jesus’ response to this sinner? You’re forgiven. Now let’s go to your house and sit down over dinner and eat and drink and talk together.

When the crowds gathered together to listen to him preach, about 5,000 of them, what did Jesus do at the end of the day when they were all hungry and had no food? He told them to sit down on the green grass while he fed them. It was the very first church picnic on the grounds!

We too often forget that side of Jesus, this man who saw worship as a time to be reminded that no matter who we were or are now, God loves us and that’s something to celebrate. He was a man who lived out the words of the Psalm: “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! “

So it seems natural that when his friends ran out of wine at their wedding, Mary would go to him with the problem and give a tug on his shoulder and tell himwhat was wrong, knowing he could fix it.

How often do we go to God with that same tug on his shoulder saying, “Here’s the problem. Will you fix it?” And after Mary did that she did what we all should do. She left it in his hands, but she does one thing more. She tells the servants to do whatever he said.

Two things about this. Mary had confidence that Jesus would fix the problem. She didn’t walk away thinking that he wouldn’t do it even when it seemed impossible. But, and here’s the important thing I think, she knew the servants had to do their part too. They had to do whatever he said.

Mother Teresa once said: ““I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or do that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I'm supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I'm praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

Who knows what would have happened if the servants had not obeyed Jesus and filled the jugs with water? Our job is to be the water bearers. To do the work Jesus gives us. To do what he says, no matter how small the job may seem compared to the problem. No matter if we don’t understand how what we are doing can solve the problem at hand. We are to do what he says.

We are to listen to that still niggling voice inside of us, saying why don’t you call that friend you’ve been meaning to reach out to? You may be the miracle they’ve been wishing for that says someone still cares and that small act may be just what is needed to give them the hope and strength to continue on.

I have a friend who has another friend that she’s bringing to the concert tonight. Her friend has been depressed and hasn’t gone out since her husband died six months ago. She’s been sitting on her living room couch, just sitting. This will be her first outing.

Will the concert fix everything in her life and help her start a new chapter? I don’t know. But it may be the beginning of a miracle. All because one friend suggested it to another friend who extended the invitation to another friend. Who knew?

Sometimes miracles happen because of one simple act, because someone, because you, listened and did what Jesus said.

The other part of that, which we too often forget, is that after we fill the jugs with water, after we do our part, we need to let Jesus do the work.

He’s the miracle worker.

Not us.

We’re not the ones responsible for turning the water into wine. And I, quite frankly, find that to be a great relief. I don’t want the burden of fixing the world. I don’t want the burden of being responsible for fixing lives. I can do one small thing, but I can’t turn water into wine.

But Jesus can and does, and not just any wine, but the finest wine of all. And when this happens, the celebration of love continues as Jesus turns what could have been a catastrophe into a miracle of joy. This is the first of his signs to us and it reveals his glory.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but so the world would be saved through Him. John 3: 16-17

See You In Worship Sundays 11:00

San Pedro

Never forget how much God loves you!