Category Archives: Worship

Easter, News, Worship

Palm Sunday Pancakes… at home!

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It’s a Cedar Hills tradition – pancakes on Palm Sunday. This Palm Sunday, we invite you to make pancakes with your family for breakfast and enjoy them before the Live stream… or during! 🙂 Take a few pics of your pancake breakfast and send them to us. You might find yourself on the big screens Sunday morning, April 5 if you submit your pictures before 10am.

    Our Staff Pancake Artist

    And just for fun, our worship director is quite the pancake artist when cookin’ up flap jacks for her kids. Enjoy this album of our favorites:

    Lent, Music, News, Worship

    3-25-20 Lenten Worship Service

    Tonight’s Lenten service is online and ready to go. You can listen/watch in a couple of different formats:

    Two Spiritual Disciple resources we want to share with you related to tonight’s Lenten message:
    And a special note from Kyle French, (tonight’s presenter): “Does all of the craziness of this time feel overwhelming to you? Have you ever been wanting to find a way to connect more with God? Or maybe you’ve got more time on your hands these days and you want to do something more productive with it? Well I’m proposing an option for all those feelings! In this time of disruption and rhythms being broken, I’d love to invest with anyone who is interested in growing in the practices of Jesus and developing our spiritual disciplines (whatever stage you are in your faith)! If you’re interested, feel free to join the Facebook group I’ve setup, and enjoy it however you feel led to participate. It’ll be a place for daily discussion, sharing inspiring content and a platform for community discussion.”

    Wednesday 3-25-20 “Abiding in Jesus” Lent Service from Cedar Hills Community Church on Vimeo.

    Marriage and Family, Missional Communities, News, Open Hands Food Pantry, Prayer, Sabbath, Saturate, Uncategorized, Volunteers Needed, Worship, Youth

    How We Continue to Be the Church in Light of COVID-19

    In light of COVID-19, we are convinced and convicted more than ever the need to be the church beyond the walls of our physical church building.  While our building may be a bit quieter as we wait out the social-distancing rules, our roles as the hands and feet of Jesus increases that much more.

    A couple of unique and powerful opportunities for us to continue as a church:

    Open Hands Food Pantry

    We anticipate an increasing need for food in the next few weeks.  It is our desire to keep the pantry open and switching over to a ‘drive-by’ solution where pantry visitors stay in their cars and we go out to meet them and bring the groceries to them.  This means we need the help of more able bodies, able to carry groceries (or cart them) to and from the pantry to the front doors.  If you are off work due to the virus or have extra time on your hands, this is a perfect opportunity!  If you are able to help, please email pantry leader Darlene DeVries.

    Pantry Hours: Mondays 5-6pm, Wednesdays 10am-12pm, Fridays 10am-12pm

    WORSHIP – ONLINE

    We’ll be both uploading pre-recorded content and streaming our worship services online, and not physically meeting onsite for worship beginning immediately.  Sundays will be live at 11am on Facebook.  Our Wednesday Lenten messages will be pre-recorded and released on Wednesdays with announcements and encouragement! As part of our regular worship, we encourage you to give online via the app or website, or to take time to mail a check.   Please continue to support the ministry of our church!

    If you are unable to catch the live feeds, we post all our sermons online. They can be accessed in iTunes, Buzzsprout, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartradio, and on the website. (There is also a button in the Cedar Hills App – get the app!)

    Watch Parties

    We encourage you to keep worshipping with us on a regular schedule, and taking “Watch Party” pictures of your family or group as you join together to listen/watch online, submitting them in the ‘comments’ of the video feeds.

    Facebook Groups

    There are couple of Facebook groups we want to draw your attention to that you might like to join. We believe within these groups we can support each other, hear of needs, and respond from what we have! Toilet paper, childcare, meals delivered, etc.  We are especially excited about how we can respond to needs as they arise.

    Children Singing Video

    The children ages 3 to 5th grade have been working for weeks on a song they planned to sing Palm Sunday.  We would like to collect videos of your child singing along with the song to create a video montage.  The recording and lyrics are here.  When completed, send your video recording to Leah Carolan by March 29 (email, dropbox, ishare… whichever way you prefer!)

    Journey Youth

    Pastor Steve has created a YouTube channel for the Journey Youth.  He’ll also be touching base with the youth via texts and email.

    Zoom Meetings, Marco Polo and Other Video Apps

    If your small group decides to forgo physical meetings, consider setting a time once a week where you will all login together for a Zoom meeting or other video meeting app.  Or begin a Marco Polo group and stay in touch via video messages with encouragement, prayer support and community.

    Stay Connected

    Please call your friends. Check on your neighbors.  Connect with those who live alone and let them know they are not alone.  Respond to needs you hear as best you can! (Or share them with us in the Facebook groups.).  We need each other.

    Pray

    Continue to pray.  Join our prayer chain to lift up others in prayer.  Pray that God would help our lights to shine brightly as we minister to those around us.

    Follow us on Social Media

    Facebook – @cedarhillscommunitychurch
    Instagram – @cedarhillscr
    Twitter – @cedarhillscr

     

    Easter, Music, News, Worship

    Join a Special Easter Choir

    SPECIAL EASTER CHOIR

    If you enjoy singing, we invite you to be a part of a special Easter choir to sing at the first two Easter services Sunday, April 12.  The choir is open to anyone 8th grade and up who can read music.

    Rehearsal Schedule (Must be able to attend TWO rehearsals):
    Wednesday, March 18, 7:05pm
    Wednesday, March 25, 7:05pm
    Wednesday, March 31, 7:05pm
    Wednesday, April 1, 7:05pm
    Wednesday, April 8, 6:40pm – full run through on Stage

    Rehearsals are in room 134/135.

    The Easter choir sings along with the opening hymns in the services and prepares a few special music numbers.  On Easter, services are at 8:30am, 9:45am, and 11am. The choir sings at 8:30am and 9:45am.

    If interested, send your name and voice part to Stuart Geiger via email along with any questions you may have!

    Capital Campaign, Grow the Good, News, Worship

    Grow the Good – February Update

    *Special update below from Campaign Leader: John Davidson!

    Hello Everyone,

    I just wanted to share a quick update for Grow the Good. To date, you have funded $211,033 for Grow the Good!  God is great and He is providing!

    The Atmosphere Team is off to a great start!  In the Youth Room, the walls have been repaired and painted and the floor refinish is in progress, and it will also get the new LED light panels.  Thanks to the Atmosphere Team and the Men’s Group for all the hard work!  The room is going to look fantastic while providing a space that is resilient to the demands of one of our most active groups.  Next will be the Food Pantry room, which will also receive a fresh coat of paint, polished concrete floor, and new LED light panels.

    The Tech team is very excited that we are able to fund and execute the audio upgrades for the Worship Center so early in the campaign.  I can’t wait to hear the difference it makes!  For the first few weeks you won’t see any changes in the Worship Center while our contractor finishes up their design work.  But soon, volunteers from the congregation will build the new sound booth and run some of the cabling to help keep labor costs to a minimum, then the contractor will come in to install, calibrate, and test the new equipment and provide training for the Tech Team.  And before you know it, the new sound system will be ready.

    The next project in line will be the paint and carpet for the remainder of the building.  We would really like to get that finished prior to Fall Kick-off in August.  However, the funding projections we’ve calculated based on pledge cards received shows that we may not have sufficient funding until well into the Fall season.  To help keep up the momentum this year, Candi and I will be accelerating our own campaign commitment and submitting contributions earlier in the year than was noted on our pledge card.  If others would like to join us in that effort, please let the Grow the Good team know by submitting an updated pledge card or sending a note to the church office.  How cool would it be to start the Fall season off with brand new carpet?

    That’s everything for now, we will update you again on March 22 during first and second services.

    Thank you and see you soon,

    John Davidson
    Grow the Good
    Campaign Team Member

    Cedar Chips, Family and Children Ministry, News, Worship, Youth

    Children & Family Ministry Update – Feb. 2020

    Children & Family Ministry
    Cedar Chips – February 2020

    Have you ever been amazed by the wonder of a child? How cheerful their faith seems to be? Or maybe it is how quickly they can absorb what is being taught or modeled for them? All of which are very true, our children are incredibly insightful and relentlessly curious. While the answers are not always hitting the mark, or maybe not even on topic for that matter, but the effort alone is palpable. The beauty of it is, that even if they’re wrong, kids will never stop trying to find the “right answer” or the “right way.”

    Unfortunately, there are record numbers of teenagers and young adults that are leaving the faith in the 21st century, why? While there are a myriad of reasons, the most pressing and practical is this: our churches have continually sectioned-off
    (intentionally and unintentionally) the various generations from worshipping together. To be clear, it is a very good thing that as a church we are tending specifically to the hearts of our youngest members. But we can’t lose sight, does our “ends justify our means?” What I mean by that is threefold: 1) While it’s common sense, children and youth don’t stay that way for long,
    and thus must transition into something at some point; 2) How will our children learn to participate in a corporate worship service if they never get to experience it for themselves; 3) Children tend to learn best from having something modeled for them.

    So then, what can we do to help our children? How about a resolution for the New Year? Keep it simple and start small. Designate one Sunday a month for your whole family to worship together for the entire service. That’s step one. Step two—talk about it! Ask your children not only about what they learned, but what they saw and how they felt about it. Even if they spent their time in “la-la-land.” If they know you’ll consistently be asking, they’ll start paying attention. There is no time like the present to begin setting the foundation for a lifetime of faith.

    Kyle French
    Director of Children & Family Ministry

    Advent, Capital Campaign, Fundraiser, Holiday, News, Worship

    Christmas Tie Challenge!

    Wear a Christmas Tie on Sunday, Dec. 22!

    An anonymous donor is challenging everyone to wear a Christmas Tie on Sunday, December 22nd.  Ten dollars will be donated to the Capital Campaign for every tie worn that day, man, woman or child! Wear a tie with or without your ugly sweater and support your church.  This could even become an annual event if there is enough interest this year.  Look for a special tally sheet in the Gathering Space to mark that you’ve worn a tie!

    Sunday, Dec. 22 is “Joy” Sunday at Cedar Hills.  In addition to coming dressed in our favorite holiday attire and ugly sweaters, the children will be singing at the 11am service, choir will be singing at the 8:30am service, and members of the Cedar Rapids Orchestra will be provided music during the continental breakfast.

    And also a reminder that another donor is matching one-time gifts to the campaign, up to $5000, through Dec. 31.  Learn more about our Grow the Good Capital Campaign.

    Breakfast will be served throughout the morning and there are no Sunday Classes that Sunday.  The staff will be competing for the “Ugliest Sweater” award! Donations given to vote for your favorite staff sweater will go towards the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign.

    It just keeps getting better! 🙂

    Advent, Bright Spot, Family and Children Ministry, Holiday, News, Worship

    The Giving Manger

    For the season of Advent, we are including the “Giving Manger” – a daily calendar of things we can do to shine the light of Christ in our community.  Each Sunday in both services, the children will be invited forward to help light the Advent candles.  Next they’ll walk over to the manger.  If they were able to complete one of the Giving Manger tasks, they will get to add some straw to the manger to help prepare it for Jesus’ birth.  We’ll get to watch the manger fill up during the season of Advent.

    If you weren’t here Sunday (or lost yours! 🙂 ) here is the Giving Manger calendar.  We’ll have some extra copies at the Welcome Center as well:

    Annual Report, Cedar Chips, Music, News, Worship

    Worship & Media Annual Report

    When I think about the last year, I think about the spiritual journey we’ve been on in worship. Do any
    of these topics ring a bell? King. Just Love. First Love. Transformation Vocabulary. Just Love Transforms. Margin. Life is. Grow the Good.

    This year, we learned vocab to help us in our quest to transform the Corridor, intentionally becoming
    disciples who make disciples in the everyday stuff of life, in those places we already exist!

    And then we shifted our focus to the baby in the manger… a King, but not in the sense of glitz and
    glamor and pomp and circumstance, but in hay and animal smells in a tiny village.

    We learned what Biblical love is, the role of love in our spiritual growth and how to extend love to our
    neighbors. We were challenged to fall in love again with our Lord, returning to that ’first love’, and then
    letting the power of love transform us!

    We learned white space is good, that we are prone to fill our lives with so much stuff and that we need
    to dial back and get back to God as first place in our time and priorities. We learned of the abundant
    life promised to us in John 10:10. What is life? Life is… Jesus! And now… Grow the Good. There is so
    much happening at Cedar Hills. We’re asking:

    “How can our building and our ministries continue to be a blessing to our neighborhood and our cities
    for another 60 years?”

    And then the songs! O the songs! Together we learned “Let Justice Roll”, “Boldly I Approach Your
    Throne”, “Build My Life”, “New Life”, and “Here For You”; and our kids wowed us again and again
    with “Wherever You Lead Me”.

    2019 has been quite the journey for us! The joys, the sadness, the victories, the defeats… and yet we
    can declare with confidence, “GOD IS GOOD!”

    Leah
    Director of Worship & Media

    Bright Spot, GLS, News, Uncategorized, Worship

    Aug 7 Worship Service

    Global Leadership Summit Worship Service

    Join us for a pre-Summit worship gathering Wednesday, August 7 at 7pm.  The worship service is part of the Global Leadership Summit kick-off, and is free and open to the public. You do not need to be registered for the Summit to attend.

    The worship will be streaming live out of Willow Creek church in Chicago, IL.  Cedar Hills is blessed and excited to be a host site for this year’s Global Leadership Summit – August 8-9.

    If you’d like to attend the Summit at Cedar Hills, you can register online.  Cedar Hills attendees are encouraged to contact the office for a special promo code.