Worship Services

Our final service at Velda Rose UMC is Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025, at 7:00 pm.  Although this is the final service of Velda Rose UMC, we know the story is not over. Death is not the end because we are a resurrection people.

The story continues at Red Mountain UMC with Good Friday service April 18, 2025, at 6:30 pm, and on April 20, 2025, Easter Sunrise Service at 6:30 am, and Easter Service at 9 am.
 
Red Mountain UMC
2936 North Power Road, Mesa, AZ
Senior Pastor: Rev. Sandy Johnson
 

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March 9 through April 13

Gifts of the Dark Wood: A Lenten Journey Toward Healing and New Life
This year, as we walk through Lent together, we are also walking through a different kind of transition. Our beloved congregation is preparing to close, and while there is much to celebrate in our decades of faithful ministry, there is also grief. But grief is not just about this transition—it is a reality we all face in many areas of life. As an older congregation, we have all experienced losses: of loved ones, of health, of relationships, of abilities, of dreams that never came to pass. Pretending loss is not there does not make it go away. Acknowledging it, grieving it, and entrusting it to God is the beginning of healing, so that loss does not continue to dominate life going forward.

Our Lenten worship series, Gifts of the Dark Wood, will help guide us through this sacred work:
 
3/9 The Gift of Uncertainty: Can we embrace the unknown as a place where God speaks?
3/16 The Gift of Emptiness: What if, instead of fearing emptiness, we saw it as space where God can fill us?
3/23 The Gift of Being Thunderstruck: How might life's upheavals offer us moments of clarity?
3/30 The Gift of Getting Lost: When we don’t know where to go, how can we learn to listen for God’s guidance?
4/6 The Gift of Temptation: What does it mean to be tempted away from our true path, and how do we find our way back?
4/13 The Gift of Misfits: As Jesus entered Jerusalem surrounded by an unlikely crowd, what does it mean to embrace the unexpected community God provides?
4/17 The Gift of Disappearing (Maundy Thursday): How does letting go allow us to rediscover our true selves in God?
 
Wednesdays at 4 pm, we will have a Lenten video study using Eric Elnes’ Gifts of the Dark Wood as companion material, beginning on March 12.
By walking through this Lenten journey together, we are not wallowing in grief; we are giving it its proper place, trusting that the God who walks with us through the wilderness also leads us into new life. If we allow ourselves to feel the loss, we will also be more open to the resurrection ahead.
 

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​Join us for Sunday morning worship!
This playlist features our Sunday morning services. 

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