St. John's Presbyterian
Church in Houston
Worship Invitation
for May 10, 2026
You Are Invited to Worship This Sunday
This Sunday at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, we will gather on Mother’s Day carrying all the complicated things this day can awaken in people. Gratitude. Joy. Absence. Memory. Longing. Relief. Love has many textures, and the Gospel is tender enough to hold them all.
In John 14, Jesus tells his disciples, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Those words land differently when you have lived long enough to know what loneliness feels like. Sometimes people can sit in crowded rooms and still feel unseen. Sometimes grief slowly teaches us to withdraw from each other without realizing we are doing it. The sermon this Sunday, “Love One Another,” asks what it means to become the kind of community where people are actually known, remembered, prayed for, and carried through difficult seasons together.
We will sing some of the great hymns of the faith including “How Firm a Foundation,” “We Are One in the Spirit,” and “All Are Welcome.” Alina Klimaszewska will lead us in worship on the organ, and our liturgy will center on the quiet promise that the Holy Spirit is already moving between people who are learning to love one another honestly.
At St. John’s, we believe church is not meant to feel like spiritual spectatorship. It is meant to become a living fellowship where people notice when you are hurting and rejoice when your life begins to heal. That vision shapes everything from our worship to our shepherding circles and congregational care ministries.
If you have been searching for a church home in Houston where faith can grow slowly, deeply, and truthfully among real people, I would love for you to join us this Sunday at 11 AM.
And if your Mother’s Day arrives with joy mixed together with grief, you will not be alone here. Churches sometimes forget this, but resurrection people know better. Love leaves echoes behind it. Sometimes holy ground feels suspiciously like a sanctuary filled with people singing through tears.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Jon Burnham
St. John's Presbyterian Church, Houston
5020 West Bellfort Avenue Houston, TX 77035
(713) 723-6262 / stjohnspresby.org
P.S. The service will be live-streamed
on our church website
and on our St. John's Facebook page.
St. John's Presbyterian Worship Bulletin
May 10, 2026 Sixth Sunday of Easter
and Mother’s Day
Gathering
Prelude
Alina Klimaszewska, organ
*Call To Worship
The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham
We come this morning
carrying the quiet fear
that we are more alone than we have let on.
That grief has pulled us back
from each other
without our fully noticing.
Come to the God who promised:
I will not leave you orphaned.
The God who sends a presence
more interior than any physical company.
Come to the God
who was in Athens before Paul arrived.
Who was sustaining strangers
before they knew his name.
The Spirit is already in this room,
moving between us.
Let us worship the God who is present
in the space between people who love.
Opening Prayer
*Hymn 463 How Firm a Foundation, 1, 2, 3 and 5
1 How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
is laid for your faith in God's excellent Word!
What more can be said than to you God hath said,
to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
2 "Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
3 "When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow;
for I will be near thee, thy troubles to bless,
and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
5 "The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake."
Prayer of Confession, Liturgist Mary Hughes
God of community and Spirit, we confess that we have sometimes preferred our isolation to the risk of being known — that we have kept our distance from others and called it independence when it was really fear. We have worshipped you in private while avoiding the body where your Spirit most fully moves. Forgive our withdrawal, and draw us back into the community where love for one another is possible. Amen. (Silent Confession)
Assurance of Pardon
*Glory Be to the Father, Hymn 581
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
*Passing the Peace
The Word
Prayer for Illumination
First Scripture Reading, Acts 17:22–31
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Anthem
Sermon Scripture, John 14:15–21
Sermon, Love One Another
The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham
*Hymn 300 We Are One in the Spirit
1 We are one in the Spirit;
we are one in the Lord;
we are one in the Spirit;
we are one in the Lord,
and we pray that all unity
may one day be restored:
Refrain: And they’ll know we are Christians
by our love, by our love;
yes, they’ll know we are Christians
by our love.
2 We will walk with each other;
we will walk hand in hand;
we will walk with each other;
we will walk hand in hand,
and together we’ll spread the news
that God is in our land: (Refrain)
3 We will work with each other;
we will work side by side;
we will work with each other;
we will work side by side,
and we’ll guard human dignity
and save human pride: (Refrain)
4 All praise to the Father,
from whom all things come,
and all praise to Christ Jesus, God’s only Son,
and all praise to the Spirit, who makes us one: (Refrain)
The Apostles’ Creed
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand
of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come
to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Prayers of the People
Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Welcome and Announcements
Offering
*Doxology, Hymn 609
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.
Praise God, all creatures high and low.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Praise God, in Jesus fully known:
Creator, Word, and Spirit one.
Alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!
*Prayer after the Offering
Sending
*Hymn 301 All Are Welcome, 1, 3 and 5
1 Let us build a house where love can dwell
and all can safely live,
a place where saints and children tell
how hearts learn to forgive.
Built of hopes and dreams and visions,
rock of faith and vault of grace;
here the love of Christ shall end divisions:
Refrain: all are welcome; all are welcome;
all are welcome in this place.
3 Let us build a house where love is found
in water, wine, and wheat;
a banquet hall on holy ground
where peace and justice meet.
Here the love of God, through Jesus,
is revealed in time and space;
as we share in Christ
the feast that frees us: (Refrain)
5 Let us build a house where all are named,
their songs and visions heard
and loved and treasured, taught and claimed
as words within the Word.
Built of tears and cries and laughter,
prayers of faith and songs of grace;
let this house proclaim
from floor to rafter: (Refrain)
*Benediction and Postlude
St. John's Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas
Announcements
Myrtis McPhail Scholarship,
Applications Due This Week!
Attention all high school seniors, undergraduate college, and/or technical/trade school students! St. John’s is once again ready to accept applications to the Myrtis McPhail Scholarship Fund. These funds are available to any church member or relative of a church member who will be enrolled full time in undergraduate college or a technical/trade school in the Fall of 2026. You must reapply for the scholarship each year, and you may apply for a maximum of 5 years. Applications are available by email request to Kathy Barnhill (jabarnhill@comcast.net) or Mindi Stanley (mstanley@bcm.edu) or click on this link: Applications will be accepted until May 15, 2026 and we hope to distribute funds to recipients in June.
The Scholarship Fund also is open for donations! If anyone would like to donate, please indicate the McPhail Scholarship Fund on a check or via Zelle. Thanks for Your Support
Session Meeting this Tuesday,
May 12, 7 PM, Session Room
The Session meets this Tuesday, May 12, from 7-9 PM.
Pray for us as we continue to seek God’s wisdom for the life
and future of St. John’s. We will be discussing ministry, finances, congregational care, mission priorities, and the practical work
of shepherding a church in this season of its life together. Presbyterian meetings involve prayer, discernment, conversation, and occasionally the miraculous multiplication of patience.
We are grateful for your prayers and support as we continue
this work together.
Healing Hearts, Wednesday, May 13, 7 pm.
Come to this meeting and find peace and comfort for your grief or pain.
St. John’s Friends United,
Thursday, May 14, 11 am, Room 203.
Join us as Lisa Sparaco, LCSW, presents "Coping with Daily Living." Please bring a light sack lunch; dessert and drinks will be provided by the church.
Support One Hope Schools Spirit Day, May 14.
Tapster’s Grill, 4520 Beechnut. Dine-In or carry-out and mention One Hope Schools. 20% of proceeds go to One Hope Schools.
Church Work Days on May 9 and May 30.
The Men's Group has scheduled two work days this month. The first work day was on May 9, focusing on moving the metal to the street. The second work day is scheduled for May 30 to complete a number of projects around the church. These projects include the inspection and changing of air handler filters, replacement of the thermostat in Building 1, installation of the handrail in the Sanctuary, replacement of the A/C outlet in the choir room in the sanctuary, and continued conversion of fluorescent to LED lights in Building 1. To prioritize these tasks, the Men's Group will hold a meeting on May 27. Please also note that the Men's Group will not meet on May 13.
Men of the Church.
The next meeting of the Men of the Church will be May 27 at 6:30 PM in the Session Room.
Supporting BIM in a Critical Season.
Many of BIM’s programs are facing funding challenges right now, which makes this moment especially important. We invite you to consider a cash donation to support their work in advance of the gala or shortly after. Checks can be made payable to Braes Interfaith Ministries, with “BIM Gala Fundraiser” noted in the memo line. This is one of those quiet ways the church makes a real difference. No spotlight. Just steady care for people who need it. Thank you for being part of that work.
Happy Birthday
Tad Mulder (May 2)
Josh Barnhill (May 3)
Michelle Byron Williams (May 6)
Ben Carrettin (May 9)
Wright Williams (May 10)
Sabrina Sen-Roy (May 13)
Mindi Stanley (May 19)
Ryan Abyiah (May 19)
Pauline Hall (May 23)
Sally Shaw (May 23)
Steffan Kwende (May 25)
Claire MacAdam (May 25)
Ender Jump (May 29)
Kay Swint (May 31)
Happy Anniversary
Bill and Mindi Stanley (May 14)
Prayer Concerns
Rebecca Crawford, Glen Risley, David Wintersgill, hip surgery
Jessica Ivete Robles, a friend of Alice Rubio, awaitskidney transplant
And Jessica’s sixteen-year-old son, who is recovering from surgery
Nyjel Bennett-LaGrone and his family, health concerns
Family of Sue Benn
Tom Edmondson, health
Holly Darr, health
Karen Alsbrook, health
Kelsey Wiltz, health
Madalyn Rodgers, Kathleen Captain's sister
Joe Sanford,
Scott Moore
Alice Rubio
St. Johns College Students
Raina Bailey and the families in our PCHAS homes
One Hope Preschool families and staff
Calendar
Sunday, May 10, Sixth Sunday of Easter
and Mother’s Day
9:30 am Sunday School for Adults, Systematic Theology, Session Room
11:00 am Worship Service, live in sanctuary and on Facebook
12:00 pm CE Committee Meeting
1:30 pm Book Study on Zoom
4:30 pm Pack 8 Meeting, Exercise Room
Tuesday, May 12
5:00 pm Exercise Group, Building 2
7:00 pm Session Meeting
Wednesday, May 13
7:00 pm Healing Hearts, Room 202
Thursday, May 14
11:00 am Friends United Lunch, Room 203
5:00 pm Exercise Class in Building 2
Friday, May 15 – Scholarship Applications Due
Saturday, May 16
8:30 am Girl Scout Event
Sunday, May 17, Seventh Sunday of Easter
9:30 am Sunday School for Adults, Systematic Theology, Session Room
11:00 am Worship Service, live in sanctuary and on Facebook
1:30 pm Book Study, Zoom
3:30 pm Girl Scout Meeting, Room 203 and Session Room
4:30 pm Pack 8 Meeting, Exercise Room
Coming Events
Wed, May 27, 11 am Healing Hearts
Wed, May 27, 6:30 pm Men’s Group
Sun, May 31, Picnic Brunch:
Senior Sunday and Teacher Appreciation
Sat, July 18, 2026 – Quarterly Bible Study for All Ages
2026 Session Members and Roles
Class of 2026
Ann Hardy: Stewardship and Finance
Michael Bisase: Buildings and Grounds
Jan Herbert: Christian Education
Class of 2027
Lynne Parsons Austin: Worship
Omar Ayah: Faith in Action
Marie Kutz: Personnel and Administration
Class of 2028
Mary Gaber: Christian Education
Tina Jump: Fellowship and Caring
Ann Hardy: Finance and Stewardship
Peter Sparaco: Faith in Action
Other Session Leaders and Support Staff
Jon Burnham: Moderator of Session
Lynne Parsons Austin: Clerk to Session
Tad Mulder: Church Treasurer
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