Week 1- Date: 2/22/26

Sermon Title: When the Map Isn’t Working

Text: Psalm 42 (NLT)

Focus: This psalm teaches us that confusion is not a failure of faith, but rather it is the beginning of deeper trust. Hope is not certainty. Hope is that God remains present even when we are confused. You can be disoriented and still be held by God.

Preacher: Pastor Deb Stowers

Special Elements: Pastor Sara on vacation

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

Week 2- Date: 3/1/26

Sermon Title: Naming What Hurts

Text: Psalm 22:1-21 (NLT)

Focus: Complaint is not faithlessness; it is the sound of pain refusing to be silent. This psalm models prayer that is specific, embodied, and raw. God invites our honesty. God does not withdraw when our prayers become messy. You can tell God exactly how this feels and God still stays.

Preacher: Pastor Sara Nelson

Special Elements: Holy Communion

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

Week 3- Date: 3/8/26

Sermon Title: Refusing Polished Prayer

Text: Psalm 32 (NLT)

Focus: This week reframes confession by not just confessing sin, but confessing our true struggles with fear, anger, despair, numbness. Lament becomes a form of relational honesty. Hope is that God desires truth more than polish. Nothing you name here will make God love you any more or any less.

Preacher: Pastor Sara Nelson

Special Elements:

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

 

Week 4- Date: 3/15/26

Sermon Title: When Loss Is Wrong

Text: Psalm 94 (NLT)

Focus: This psalm teaches us that some losses should not be accepted quietly. Protest is not faithlessness; faithful protest refuses to normalize what God opposes. Hope is that God hears cries for justice. God is not threatened by our anger and is not indifferent to suffering.

Preacher: Pastor Sara Nelson

Special Elements:

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

 

Week 5- Date: 3/22/26

Sermon Title: We Carry This Together

Text: Psalm 80 (NLT)

Focus: Some losses are too heavy for individual prayer. God meets us as a people, not just as individuals. Hope is found in shared prayer and shared presence. God gathers what grief has scattered. When we cannot carry hope alone, we carry it together.

Preacher: Rev. Krista Ducker

Special Elements:

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

 

Palm/Passion Sunday- Date: 3/29/26

Sermon Title: TBD

Text: Matthew 21:1-11 (NLT) & Psalm 31:9-16 (NLT)

Focus: Jesus enters Jerusalem with joyful exclamations of “Hosanna”. In less than a week those jubilant cheers will shift to angry shouts of “Crucify Him”. In the garden, Jesus experiences the anguish of grief reflected the words of the psalmist. How might we hold space for both joy and loss at the same time?

Preacher: Pastor Sara Nelson

Special Elements: Children’s Palm Processional at 9:45am and 11:01 services; Musically, I would like for this Sunday services to begin with great joy and then slowly shift to a melancholy tone.

Download the 8:30 & 9:45 a.m. Bulletin/G3 Guide Watch: Traditional Unity Modern 

Summary: Many of us carry losses we rarely name: grief that lingers, questions without answers, prayers that feel unanswered. During Lent, this series invites us to listen to the psalms of lament, voices that speak honestly from the depths of human suffering. Rather than rushing toward resolution, these ancient prayers teach us how to tell the truth before God, to wait without certainty, and to grieve without isolation. This Lenten journey is about forming a deeper capacity for faithful living in the midst of loss. As we learn to lament, we discover that sorrow, protest, and waiting do not push us away from God, but draw us closer. Our hope is not found in easy answers, but in the steadfast presence of God who meets us in our vulnerability and carries us through every season of life