Christmas is Coming!

One week from today is Christmas Eve. We are putting the finishing touches on our plans for the five Christmas Eve services. We begin with Curtis and Angie leading our children's/family service at 3:00 p.m. At 5:00 we are trying something slightly different this year. We are inviting our youth and their families to worship in Memorial Hall with a live worship service (youth praise band) and the sermon on video. Hopefully this will help take a little of the overflow from the sanctuary. The 7:00; 9:00 and 11:00 services will follow the same format. I'll be preaching at each service. In addition we will sing Christmas carols, have communion and light a candle. (Everyone likes to light a candle on Christmas Eve.)

At our services we will give everyone an opportunity to make a Christmas offering. God has blessed us this year and we want to use this offering to make it possible to bless others. All of our Christmas Eve offering will go to our "discretionary fund." This is used to help people in need. We track every request and our response. The need grows greater each year. I anticipate an increasing number of requests in the coming year. It is heartbreaking when we face the reality that we cannot do everything! We make a special effort to guarantee that any of our members who have specific needs are cared for. In addition we want to do all we can to provide food and other essentials to those outside our faith community. It is so important to focus on the needs of others. So I encourage everyone to plan to give generously (extravagant generosity!) at our Christmas Eve service. You will be sharing in ministry to others in a significant way.

There is a little publicized ministry that a number of our people do on Christmas Day. A group of people get together and put together plates of food that are then delivered to people who are working on Christmas. These meals are received with great appreciation.

This is a tremendous season of the year! Jesus Christ is born! Join us this weekend, be with us Christmas Eve -- keep being present into the new year! May God bless you.