December 2011 Archives
We're Almost There!
Dear Church Family,
Well, we’re on the final countdown, in the homestretch, it’s the eleventh hour…however you want to say it. Christmas is just two days away and the anticipation is mounting. If you have young kids or grandkids, you’re excited for their excitement. If your family is older, you’re looking forward to your gift-exchange, but you’re probably more focused on just the joy that comes from hanging out together. My hope is that whatever you have planned, you’ll all have a wonderful weekend of celebrating Christmas.
But obviously, for us, the greatest thing about Christmas is the story of Jesus’ birth. It’s the story of the ultimate gift from the Ultimate Giver. All of our giving begins with the gift of Jesus…we love because He first loved us!
It’s been such an encouragement to see all the ways we have been giving this Christmas season through NCPC and North Coast Christian Ministries. We sent shoeboxes with gifts for children overseas, we provided gifts for needy kids in San Diego’s Logan Heights district through the ministry of Victory Outreach Church, we had over 100 kids on campus this week to hear the story of Jesus at our annual Jingle Jam, we’ve given away (literally) tons of food, and next week approximately 50 of us will be headed down to Ensenada to celebrate Christmas with the orphans of Kid’s Kingdom. And I know I’m leaving out a lot of other ways we have been reaching out and serving others. As I said, it’s been great to see! Thanks to all of you who have sacrificed and given to those who are in need!
We’re also still looking forward to our Christmas Eve Candlelight services tomorrow at 4:30 and 6:30. Our children’s choir will be performing at the 4:30 service, and our adult choir will be singing at both services. I’m going to be speaking about the journey that so many took during the first Christmas, and then focusing on our journey toward Christ today. Be sure to invite your neighbors and friends to join us!
And just a reminder that on Sunday morning we’re going to have a brief family service at 9:30. We’re encouraging everyone to bring a nativity scene to the service and we’ll have some special readings and videos. At the end of the service, we’ll sing happy birthday to Jesus, have a cake and be on our way home by 10:30. Should be a great time, especially for the kids!
Looking forward to a great weekend! Hope you’re a part of it!
Doug
Are You Ready?
Dear Church Family,
Eight more days, right? Hopefully by now you’re almost through with your Christmas shopping because it’s starting to get ugly. Traffic jams, crowded parking lots, long lines, and worn out clerks. A sure recipe for the Scrooge inside all of us to come out. That’s why tomorrow is so important.
During the best of times, worshipping together is a weekly reminder of Who is most important in our lives. It’s like that moment at the beach when the waves are washing up on the shore, churning up the sand until the water reaches its highest point and there’s a pause, right before it starts to recede to the sea and churn up the sand once again. At that brief moment, everything is clear. Worship pulls us out of the rat race, reminds us what God has done for us, and resets our focus on living for Him.
And we need that during Christmas more than any other time, right? So I hope you’ll join us tomorrow. We’re going to conclude our “Merry UnChristmas” series with the account of the Unimaginable Gift of Jesus. We’ll also conclude our journey through The Best Christmas Pageant Ever as the rowdy Herdman kids take the stage and help us to understand the deeper meaning of the Christmas story. You won’t want to miss it!
Just a few more things. We’re also getting excited about our Christmas Eve services next Saturday at 4:30 and 6:30, and then our Christmas service on Sunday the 25th. The theme of the Sunday service will be the nativity and we’re encouraging everyone who comes to bring their favorite nativity figures. I’m actually hoping that someone brings in one of those huge lawn nativities! We’re going to meet all together as one big family, sing some carols, watch some special videos, celebrate Jesus’ birthday with a cake, and all be on our way back home by 10:30.
And then, finally, I want to thank all of you for praying and responding to our giving goal for December. We asked you to pray for an additional $24,000 in giving this month above our weekly average, and after two weeks, we’re a little over halfway there already! Keep praying that God will supply beyond what we even ask or think.
Hope to see you tomorrow,
Doug
The First Time
Dear Church Family,
Can you remember the first time you heard the Christmas story? If you’re like me, you probably can’t. I grew up in a church-going family, and it seems like I have always known it. What a blessing, right? Well…yes.
Except when it becomes ho-hum.
If that’s where you are…if the story has lost its power to amaze and astonish you, then you somehow need to reboot your heart and mind. If we had one of those machines like in the movie Men in Black, it would be easy. We could just zap ourselves, erase our memories and start over. But short of that, perhaps the closest we can come is to read about people who hear it for the first time.
And that’s one of the things that makes the story of the Herdman kids so fascinating.
We saw last Sunday that these six kids were the most “unlikely” to have the roles of Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, and the Angel of the Lord, but that’s exactly what happened in the story of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This Sunday we’re going to read about the rehearsals for the pageant when the Herdmans heard the Christmas story for the very first time. Here’s a sneak preview: it wasn’t ho-hum!
And then we’ll go back to the first Christmas story and try to figure out what Mary and Joseph were thinking as the story unfolded. In a word, it was “unbelievable.”
But they believed anyway. And because of their faith, they became the human vehicles for the greatest miracle ever: the birth of the Son of God.
There’s so much we can learn from Joseph and Mary. And so much we can learn from the Herdmans as well! I hope you can join us as we continue our journey toward Christmas.
Blessings,
Doug
Christmas Travel
Dear Church Family,
How many of you are traveling later this month? Chances are you are either headed to a family gathering, or the family gathering is coming to your place. Those sorts of trips are always a part of the Christmas season. We look forward (usually!) to reuniting with family, exchanging gifts, and eating wonderful food around big tables. Wherever the party ends up, the home will be festive and full of laughter.
There’s something fitting about taking trips during the Christmas season, because, after all, the first Christmas began with a trip! But that’s where the similarities end. Instead of traveling on a plane or driving in a comfortable car for a few hours, the first Christmas trip took weeks and involved a lot of walking. Instead of heading to see family, Joseph and Mary left their families behind. Instead of arriving at a warm and cozy home, they ended up in a cold and windy barn.
And there the God of the universe took on flesh and blood and became one of us. The bassinet for the King of Kings was a splintery feed trough. The baby Jesus was greeted not by royal dignitaries, but by shepherds. The whole scene was so incredible that it sent the angels into a frenzy of spontaneous worship: “Glory to God in the highest!”
It’s a story that should never grow old, but unfortunately it does. We’ve heard it so often that it’s lost the element of surprise. And that’s why I’m looking forward to the next three weeks! Two years ago I shared a Christmas series entitled, “Merry UnChristmas,” and at the urging of several people, I’m going to repeat it this year. The focus will be the biblical accounts of the Christmas story, but the sermons will be illustrated by Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It’s a heartwarming story of a small church where the predictable Christmas pageant was hijacked by the six Herdman kids. They were the worst kids in the history of the world, and they knew nothing about Jesus or Christmas. But it was precisely their ignorance and amazement that turned the play into the best pageant ever.
This is a great opportunity to invite your friends and neighbors to attend services with you. If you were around a few years ago, you’ll remember that the story is both hilarious and poignant. I guarantee that you’ll never think of the Christmas story in the same way again. And we all certainly need that…right?
Hope to see you Sunday,
Doug
Now for a word from our Pastor
Musings and advice from our Pastor.