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News & Announcements for Sunday, December 22, 2024
JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL
If you’re looking for an opportunity to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we encourage you to join us Sunday mornings for a intergenerational Sunday school class, from 9:30-10:30. We look forward to seeing you!
CHRISTMAS CAROLING – THIS AFTERNOON, 4:00 PM
Join us for our annual tradition of caroling to our homebound members. We’ll meet at the church and carpool together as we enjoy fellowship and make a joyful noise singing our favorite Christmas tunes. This is a great opportunity for folks of all ages to come together as we spread some Christmas cheer!
CHRISTMAS EVE CANDELIGHT SERVICE – DEC. 24, 7:00 PM
On Christmas Eve, we invite you to join us for a family-friendly candlelight service celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This service of song, carol and Scripture provides a wonderful opportunity to get a sense of how eager the Hebrews were for the coming of the Messiah so long ago and reminds us how eager we are for his return. We look forward to seeing you there!
HELPING HANDS OFFERING – NEXT SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29
Each 5th Sunday, any undesignated offerings placed in the collection plates go to Helping Hands, a ministry of churches in the Madison Heights-Elon area of Amherst County to help residents in need. It is administered through Madison Heights Baptist Church. Thank you for helping us meet the needs of those in our community!
DECEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS
The December Mission Focus is the Christmas Baskets. Please bring items to help bring a little joy to needy families in our area. Details can be found in the December newsletter.
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News & Announcements for Sunday, December 15, 2024
JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL
If you’re looking for an opportunity to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we encourage you to join us Sunday mornings for a intergenerational Sunday school class, from 9:00-10:00. We look forward to seeing you!
BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR JESUS – THIS MORNING
Join us after worship on Sunday, December 15 as we celebrate Jesus’ birthday! In all the celebrations of the Christmas season, it’s sometimes easy to forget that it is also the day Jesus was born. We’ll have birthday cake, treats, and more to help us remember that Christmas is about the miracle of the incarnation… and the day of Jesus’ birth!
CHRISTMAS CAROLING – SUNDAY, DEC. 22, 4:00 PM
Join us for our annual tradition of caroling to our homebound members. We’ll meet at the church and carpool together as we enjoy fellowship and make a joyful noise singing our favorite Christmas tunes. This is a great opportunity for folks of all ages to come together as we spread some Christmas cheer!
COLLEGE CHRISTMAS PARTY – MONDAY, DEC. 23, 7:00 PM
All College (or college-age) students are invited to join us at the Garrisons for a Christmas Party! Sport your tackiest Christmas sweater, and come ready to relax after a long semester and enjoy celebrating the season together. See you there!
CHRISTMAS EVE CANDELIGHT SERVICE – DEC. 24, 7:00 PM
On Christmas Eve, we invite you to join us for a family-friendly candlelight service celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This service of song, carol and Scripture provides a wonderful opportunity to get a sense of how eager the Hebrews were for the coming of the Messiah so long ago and reminds us how eager we are for his return. We look forward to seeing you there!
DECEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS
The December Mission Focus is the Christmas Baskets. You are invited to join us at Amelon United Methodist Church on Thursday, December 19 at 9 AM to sort the donations and then on Friday, December 20 at 9 AM to pack the baskets.
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News & Announcements for Sunday, December 8, 2024
JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL
If you’re looking for an opportunity to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ, we encourage you to join us Sunday mornings for a intergenerational Sunday school class, from 9:00-10:00. We look forward to seeing you!
BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR JESUS – NEXT SUNDAY
Join us after worship on Sunday, December 15 as we celebrate Jesus’ birthday! In all the celebrations of the Christmas season, it’s sometimes easy to forget that it is also the day Jesus was born. We’ll have birthday cake, treats, and more to help us remember that Christmas is about the miracle of the incarnation… and the day of Jesus’ birth!
CHRISTMAS CAROLING – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 4:00 PM
Join us for our annual tradition of caroling to our homebound members. We’ll meet at the church and carpool together as we enjoy fellowship and make a joyful noise singing our favorite Christmas tunes. This is a great opportunity for folks of all ages to come together as we spread some Christmas cheer!
CHRISTMAS EVE CANDELIGHT SERVICE – DEC. 24, 7:00 PM
On Christmas Eve, we invite you to join us for a family-friendly candlelight service celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This service of song, carol and Scripture provides a wonderful opportunity to get a sense of how eager the Hebrews were for the coming of the Messiah so long ago and reminds us how eager we are for his return. We look forward to seeing you there!
CHRISTMAS POINSETTIAS – ORDER YOURS TODAY!
It’s time to order poinsettias to help decorate our sanctuary for the Advent-Christmas season. You are welcome to donate one in memory and in honor of loved ones. To place an order, please sign your name on the bulletin board outside the sanctuary and fill out the form provided for payment. They are $10.00 each and the deadline is today, Sunday, Dec. 8. Please contact Anne Wilkins if you have questions.
DECEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS
The December Mission Focus is the Christmas Baskets. Please bring items to help bring a little joy to needy families in our area. Details can be found in the December newsletter.
Read more...
News & Announcements for Sunday, December 1, 2024
SUNDAY MORNING SCHEDULE CHANGE BEGINS SUN. DEC. 1
Beginning Sunday, December 1, the worship service will begin at 11:00 am. Sunday School will meet from 9:30-10:30.
WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY – MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 7:00PM
The Women’s Bible Study will meet at 7pm Monday evening, December 2nd at the home of Debbie Irvine. We wanted to study something related to the “real” Christmas story. So read or reread Joseph and Mary, complete your workbook or look over what you did last year and come prepared to discuss Mary, Joseph and Jesus. As always, if you don’t get a chance to finish your lesson, come anyway. However, if you don’t get it done, come anyway and always feel free to bring a friend.
WOMEN’S BOOK CLUB – THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 11:00AM
The Northminster Book Club will meet at Depot Grille on Thursday, December 5th at 11:00 a.m for our Christmas party. Please bring a story, poem or story about Christmas that they can share with the group. We are also asking each person to bring a book (it doesn’t have to be new, just in pretty good shape), wrapped in gift paper. We are going to exchange books with one another. See the newsletter for more information. We look forward to seeing you there!
HANGING OF THE GREENS – SATURDAY, DEC 7, 9AM-Noon
You are invited to join us on Saturday, December 7 from 9-noon as we prepare our church to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We will gather together to decorate beautiful trees with Chrismons, set up Advent candles, wreaths, and banners as we enjoy light brunch refreshments, Christmas music playing in the background, and above all, each other’s company.
CHRISTMAS POINSETTIAS – ORDER YOURS TODAY!
It’s time to order poinsettias to help decorate our sanctuary for the Advent-Christmas season. You are welcome to donate one in memory and in honor of loved ones. To place an order, please sign your name on the bulletin board outside the sanctuary and fill out the form provided for payment. They are $10.00 each and the deadline is Sunday, Dec. 8. Please contact Anne Wilkins if you have questions.
DECEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS
The December Mission Focus is the Christmas Baskets. Please bring items to help bring a little joy to needy families in our area. Details can be found in the December newsletter.
Read more...
December 2024 Pastor’s Corner — Through Time and Space
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. — Revelation 12:3-6
There is something in us that loves fantastic stories about the supernatural, “fantasy” in its truest, literary sense. We love epic tales of good versus evil, of supernatural beings and superhuman people. Stories that stir our imagination, encouraging us to see the larger, cosmic story unfolding when we look past the merely physical world we live in and interact with on a daily basis. Whether we call those stories fantasies, myths, science fiction, or something else, we find them speaking to something intrinsic in our experience that knows there is more to this life than the physical world we see and touch.
I am willing to bet that when you go to read the Christmas story with your family, the verses above are not the ones that first come to mind. When we think of the Christmas story, we usually turn to the opening chapters of Matthew or Luke. If you’re wanting a more existential version, then John is the gospel for you. The last thing we think about when we it comes to the Christmas stories are dragons and cosmic battles. The incarnation of God the Son in the form of Jesus Christ is the first miracle of Christmas, a truly fantastic moment when the heavens came to earth, the spiritual took on the physical. It is the heart of what we celebrate at Christmas. But even in the midst of this epically mythical occasion, our focus centers on the stuff of earth — a pregnant teenager, a messy barnyard, a baby taking its first breath. The birth of Jesus Christ is so exceptionally visceral, it’s easy to forget how the incarnation transcends time and space.
In Revelation 12-14, John recounts human history from heaven’s perspective. It’s a truly cosmic and fantastic story that involves dragons and beasts, angels and people. It’s so different from the rest of Scripture, its hard to understand, let alone know who is who. Here’s your cast of characters: The dragon is Satan. The woman is Mary (at least in these verses – the woman changes throughout the chapter from Eve, to Israel, to Mary, to the Church… it’s complicated). The baby is the easiest one to figure out – he’s Jesus, clearly identified by the reference to Psalm 2:8-9 (“the one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron”). In the verses above, we have not only the story of Christmas, but Jesus’ entire life and ministry consolidated into one short sentence. Chapter 12 captures all of human history in 17 verses. What’s been eons for us is but the blink of an eye in heaven (2 Peter 3:8). Quite a different version of the story we all know so well.
We know the incarnation is a wondrous and miraculous event. Even with that, it’s so easy to miss just how truly wondrous and miraculous it was. It’s so much more than nativity sets and advent wreaths. It’s a true story that is so much more and better than anything we’ve ever dreamed or imagined. The incarnation is a miracle of cosmic degree and impact, breaking through heaven and earth, shattering the boundaries that separate the spiritual from the physical, bringing together the divine and the human in a way that had never happened before, and will never happen again. Through Jesus Christ, Satan (the dragon) has been barred from heaven (Rev. 12:8) and thwarted at every turn (Rev. 12:13-17) until his ultimate defeat when Christ returns (Rev. 14:1-6).
The Christmas season is one of the most tangible and tactile seasons we celebrate. It carries with it so many unique sights and sounds, textures, aromas and tastes. It is very much an imminent celebration. But Christmas is also a transcendent season extending through time and space. In the midst of your Christmas celebrations this year, allow time for your imagination to take hold of the cosmic dimensions that are very much a part of the Christmas story. Jesus has come. God is with us. And evil has lost. Joy to the world, indeed!
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. — John 1:9-14
Blessings,
Rev. David Garrison
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