David Garrison, Author at Northminster Evangelical Presbyterian Church

News & Announcements for Sunday, December 22, 2024

Posted on Dec 18, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

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.

Dec '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, December 15, 2024

Posted on Dec 12, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

Dec '24

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

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

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.

Dec '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, December 8, 2024

Posted on Dec 5, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

Dec '24

JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL

BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR JESUS – NEXT SUNDAY

CHRISTMAS CAROLING – SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22, 4:00 PM

CHRISTMAS EVE CANDELIGHT SERVICE – DEC. 24, 7:00 PM

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.

Nov '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, December 1, 2024

Posted on Nov 27, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

Nov '24

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.

Nov '24

December 2024 Pastor’s Corner — Through Time and Space

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 by David Garrison in Christian Living, Devotions, General, HomePage, Pastor's Corner, Spiritual Growth | 0

Nov '24

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

Nov '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, November 24, 2024

Posted on Nov 20, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, Missions, News, Worship | 0

Nov '24

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 2^nd 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

HANGING OF THE GREENS – SATURDAY, DEC 7, 9AM-Noon

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.

NOVEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS

The November 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 November newsletter.

Nov '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, November 17, 2024

Posted on Nov 14, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

Nov '24

JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL

MIDWEEK PRAYER – WEDNESDAYS @ Noon

Please join us on Wednesdays at noon for a time of prayer in the sanctuary as we bring our needs before our loving God.

GLEANING FOR THE WORLD – WEDNESDAY @ 8:30 am

Please join us in the parking lot of the church for carpooling. We will return to the church around 11:30 am.

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.

NOVEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS

The November 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 November newsletter.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOEBOXES

This year our church will again be collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. There are three ways you can help.

1. Sign out a box from the table and fill it with gifts.
2. Bring gifts to church, and we will pack a shoebox for you.
3. Give a monetary donation to help with the cost of sending the boxes or to buy more gifts. It costs $10 per box this year.

Boxes are due the week of November 18-25. We will be collecting our boxes on Sunday, November 17. What a joy to celebrate Christmas by giving gifts that can change the lives of children throughout the world.

Nov '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, November 10, 2024

Posted on Nov 7, 2024 by David Garrison in General | 0

Nov '24

JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL

MIDWEEK PRAYER – WEDNESDAYS @ Noon

Please join us on Wednesdays at noon for a time of prayer in the sanctuary as we bring our needs before our loving God.

NOVEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS

The November 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 November newsletter.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOEBOXES

This year our church will again be collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. There are three ways you can help.

1. Sign out a box from the table and fill it with gifts.
2. Bring gifts to church, and we will pack a shoebox for you.
3. Give a monetary donation to help with the cost of sending the boxes or to buy more gifts. It costs $10 per box this year.

Oct '24

News & Announcements for Sunday, November 3, 2024

Posted on Oct 31, 2024 by David Garrison in Announcements, General, HomePage, News | 0

Oct '24

JOIN US FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL

MIDWEEK PRAYER – WEDNESDAYS @ Noon

Please join us on Wednesdays at noon for a time of prayer in the sanctuary as we bring our needs before our loving God.

WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY – MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 7:00PM

The Women’s Bible Study will meet Monday evening, November 4th at Northminster. We will get together at 7:00 p.m. Our hostess and facilitator is Liz Booth. We will be studying “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego” from Love Stories of the Bible Speak. That is always an interesting and powerful study. As always, read your lesson and answer the questions. However, if you don’t get it done, come anyway and always feel free to bring a friend. Looking forward to seeing you on Monday, the 4th!

NOVEMBER MISSION FOCUS – CHRISTMAS BASKETS

The November 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 November newsletter.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD SHOEBOXES

This year our church will again be collecting shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. There are three ways you can help.

1. Sign out a box from the table and fill it with gifts.
2. Bring gifts to church, and we will pack a shoebox for you.
3. Give a monetary donation to help with the cost of sending the boxes or to buy more gifts. It costs $10 per box this year.

Boxes are due the week of November 18-25. We will be collecting our boxes on Sunday, November 24. What a joy to celebrate Christmas by giving gifts that can change the lives of children throughout the world.

Oct '24

November 2024 Pastor’s Corner — The Father of Delights

Posted on Oct 31, 2024 by David Garrison in Christian Living, Devotions, General, HomePage, Pastor's Corner, Spiritual Growth | 0

Oct '24

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. — James 1:17

I had a wonderful time while away on study leave last month. I attended a conference called “Hutchmoot” just outside Nashville. Hutchmoot was started 15 years ago by Andrew and Pete Peterson. Andrew describes it this way: “Hutchmoot is a three-day feast where we gather to celebrate the way the Lord makes himself known through his creation. This includes stories, music, and art of all kinds, but it’s also broader than that. He also makes himself known through Scripture, of course, and through nature, and food, and even each other—through the flawed and glorious humans you’ll be rubbing elbows with all weekend.”

Something I’ve noticed about myself is that when life gets hard and stressful, when anxiety and worry threaten to take over, it often seems as if God has stopped moving and working. Prayers seem to be answered with silence. The “joy of my salvation” seems like a distant memory. The world, and my life, seem to be running on autopilot rather than guided by the hands of a loving God. He no longer seems interested in making Himself known in any fashion, so much so that sometimes during these seasons I find myself wondering if He’s there at all.

One of the sessions I attended was led by Andrew Peterson and called “The Father of Delights.” Riffing off James 1:17 above (“…the Father of {de}lights…”), Andrew emphasized that God is always moving and working in, through, and around us, whether we are aware of it or not. He is constantly working to make Himself known to us and others, and seeking to delight us and fill us with wonder. To delight in God, in His works and His creation, is to glorify God. C.S. Lewis writes, “The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” The question isn’t whether God is or isn’t making himself known and giving us reason to delight in Him, it’s whether we’re paying attention and looking for the delights God is throwing our way.

Every once in a while, God does something stunning that makes us take notice. Consider the awe we’ve all experienced the last couple of months with the displays of the Aurora Borealis here in central Virginia. That just doesn’t happen here. But it did, and it was wondrous and delightful. You couldn’t look at the sky and not delight in the God that made the colors dance across the heavens. But there are countless ways God is making Himself known to us every day. The question is, are we taking the time to look for it? Delight is something that we cultivate. If you are looking to be delighted by God, then you will find delight in God. Cultivating delight requires slowing down, being patient, and paying attention to what is going on around us. Think about all that is happening every time you take a simple breath. Muscles flex, lungs expand and contract, air moves in and out, blood flows, oxygen and carbon dioxide trade places, and much more. Something we do tens of thousands of times a day is a delightful and wonderful act. An act we take for granted with every breath. Delighting in God takes intentionality and needs to be cultivated.

As we cultivate our delight in God, we learn to see all the different ways we are invited to delight in God. Delight teaches us to see delight. Have you ever noticed how many yellow cars there are? Probably not, but now you’re going to start seeing yellow cars everywhere. We find that for which we are looking. As we cultivate an awareness of the myriad delightful ways God is moving and working, we will start seeing even more ways to delight in Him. When you find or discover something delightful, take the time to savor and delight in it, and tell God about your delight. When we express our delights, it delights the Giver of delight. Think about the times you’ve done something special for your children or your spouse, and they delighted in it. Their delight delights us, and it’s the same with our Father in Heaven.

In addition to giving thanks to the Father of Delights, share your delight with someone else. Delight shared is delight enhanced and magnified. So often, it’s easy for me to miss all the delightful things God is doing in my life. When you delight in God and share that with me, it helps me to cultivate delight myself and encourages me to look around for all the delightful ways God is at work. In a world that is so filled with anger and rage, stress and worry, fear and anxiety, cultivating delight in God and sharing those delights with others shines as bright as a candle unexpectedly lit in the deep darkness of night.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” — Matthew 6:28-30

Blessings,

Rev. David Garrison