Thursday Notes

Dear Good Shepherd,

Happy Thursday. Here are your Thursday notes...

Greening of the Church: The Greening" of the Church will take place on December 21 after the 10:30 am service. If you don't know what "greening" means...well come and find out. It has to do with Christmas...and there will be free food so you don't want to miss out.

Pot Luck Lunch: After during or before the Greening (not sure which) there will be a pot-luck luncheon so be sure to bring something to pass around.

Christmas Eve Pageant and Family Service and Christmas Day service Schedule: Good Shepherd's Christmas Eve service starts at 5:00pm. The Pageant will be part of the worship service. In fact, it will take the place of the "liturgy of the word" or the readings so we'll go directly from the pageant to the sermon and then a high liturgical Christmas Eve service. Christmas Eve is, alongside Easter, the highest or most holy day of the year and it is one of the most beautiful worship services. Come, give yourself to Christ in worship, bring your friends.

The next day, Christmas Day, there will be one service at 11:00am. This is usually a very quiet and small service, but it is one of my favorite of the year. There will be a sermon (probably the same from the night before) and communion.

And then don't forget, there's church on Sunday too : )

Articles: Here are some articles on Christmas I've posted this week. The first, definitely worth a read, is by Pastor John Piper (who recently wrote a very good book on Justification in case anyone is interested) on the Humility of Christmas. The second is an article on the Virgin birth I wrote last year.

Kris Kindle Gift Exchange: will take place on Epiphany Sunday.Remember to pray for your person all during Advent and send them a card signed only "Your Kris Kindle." Also...don't put your return address on the envelope. On January 4th, we will celebrate the Epiphany and you will bring a small gift for the person you have been praying for all this time. Then, and only then, reveal your name on the gift card.

Anne's Sermon: Anne's sermon from last week was recorded, but I discovered that the recording device was broken. I ordered a new one that we should have availible by Sunday, but for now that means that you'll just have to read the text of Anne's sermon rather than listen to it.

Hearing: We don't know the outcome of the hearing yet and we may not know until around the end of January...but we'll let you know as soon as we do.

Men't Bible Study Cook: Tom and Brian...if you're a man, join us for Men's Bible Study and breakfast every Friday at 6:30am

Pledge Cards: If you've not turned yours in yet, please do so that the budget committee can start planning for next year.

Youth Group news from Micah: Youth Group will be meeting at its regularly scheduled times. We are going to be doing a white elephant gift exchange this week. If you have never done one before, all you have to do is find something that you don't want anymore (could be an old dvd, poster, Barbie doll...) and wrap it up. Then we are going to play a game in which you will exchange your gift for another. Senior High, Sunday, 6-8; Junior High, Monday, 6-8.

Annual Meeting: The annual meeting this year will be between services on Sunday February 1st. Please ignore the duty rosters which have the meeting in January. We decided to move it to February because we hope to know the judge's decision by that time and be able to talk about our future.

Homeschooling News: Classical Conversations is a homeschooling group for families interested in educating their children according the old tried and true Classical Method. The director, Samantha Kubic, will be hosting both an informational meeting and an open house for families interested in learning more about the program. If you are interested or know of families who might be, please put them in touch with me (Anne, 773-4810) and I will put them in touch with Mrs. Kubic. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in a rigorous program of education for their children.

Well, that's all for now.