Dear Calvary Church,
We have a short Advent Season this year. The fourth Advent Sunday is also Christmas Eve. For the next four Sundays, in our series Good News, Great Joy, we will be looking at hope, peace, joy, and then love, which are four fruit-filled results of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Our desire for this series is that it will be spiritually refreshing as we make room in our lives, our families, and our church for increased hope, peace, joy, and love in Christ. My prayer for us is that we would be willing to confess and let go of anything that would block or hinder these fruits of the Holy Spirit from blossoming forth. I love The Message paraphrase of 1 John 2:16: “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.”
Good Gossip
- Forty-three women signed up for the Calvary Women’s Advent Study and some are new to considering the Christian faith.
- There is a fresh wave of enthusiasm circulating through our church, with people excited about what God is doing at Calvary.
- There is interest in both baptism as well as membership.
- Teams are forming to reintroduce mid-week programing for elementary and middle school students (contact Maddie or Brenlie for more info).
- Maddie has also talked about setting aside time during the day for spiritual leadership training for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders (who knew?)
- And we’re still hearing cool things about the Turkey and Trivia Night…
Let’s make this Advent Season one of the best ever at Calvary!
See you on Sunday,
Pastor Gregg