December 2017
A Monthly Newsletter from Hope Wesleyan Church
505 4th Ave NE Independence, Iowa 50644 (319) 334-7148 www.hopewesleyan.org
.
Move over, Thanksgiving
Leftovers. Christmas is coming. It
seems like the gravy was still warm
when my family pulled out the
Christmas decorations and, viola: a
bedazzled tree was standing in the living
room. Well, at least we waited until
after our Thanksgiving meal before
getting ready for Christmas. Believe it
or not, I saw my first Christmas tree in
early September! Someone found the
Christmas spirit a lot sooner than I did.
Everyone seems to be getting
ready for Christmas: Wreaths on the
doors, candles in the windows, lights on
the houses and in the trees. Around
town, some seem to enjoy the inflatable
decorations of Santa and his Reindeer,
Elves, Snowmen, and some other
characters I don’t remember from the
Christmas story. Nevertheless, we need
to get ready because Christmas is
coming.
You know, God prepared for
Christmas too. He prepared a young
woman named Mary to be the mother of
Jesus. God spoke to Mary’s fiancée in a
dream one night and told Joseph not to
be afraid to take Mary as his wife. God
sent dazzling angels to sleepy shepherds
announcing to them that the Savior of
the world was born. Distant wise men
were guided by a star to the place the
young Christ-child was staying. Two
unlikely characters, Caesar Augustus
and King Herod, were also a part of the
preparations for the first Christmas.
And don’t forget John the
Baptist, he seemed to have the
Christmas spirit long before anyone as
he boldly proclaimed, “Prepare the way
for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road
for him!'" (Mark 1:3).
Sadly, many of our Christmas
plans and activities fail to help us clear
the road. If anything, they make it all
the more hectic.
Crowded schedules, frantic shopping,
racing from one event to another
without ever stopping to ask “Why?”
have ways of stealing the joy of the
season instead of helping us find it.
So how can we get ready for
Christmas? It’s always best to go back
and read the Christmas story to clear
away the cobwebs and remind ourselves
of what the season is all about. You can
find the Christmas story in the Bible by
looking at Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2.
As you read through these few chapters,
prayerfully ask God to renew the
meaning of Christmas to you.
Another way to get ready for
Christmas is to serve other people. Take
time to ring the bells for the Salvation
Army, volunteer at church, or simply
reach out to a neighbor who needs some
extra help during the holiday season.
Getting ready for Christmas can
even be as simple as smiling. Those
sales clerks spend many hours on their
feet, so smile and wish them a Merry
Christmas.
If we try, we truly can clear the
road for Christmas to come. After all,
the real message of Christmas is
“love”…God’s love for us and our love
for one another. Merry Christmas
everyone!
Hope! Hope!
Getting Ready for Christmas
church church Changing Lives by Leading People Into a Growing
Relationship with Jesus
Family Fun Night Sunday, December 3rd
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Open House
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My Favorite Things Christmas Sunday, December 10th
6:00 pm
An Evening of Music
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Christmas Caroling/Potluck Sunday, December 17th
Meet at church at 4:45 pm
DEPART at 5:00 pm
Christmas Party/Potluck
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Fellowship Hall
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Christmas Eve Sunday, December 24th
Combined Worship 10:30 a.m.
Candlelight Service 7:00 pm
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New Year’s Eve Sunday, December 31st
Combined Worship
10:30 a.m.
*************************** Women’s Connection
Thursday, December 14th
9:30 am
Senior Center
***************************
Christmas Party Tuesday, December 19th
5:00 pm
Okoboji Grill
11 Ways to Be the Church for People Who Don't Go to Church
1. Pray for them Not in that Christian-esque "I'll say a prayer for you" way. We need to make it a priority to pray for our unchurched family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. All the strategies and friendliness in the world won't make any difference without this. 2. Build Relationships with No Strings Attached
No one wants to be someone else's project. They always know when they are. They can smell it. When someone doesn't want to be recruited,
stop recruiting and just love people like Jesus did. He’ll take care of the rest. 3. Play the Long Game Overcoming apathy doesn't happen overnight. It takes years, sometimes decades. But in the light of eternity, it's more than worth the investment. We need to be okay with what may seem like losses in the short term, to make gains for the long term. 4. Live With Integrity Integrity may be the most-needed, but least-evident character trait in society. Virtually every poll shows that people have less faith in our major institutions, including the church, than ever. The reason? Lack of integrity. We need to live upright lives, holy lives, honest and transparent lives. Trust is easy to lose and hard to earn. And it’s even harder to earn back. 5. Talk about Life, Not Just about Your Church Real life is never just about one subject. If Jesus influences every area of our lives (which he does) then we should connect with people in every area of our lives, including the non-churchy parts. 6. Stop Connecting Faith to Politics and Denominations The gospel of Jesus is bigger than our political parties, national pride, denominations and creeds combined. We need to stop talking as if every Christian shares our political view or denominational distinctives….Let’s stop making Jesus so small. 7. Be More Joyful, Less Mean Jesus didn’t come to make us nice. He came to make us holy; to redeem us from sin. And he was crucified for it. Nice guys don’t get crucified. So I'm not a fan of the nicey-nice gospel. But I have even less tolerance for a mean gospel. There are too many mean Christians around us. Why would people want to sign up for that? Live joyfully. It’s deeper than niceness, stronger than meanness, and rabidly contagious.
8. Live a Life of Scandalous Generosity Generosity without agenda is scandalous. It defies everything our culture stands for. But, too often, the church enforces greed instead of fighting it. It's time for the church to be known as the crazy people who are always giving things away. Let's show people that faith in Jesus is more about giving than receiving. 9. Be Authentic, Even If It Means Being Different It's better to be relevant than stale. It's better to be authentic than relevant. Don't hide your quirks, embrace them. If Jesus doesn't cause us to live differently, what's the point? But here's the challenge: we need to live differently without coming across as "look at me, I'm better than you." Because we’re not. For the best example of how to do this well, look at the life of Jesus. 10. Be Available Most people who come to Jesus as adults do so because of trauma. God hard-wired us to reach out for help when bad things happen. People don't reach out to a church when they're hurting, they reach out to a friend. And if that friend is also a believer, then that friend can bring Jesus in just when he’s needed the most. But we must resist the temptation to switch into recruitment mode when people are in trauma. When people are hurting, be available and let Jesus do the rest. 11. Make Fewer Statements, Have More Conversations The best onramp for breaking through the apathy barrier is showing people that you care. And the best way to start doing that is to listen to them. But we like making statements. There’s a time and place for big truths to be declared with big, bold statements. Jesus did it. So should we. Jesus had small conversations on big subjects. That’s where he earned people’s trust. That’s where we’ll earn it, too.
FYI NO Wednesday
EVENING ACTIVITIES: Dec. 27th & Jan. 3rd ************************
Church Office CLOSED: Dec. 25th & 26th and
Jan. 1st & 2nd
Birthdays
Cody Gericke 1
Chloe Vargason 3
Jessica Lake 6
Marilyn Darland 10
Caroline Close 11
Shirley Seamans 11
Shawna Hodges 12
Charles Simpson 14
James Smith 14
Sarah Beebe 15
Richard Klatt 17
Austin Simpson 19
Elissa Dodge 24
Betty Lang 24
Juliana Lake 27
Justin Kolln 29
Shelly Gardner 30
Stephen Turner 30
Anniversaries
Carl & Tina Dodge 6
Bob &Marilyn Richter 7
Byron & Julie Reeder 26
Larry & Becky Karsten 31
with Pastor Elissa
Jingle On Main
Live Nativity
Fri., December 8th
5:00 – 7:30 pm
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