Looking Ahead

This weekend we begin the season of Advent, the four weeks in the church year leading up to Christmas. While this is a time of preparation for celebrating  Christ’s birth, that is not the focus of Advent. Instead, Advent is as season of looking ahead. We watch and wait for Christ to come again. Trusting in God’s promise that Christ is coming again, we look into the future with hope and anticipation of what God will do next.

It makes sense, then, that during this Advent season we also look ahead to the new year and the ministry we hear God calling us to in 2020. There is lots to be excited about, especially the news we recently shared about our new Teaching Pastor and Congregational Care Minister. If you missed the letter in your mailbox from me and Steve Lucky, our Council President, there are copies of it available for you to pick up in the narthex when you head to worship this weekend. As I look ahead to the coming year, I cannot wait to see how God will continue to work in and through us to fulfill our mission of Connecting People to Christ through Community.

If you have not yet offered your financial statement of intent for 2020, please do so this weekend either online at AbidingPresence.net/soi or by filling out the paper form included with this weekend’s bulletin. You can place your paper forms in the offering plate during worship or mail them to the church office. Our Stewardship Team will be making calls this week to families who have not yet made commitments as a way to invite them to do so and answer any questions they may have about our vision moving forward. Together, working generously and faithfully, we can meet or exceed our goal of $65,000 in new income for 2020. 

Next weekend, December 7/8 will be Celebration Weekend. We will not only be offering prayers of dedication for the financial commitments given, but also thanking the congregation for making them. You don’t want to miss it! We have some special things planned to say, “Thank You” as we look ahead to 2020.