Good Friday morning Church Requel!
Do I have some special news for you! This coming Sunday morning, our own Ken Jacob will bring God's Word to you from 1 Corinthians 10:13. Ken and I have worked together on this sermon project for the past 3 months. I have watched God work so powerfully in Ken's life as Ken worked so hard on writing this teaching for you.
Let me take a few moments to tell you the story behind the story of this sermon.
Some of you may recall that Ken and Karen spoke to our congregation last Christmas Eve - and they did a beautiful job. I thought to myself at the time that I really needed to speak to Ken about the possibility of preaching a full sermon some at CR some day. Fast forward to last July. Ken and I met for lunch and picked out November 20th as his big day. For two months Ken and I met every other week to talk through the sermon that you are going to hear this Sunday morning.
As you can tell from the sermon title, Ken is going to talk about how we face some of the big giants in our own lives. What many of you don't know, because you don't know Ken well, is that he has faced (and continues to face) some huge obstacles in his life. I won't spoil his story that he will tell so much better than me anyway.
I will share this much. As happens so often to pastors as they prepare to speak on a topic, Ken was particularly challenged with the very challenge he struggles with the most. As he recently shared with me - he just couldn't believe how helpful this talk had been in his own life as he faced his own giant problem. So it is with great confidence that I recommend Sunday's worship service to you all. Put another way, this will be a sermon that is tried and tested true!
We have another huge treat for you on Sunday. Dave Johnson has agreed to play his guitar and lead our worship time together Sunday morning. He will be leading you in singing "Because He Lives" and "Open Up The Sky." Before Ken comes up to preach Dave will sing a special song, "Giants," by Evan Craft. After Ken speaks Brandi will come up and sing "Giants Fall" by Francesca Battistelli. So you can see we have some special and thematic moments created for you to worship Christ this Sunday.
Christmas Decorating - November 27th. After the morning worship service a week from Sunday, plan to stick around to help decorate. Pastor Paul will set out his many manger scenes. We'll also open up the Christmas closet and bring out all the decorations. While you decorate, I will make a pizza run so we can enjoy some food and fellowship afterward. This is also a great family event. The children LOVE setting out the nativity scenes underneath the windows.
Christmas / New Years Schedule. We want to make sure that everyone knows the Holiday church schedule since Christmas and New Years both fall on Sunday this year:
- We WILL have a full Christmas Eve worship service at 5pm on Saturday evening, December 24th. This service will include all the elements of our normal Sunday service, including worship singing, prayer, sermon, and communion. We will close with our traditional candle lighting Christmas Eve event.
- We WILL NOT conduct a Sunday Christmas morning worship service on December 25th. We know this is a special time for our members to enjoy their families on Christmas morning. So make sure you attend the Christmas Eve worship event the night before.
- We WILL conduct as Sunday New Years morning worship service on January 1st at our normal time of 11am. This will be a great opportunity to start the new year off right!
Sanctuary Refresh. I shared the details last week with you. Over the next few months you should see some improvements in the sanctuary. We will not be able to make a financial contribution, so we are hoping that many of you will step forward with your helpful labor. The plan is to combine the donation of pew pads from another church, with our labor, and with funding from Paul for the eventual new carpeting. We actually would like to start working on the pew cushions now, since we received the pads and fabric last week. If you have the willingness and time to help to figure this out, please call Paul directly at 419.571.9920.
Mary Kay and I are enjoying our romantic getaway. We look forward to seeing you all again next week. Love you all much! Pastor Mark
