Mid-Week Memo (Part 2)

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Hi Five Oakers, Here are SEVEN more things I want to share with you this week:

#1 - GREAT weekend of worship. The Fusion band led us and did their usual incredible job. The Kids Choir opened the service and they were adorable. Great crowd on Saturday night made for room on Sunday at 9:30am. Thank you! Some of your comments on the cards:

  • Loved the kids worship! Great, simple message Henry. Thank. Hakuna Matata, very funny! Great closing prayer. Love the final worship set. Thanks youth!
  • “Mighty To Save” arrangement was great. 
  • Nice job Fusion Band! I love how Justin uses the high school kids and their “gifts”. Thank you.
  • Hannah – your voice put such a beautiful peace into Silent Night. Thank you. Hannah sang like an angel.  
  • Love it when the Fusion Band plays. Sweet voices too! Love the parts in Silent Night.
  • I never realized the manger symbolized our rejection of Jesus. Thank you for the tie-in to his mission and our need to respond.

#2 - All week long I see a steady stream of our members doing behind the scenes ministry at the church building from addressing and stamping envelopes to counting money to painting, building or fixing stuff around the building. Thanks to all of you. And how about that incredible manger scene built by Dave Holland! You can see another piece of his incredible word working skills during Tru in the CLC. We use every week in Children's Ministry.

#3 - More behind the scenes ministry: Each week, after the Saturday morning study, the guys from the men's Bible study put up 12 tables and 96 chairs in the CLC for kid's programming. What takes a couple people up to a half hour is done in minutes with this team. Then, after three weekend services, Casey Hayden's High school boys small group comes in takes the tables and chairs down! I love it!

#4 - I'm continually amazed at what the Women's Ministry continues to do. I love that they invited the East Ridge Choir to sing at the Christmas event. If you receive Dee's updates you know:

  • In November, as an Impact project, twelve women (and some children) went over to the Union Gospel mission and bagged over 650 bags of groceries. The December initiative was to buy Christmas gifts for the women and children staying at the Tubman Shelter.
  • Fitness classes have remained steady with about 12-20 women attending the 6:00 and 25-30 for the 7:00 Prayerful Flow.
  • At the first annual Boutique and Craft Fair 37 vendors saw a steady flow of traffic and several folks asked about our church.
  • Minnesota author Kristie Kerr will be coming on Wednesday mornings to Five Oaks to teach her Bible study, "The Search for Me: Finding your True Identity in Christ." She was also the speaker at the Women's Ministry Christmas event. I think it's so cool that they also invited

#5 - This week's message in the Vintage Christmas series (Luke 1-2) is "The Shepherds." The angels have an incredible message to share with the shepherds. It reveals the true nature of our predicament and our deepest needs...and how God meets our needs and rescues us from our predicament.

#6 - Don't forget to sign up for Christmas Eve service you will attend. The early service on the 24th has the most room and could use some love. Sign up here.

#7 - Invitation cards you can use to invite friends will be available this weekend. Grab a bunch and make your invitations. As usual, I will be presenting the great gospel story and asking people to respond. We've got a great drama/video planned that sets up the message. Here's the big idea: If the Christmas story were made into a movie, what genre of movie would it be? Science fiction? Road trip buddy movie? Epic drama?

God bless you all. Your hard work and service is making my Christmas that much more special.

Pastor Henry