Hello Church,
This Sunday bridges the gap between celebrating Christmas and kicking off the New Year. I hope you had a wonderful time celebrating the birth of our Lord and Saviour! It was tremendous to have so many guests join us at church on Christmas Day as we reflected together that Christmas is all about WAITING for God to make things right through Jesus, CELEBRATING that Jesus came to make things right, and REMEMBERING that he came to make things right by making us his friends. So as we head into a New Year, we’ll be reflecting together this Sunday on God’s amazing faithfulness to his promises – which is why we can head into 2025 confidently waiting, joyfully celebrating, and fully assured of our friendship with Jesus through his death in our place.
Tomorrow we will be all-in, all-age again. We’re approaching things a bit differently with some group activities to unpack the passage, a song with some simple actions that will be a great memory hook for us all as we head into a new year, and a shared time of prayer looking back at 2024 and forward to 2025. It’ll be a fairly short service and we’ll have some colouring and gluing as part of the group Bible activity, but parents are welcome to bring snacks for your kids if you think that will be helpful. And of course guests are welcome just as much as any other Sunday!
I’m mindful that many of our church family are travelling at the moment, so we’re praying for safe travels and rich times of relationship and refreshment for those who are away. And for those of us around home during this holidays season: I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!
Simon