We hope you’ll join us tomorrow at one of our Christmas Eve services.

We will be having identical services at 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. (Remember, childcare will only be available at the 4:00 service.)

And although the temperature may be in the mid-60’s, I’m pleased to announce that this year, there will once again, be a 100 percent chance of snow. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, we would love for you to show up and find out!

One last thing. Since I’m reminding you of church stuff, be aware that this Sunday we will only have one service at 10:30. So, for those of you are staying in town over the holidays, you can sleep a little bit later this weekend.

A few things I saw & heard this morning:

·         The Music Ministry sounded great this morning…stage looks great.

·         The lobby was packed both hours…doughnuts will do it every time.

·         Speaking of doughnuts, I limit myself to 3…I’ve noticed others have more “liberty” in this area…will not name names…yet.

·         Our volunteers did a great job with greeting and children’s ministry this morning…saw people going out of their way to assist.

·         Pastor Drew was not in costume for what’s happening this week…which was strange because I saw him twice during the week walking around in full-body length animal costumes.

·         Speaking of Drew, he flew home to Michigan today and 16 degrees and 6 inches of snow greeted him…Good luck with all that!

·         One of our baptisms (10:30 service) was a man named Mike.  We hired him to run the lighting for the production last week and he met Jesus this week.  He was blown away by our church and was smiling from ear to ear after the service…that my friend, does not get old.

·         Sermon moments:

o   About Christmas – “you would never have a birthday party and not invited the birthday boy.”

o   People rubbed and touched a little baby’s feet not knowing that it would be those same feet that walked to the cross.

·         Can’t wait for the Christmas Eve services…it’s going to be awesome

I’ve been reading some of my older homiletics books and I came across a quote I don’t ever remember reading.

It’s an unbelievable quote that I’ll be leveraging publicly sometime in the future, but it also has tremendous application for me personally as well.

“The reason you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is not that he is incapable of learning them. It is that he is quite content with his mastery of the old tricks, and thinks that learning new tricks is strictly for puppies. Besides, he is busy paying off the mortgage on the dog house.” -John W. Gardner

A few sights & sounds from this weekend:

·         We had 3 services this weekend for our Christmas Production…wow glad we did…people everywhere!

·         Watching the production reminded me of how many quality musicians we have.

·         The stage looked so cool…it’s amazing how lighting can transform a room.

·         Speaking of lighting, I vote for year round lighting!

·         The joke in most churches is when you give a pastor 12 minutes to speak they will take 24 minutes…big “up’s” to our pastor for proving the myth wrong…he did an awesome job with his part.

·         Can’t say enough about our music ministry…they put in countless hours of rehearsal…it paid off.

·         The Music ministry had a celebration lunch after the last production…it was as good as the production itself.

o   I may or may not have taken home with me about 10 pork chops…

·         From the Production I learned:

o   Outside of Music Staff, Matt is the best singer.

o   As of right now, Dennis, Charlie and myself are tied for last…sing off to come!

o   Lighting can be used in Sunday morning services

o   Drew really does walk around all day in different customs

o   It’s a blast working at Southside.

We recently had our Family Ministry Christmas Party, and we had an absolute blast!

I am so thankful for all of our amazing volunteers who work hard week in and week out to minister to all our babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, and college students.

Anyway, I thought I’d post a few pictures from our party to show you how much fun we had!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, we encouraged everyone to wear and ugly Christmas sweater or outfit.

I love Christmas time. I love the lights. I love the music. I love the presents. It really is the most wonderful time of the year.

But at the same time, it’s also the most hectic time of year.

There’s the stress of trying to find the perfect gift for every member of your family. There’s the craziness of trying to find a parking place at the mall. And of course there’s the madness of going from school productions to Christmas parties to church services and more.

Which is why it’s so important to take some time to reflect on what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about Jesus. It’s about God sending His one and only Son to enter into our mess and our stress. It’s about God creating a way to live through the stress.

And I can’t speak for you, but knowing that I lean on a God who understands my stress, makes things a lot less stressful for me.