December 2017

A Monthly Newsletter from Hope Wesleyan Church

505 4th Ave NE Independence, Iowa 50644 (319) 334-7148 www.hopewesleyan.org

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Move over, Thanksgiving

Leftovers. Christmas is coming. It

seems like the gravy was still warm

when my family pulled out the

Christmas decorations and, viola: a

bedazzled tree was standing in the living

room. Well, at least we waited until

after our Thanksgiving meal before

getting ready for Christmas. Believe it

or not, I saw my first Christmas tree in

early September! Someone found the

Christmas spirit a lot sooner than I did.

Everyone seems to be getting

ready for Christmas: Wreaths on the

doors, candles in the windows, lights on

the houses and in the trees. Around

town, some seem to enjoy the inflatable

decorations of Santa and his Reindeer,

Elves, Snowmen, and some other

characters I don’t remember from the

Christmas story. Nevertheless, we need

to get ready because Christmas is

coming.

You know, God prepared for

Christmas too. He prepared a young

woman named Mary to be the mother of

Jesus. God spoke to Mary’s fiancée in a

dream one night and told Joseph not to

be afraid to take Mary as his wife. God

sent dazzling angels to sleepy shepherds

announcing to them that the Savior of

the world was born. Distant wise men

were guided by a star to the place the

young Christ-child was staying. Two

unlikely characters, Caesar Augustus

and King Herod, were also a part of the

preparations for the first Christmas.

And don’t forget John the

Baptist, he seemed to have the

Christmas spirit long before anyone as

he boldly proclaimed, “Prepare the way

for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road

for him!'" (Mark 1:3).

Sadly, many of our Christmas

plans and activities fail to help us clear

the road. If anything, they make it all

the more hectic.

Crowded schedules, frantic shopping,

racing from one event to another

without ever stopping to ask “Why?”

have ways of stealing the joy of the

season instead of helping us find it.

So how can we get ready for

Christmas? It’s always best to go back

and read the Christmas story to clear

away the cobwebs and remind ourselves

of what the season is all about. You can

find the Christmas story in the Bible by

looking at Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2.

As you read through these few chapters,

prayerfully ask God to renew the

meaning of Christmas to you.

Another way to get ready for

Christmas is to serve other people. Take

time to ring the bells for the Salvation

Army, volunteer at church, or simply

reach out to a neighbor who needs some

extra help during the holiday season.

Getting ready for Christmas can

even be as simple as smiling. Those

sales clerks spend many hours on their

feet, so smile and wish them a Merry

Christmas.

If we try, we truly can clear the

road for Christmas to come. After all,

the real message of Christmas is

“love”…God’s love for us and our love

for one another. Merry Christmas

everyone!

Hope! Hope!

Getting Ready for Christmas

church church Changing Lives by Leading People Into a Growing

Relationship with Jesus

Family Fun Night Sunday, December 3rd

6:00 – 8:00 pm

Open House

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My Favorite Things Christmas Sunday, December 10th

6:00 pm

An Evening of Music

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Christmas Caroling/Potluck Sunday, December 17th

Meet at church at 4:45 pm

DEPART at 5:00 pm

Christmas Party/Potluck

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Fellowship Hall

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Christmas Eve Sunday, December 24th

Combined Worship 10:30 a.m.

Candlelight Service 7:00 pm

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New Year’s Eve Sunday, December 31st

Combined Worship

10:30 a.m.

*************************** Women’s Connection

Thursday, December 14th

9:30 am

Senior Center

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Christmas Party Tuesday, December 19th

5:00 pm

Okoboji Grill

11 Ways to Be the Church for People Who Don't Go to Church

1. Pray for them Not in that Christian-esque "I'll say a prayer for you" way. We need to make it a priority to pray for our unchurched family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. All the strategies and friendliness in the world won't make any difference without this. 2. Build Relationships with No Strings Attached

No one wants to be someone else's project. They always know when they are. They can smell it. When someone doesn't want to be recruited,

stop recruiting and just love people like Jesus did. He’ll take care of the rest. 3. Play the Long Game Overcoming apathy doesn't happen overnight. It takes years, sometimes decades. But in the light of eternity, it's more than worth the investment. We need to be okay with what may seem like losses in the short term, to make gains for the long term. 4. Live With Integrity Integrity may be the most-needed, but least-evident character trait in society. Virtually every poll shows that people have less faith in our major institutions, including the church, than ever. The reason? Lack of integrity. We need to live upright lives, holy lives, honest and transparent lives. Trust is easy to lose and hard to earn. And it’s even harder to earn back. 5. Talk about Life, Not Just about Your Church Real life is never just about one subject. If Jesus influences every area of our lives (which he does) then we should connect with people in every area of our lives, including the non-churchy parts. 6. Stop Connecting Faith to Politics and Denominations The gospel of Jesus is bigger than our political parties, national pride, denominations and creeds combined. We need to stop talking as if every Christian shares our political view or denominational distinctives….Let’s stop making Jesus so small. 7. Be More Joyful, Less Mean Jesus didn’t come to make us nice. He came to make us holy; to redeem us from sin. And he was crucified for it. Nice guys don’t get crucified. So I'm not a fan of the nicey-nice gospel. But I have even less tolerance for a mean gospel. There are too many mean Christians around us. Why would people want to sign up for that? Live joyfully. It’s deeper than niceness, stronger than meanness, and rabidly contagious.

8. Live a Life of Scandalous Generosity Generosity without agenda is scandalous. It defies everything our culture stands for. But, too often, the church enforces greed instead of fighting it. It's time for the church to be known as the crazy people who are always giving things away. Let's show people that faith in Jesus is more about giving than receiving. 9. Be Authentic, Even If It Means Being Different It's better to be relevant than stale. It's better to be authentic than relevant. Don't hide your quirks, embrace them. If Jesus doesn't cause us to live differently, what's the point? But here's the challenge: we need to live differently without coming across as "look at me, I'm better than you." Because we’re not. For the best example of how to do this well, look at the life of Jesus. 10. Be Available Most people who come to Jesus as adults do so because of trauma. God hard-wired us to reach out for help when bad things happen. People don't reach out to a church when they're hurting, they reach out to a friend. And if that friend is also a believer, then that friend can bring Jesus in just when he’s needed the most. But we must resist the temptation to switch into recruitment mode when people are in trauma. When people are hurting, be available and let Jesus do the rest. 11. Make Fewer Statements, Have More Conversations The best onramp for breaking through the apathy barrier is showing people that you care. And the best way to start doing that is to listen to them. But we like making statements. There’s a time and place for big truths to be declared with big, bold statements. Jesus did it. So should we. Jesus had small conversations on big subjects. That’s where he earned people’s trust. That’s where we’ll earn it, too.

FYI NO Wednesday

EVENING ACTIVITIES: Dec. 27th & Jan. 3rd ************************

Church Office CLOSED: Dec. 25th & 26th and

Jan. 1st & 2nd

Birthdays

Cody Gericke 1

Chloe Vargason 3

Jessica Lake 6

Marilyn Darland 10

Caroline Close 11

Shirley Seamans 11

Shawna Hodges 12

Charles Simpson 14

James Smith 14

Sarah Beebe 15

Richard Klatt 17

Austin Simpson 19

Elissa Dodge 24

Betty Lang 24

Juliana Lake 27

Justin Kolln 29

Shelly Gardner 30

Stephen Turner 30

Anniversaries

Carl & Tina Dodge 6

Bob &Marilyn Richter 7

Byron & Julie Reeder 26

Larry & Becky Karsten 31

with Pastor Elissa

Jingle On Main

Live Nativity

Fri., December 8th

5:00 – 7:30 pm