Christmas and the Great Commission

Good morning!  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (as the song goes!).  I’m enjoying the ‘winter wonderland’ out there and I don’t even have my snow tires on yet. How’s that for Christmas Spirit!  But then how can this time of year not fill us with joy, ‘for to us a child is born’.
 
 
“FOOD MOUNTAIN” -GBC food drive in support of Royal City Mission
Starting this Sunday and until December 19, we are very excited to begin building a “Food Mountain” again. This year we will again be supporting the food bank at Royal City Mission (RCM)! 
Whether you are able to donate 1 tin or box of food, or a dozen, we hope that you will consider contributing to our mountain. Please think about letting your children bring their own tins, chipping in with friends to buy a case of a food item, or providing money to Helen Martini or Carroll Chapman so they can shop on your behalf.
Here are some suggestions from Royal City Mission of what they are specifically looking for:
- Tinned tomatoes
- Anything that can go in chili (eg: black beans)
- Any tinned vegetables
In December of 2019, our mountain was almost 5 1/2 feet high.  So can we get higher this year?  I think we can!  Let’s encourage each other to make this happen. 
Thanks to Helen Martini, the head of our Care Ministry, for again organizing this practical way to let our lights shine in the community.
 
 
 Thought for the day: What Does the Great Commission Have to Do With Christmas?
Not surprising, I’m going to share some thoughts related to Christmas in the coming month.  To start, I wanted to tie it in a bit to our teaching theme for the fall: “Church in Motion”. Jesus in Acts 1 gave the early church this call to action: “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” This is tied directly into the Great Commission.  We’ve been talking about this a bit over the fall: our desire as a church to follow the Great Commission Jesus gave us to go and make disciples.  Maybe we can set it aside for awhile as we focus on the birth of Jesus, the wise men, angels, Mary and Joseph. Or maybe not. Could it be that the Great Commission is actually a vital part of the Christmas story?
Jesus’ birth was His greatest missionary act that the world has seen. He came to us. God entered our world. He left Heaven to become one of us.  John 1 says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” 
The theological word for this is incarnation. That simply means God became a human. That is what happened at Jesus’ birth – on Christmas.  What does this mean? Well, that incarnation is what Christmas is all about!
The message of the season has a missional element to it! Jesus modeled what He would later command His disciples to do, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” His coming to earth was the “Go” part.
One of the best ways we can celebrate Christmas is to do as He did. Following His example, we enter the lives of those who don’t know Him. We eat their food, hang out with them, learn their ways of life, beginning to understand (and even experience) their challenges. We demonstrate His presence in relationship. God, in us, shows up in their world. We call this being incarnational. It is what Christmas is all about.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris