GBC Community Update: At Christmas its go, not come!

​Good morning everyone. I missed you all Sunday, either live or online.  I had another procedure for my skin cancer last week and that pretty much knocked me out. I was treated with something called Photo Dynamic Therapy which is a newer intervention to Canada. I won’t go into all the gory details but this was an opportunity to be proactive with this issue which I was very glad for.  I’m still in recovery mode so would appreciate you praying for me if you would!
 
 
Community Outreach Event
As was announced on Sunday, the Outreach Team that I lead is holding a community Christmas carol sing.  We’ll be doing it on Sunday December 20 at 6:30pm in the side parking lot.  We’ll sing some of the favorites of the season plus having some hot drinks. It should be fun!  This is of course dependent on weather and also Covid restrictions.
This would be a great opportunity to invite family, friends, neighbors or someone from work because if they’re like me, they’d love the opportunity to do something active this Christmas.
As we get closer we’ll be having an RSVP sign up to ensure we don’t exceed community gathering limits.
 
 
Wednesday Prayer
Join Jacob and Karen Ginter for a time of prayer on Wednesday afternoons at 3pm here at GBC in the Side Auditorium.
For questions or further details please contact Jacob at– [email protected] or text 519-803-4453
 
 
Thought for the day: At Christmas, it’s go, not come!
One of my favorite Christmas carols is ‘O Come, O Come, Emmanuel’. That invitation to the messiah, the savior to the world, is a cry from the heart.  But he HAS come (and is coming again!) so now that means we’re to GO!
The tendency during the Christmas season is to focus on inviting people to come, rather than going to them. We plan events and parties, inviting people to come to them. And often they do come (well, other than this year, anyways!). More people attend church at Christmas than any other time of the year. These events have an impact, no doubt. After Christmas though, many never return.
We invite people to programs. That’s great, but that’s not the same as making disciples. Could Christmas become more about disciple-making and not only about inviting people to church?
As I’ve been trying to purposefully think with more of an outreach mindset a few thoughts have come to mind:
What would happen if instead of putting our energy into big Christmas programs(again, can’t do that this year!), we learned how to share the Christmas story with people around us?
 
What if we then go and share it with our friends, neighbors, and relatives? What if we went even further and offered to do a Discovery Bible Study (DBS) with them, instead of just inviting them to something like our carol sing (Which is still an amazing idea, by the way!).  I know…I know…I’m getting carried away…but what if?
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris