WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTER
JANUARY 2023
CONNECTIONS ON NOVEMBER 27, WE CELEBRATED THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF THE ADVENT SEASON WITH OUR ANNUAL HANGING OF THE GREEN SERVICE.
Up Front WEDNESDAY NIGHT ACTIVITIES Our Wednesday Night Activities will resume on Wednesday, January 11. Join Blake Kendrick for a six-session study of Peter Scazzero’s book Emotionally Healthy Discipleship in the upstairs parlor from 6:10 – 7 p.m.
Purchase a book and follow our scheduled readings. January 11 (through page 34), January 18 (through page 60), January 25 (through page 86). For a bonus engagement with this book, listen to the accompanying podcast.
VBS 2023 Vacation Bible School this year will be June 19-23, 2023. Our amazing volunteers and leadership team help make this week-long ministry happen! Save the date and consider what gifts you can share this year!
From the Senior Pastor We employ all sorts of metaphors to describe the beginning of a new year. Here are a few: Blank slate, fresh start, new chapter. The point is, January 1 serves as an annual—here’s another metaphor— reset button, giving us space to reflect on what we want to do, and how we want to be, over the next twelve months. Ideally, the priorities that we discern during these moments of clarity stick with us— and give us direction—long after we’ve plunged back into the churn of everyday life. Because of how the calendar falls, it’s easy to forget that the reset button of January 1 arrives just a
week after the coming of a Savior whose birth changed the course of history. Makes sense that this good news that God is with us should influence our priorities in the new year.
important theological point when he tells us that, after their visit with Jesus, the Magi go home “by another road” (Matthew 2:12). Meeting Jesus points them in a different direction.
In other words, the slate isn’t totally blank for us at the beginning of 2023. Written at the top of this metaphorical slate are these good tidings of great joy: The Lord has come. Christians don’t make plans or set priorities in a vacuum. We start with Jesus and go from there. The Lord has come. Now, how will our lives be different as a result?
And so, both as individuals and as a church, let’s set priorities for 2023 in light of the good news that, in Jesus Christ, God is with us and promises never to forsake us. When we live by this faith, our priorities will always begin with Jesus. It’s hard to imagine a better place for us to start this new year together.
I’m not the first person to notice this, but Matthew makes an
May the peace of Christ be with you!