Kenny Hibbard

As you prepare to come and enjoy our special Christmas Services on December 23rd and on Christmas Eve, I wanted to share with you a great part of the experience you will enjoy. KC and our worship band have been working with the Marching Band at Porter Ridge High School. The Porter Ridge Band will be providing your favorite Christmas songs in the CSF Breeze Way area as you enjoy our Christmas Cafe before and after each service.

Your favorite songs will be done “Big Band” style as you Fellowship with family and friends in the cafe. Then during the Special Christmas Service the Porter Ridge Band will…….(sorry can’t tell you. It would take all the surprise out of the special service.)

What I can tell you is this…..do whatever you can to make one of the five services we are offering. Also, be sure to invite family and friends to join you. Many CSF volunteers are serving in the Nursery and other places for one or more of the services and then attending another with invited guests.

I also wanted to take this time to THANK all the CSF staff and volunteers that will make our special Christmas services so awesome and life-changing. At CSF we have found that many non-churched and non-Christian people will attend a service on Christmas Eve. This is the major reason we are having five services on this special weekend. We could have just done the services on Sunday and called it a day. Be done by Sunday afternoon and start the Christmas celebration. However, our main purpose is to reach out to those who do not go to church and are not followers of Christ. If one of the best times to reach a non-churched person is Christmas Eve night….then we feel it is well worth our effort to provide it.

Every year we have people accept Christ on Christmas eve. Every year people who were not involved in any church before Dec 24th, come that night and continue to come in January and the following months. Every year we baptize people in the summer that came to Christ on Christmas Eve or their faith journey started on Dec 24th.

We will have hundreds of volunteers that serve graciously over those five services. Our band, tech and staff pastors will put in a lot of time in those two days. However, seeing people come and experience Christ at Christmas is worth the effort. I know for me and my family, our time around the tree on Christmas morning is much sweeter knowing we have been a small part of helping to change people’s lives.

Christmas is about giving….Thank you for giving of your time and gifts to help change lives this Christmas. Of course, the reason we have never had Sunday services the following Sunday after Christmas is to allow our hard working staff and volunteers a chance to be with family and travel if needed, without feeling obligated to rush back for Sunday services.

It is a strategic win-win for everyone. We provide services at times when non-churched people are most likely to attend and then take a break and be with our families when most people are still traveling.

Jesus was clear as to why we should focus on those who are with out hope in Christ…

Luke 15:7 “I tell you..there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”

Get ready to “strike up the band” and lets celebrate with all of heaven!

During the Christmas season our creative staff tries to present the Christmas story along with all it’s teachable principles as best we can and in a way that is fresh, practical and meaningful. Of Course, the Christmas story never changes and it needs to be shared every year.

As a kid growing up in church I remember cynically thinking….”Well it is December, time to hear about: Mary, Joseph, the donkey, the inn-keeper, the manger, the angels, the shepherds and of course the wise men. I had heard the same sermons and Sunday School lessons during the four weeks of December my whole life.

I have to be honest with you. As a kid and then teenager hearing the same story over and over and over and over at the same time of year….it was very boring. I loved Jesus and the fact that he came as a “babe in the manger” to be the Savior of the world. However, the presentations from my teachers and pastor were the same every year. (I later learned that he was like many pastors…they actually use the same sermons every year….yuck!) No practical application to current events. No creative way of telling the same story so that it may be applied differently this year as the listener is going through different things in his or her life. Nope…just telling the story as if it were “Dick & Jane going up the hill!”

Of course, at CSF, we always teach the story during this time of year. However, we focus on trying to present in a way that is creative, experiential, moving, practical and fun…all this while never losing the simple message of the greatest story ever told. Every year is a little different than the last, but all help us appreciate the story in a life-changing way.

The next two Sundays have been designed to touch those who have been Christ followers for a while and know the story very well AND for those who are novices to the story of Christ. Be praying about who it is that you can invite! It will change their life!

Now….what Story should you rent? I highly recommend you rent and watch with your family the movie “The Nativity Story” which came out last year. It is well done and will shed some light on what Mary and Joseph had to go through in a very personal way. Having heard the story my whole life and having taught if for 17 years….I was moved and “felt” the story in a whole new way!

You should also start reading the story…Here is a good place to start:

Luke 1: 1-2 “Many have undertaken to draw up an account of things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the world. Therefore…..

Go ahead…grab your Bible and take time to read the story!

Okay….only 13 days left until Christmas! How are you doing with your grown-up Christmas list? I pray that you have been able to listen to the messages, take them to heart and then make some practical lifestyle changes.

How is your anxiety level?

I read yesterday that this time of year is the highest for depression and anxiety. Doesn’t that sound crazy? It is crazy that during this wonderful time of year people stress themselves out and allow themselves to get all worked up.

As I said on Sunday, we can achieve true contentment by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, truly believing the fact that He accepts us and loves us unconditionally. Moreover, we can rest peacefully each night even in the midst of relational, financial and other storms that we may be passing through.

Do you truly believe that God loves you unconditionally? Do you believe that he will take care of you and your family? Do you really trust Him with your life? Do you trust Him with your finances? Do you truly believe that God can take care of you come January?

If so, then relax…..and rest in his safe, strong and loving arms.

This is the message of Christmas….Unto us a Savior has been born. If we allow Him to be to us what the Angels declared that he desires to be……we can sleep in heavenly peace…every night.

1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.

CSF Christmas Reminders:

* This Friday is the Walter Bickett Christmas Mission. Please have your gifts to the office by 5pm today.

* Please continue to invite friends to our Special Christmas Services on Dec 23/24th.

* Please continue to pray and then give toward our Year-End-Gift. All mailed in gifts must be postmarked no later than Dec 31st to go on 2007 tax statements!