We’re advertising Christmas… early (sorry)


Yes, Christmas is once again approaching fast - sorry if that’s something you don’t want to be reminded of just now (although there are others who just can’t wait for it to arrive).  However, in the church office we’re trying to look ahead to make sure that everything is ready in time.  


Getting things ready for others - Christmas is probably the only time of year that large numbers of people might think about going to church.  As a church we are trying our best to make sure that they know that they are invited, and know when everything is going on.  So we’re just about to send our Christmas leaflets off to the printers - “12,000 copies please!”  These should be ready for  sorting and delivering by the end of the week - “volunteers please!”  Please come and ask for leaflets for your favourite roads - whatever you can manage would be really helpful.  Of course, a personal invitation to a friend or family member is probably even better than an invite through the door - and there are enough leaflets spare.


Getting ourselves ready - It’s very easy to miss out on the opportunity to reflect afresh on the wonderful message that comes from the bible       passages we read each Christmas.  Maybe they seem just too familiar, or maybe we are in too much of a rush because of all that we are doing (even when they are good things... like delivering church leaflets!).  I’m hoping that our new Sunday morning sermon series (starting this week) will help make sure that this doesn’t happen - it’s called “Visions of  Christmas”.  And we can help ourselves at home by using the book      “One true story” to follow up on some of the themes.                  Mark


Asking for help to be ready - over to Hannah for this bit…


Jesus often made time to withdraw and spend time praying.  As followers of Jesus, we can easily identify with Jesus’ need to escape the rush, but how often do we actually do it?  Even more importantly, if we do manage a bit of time to ourselves, how often do we use that time to pray?


As we hurtle towards Christmas, why not do just that at St John’s at 7.30pm on Wednesday 27th November?


This will be a chance to praise and thank God, committing all of our Christmas events to Him.  We will explore different ways to pray, taking a bit of time to follow Jesus’ example, to withdraw and recharge ourselves so that we are ready to give our very best to our loving Father over the Nativity season.            Hannah