I’d like to wish everyone a very meaningful Christmas celebration. I hope the Christmas challenge (relax, give relational gifts and give to others) has helped make this a great holiday season. If you missed our Christmas Eve offering, you can still give online. We hope to buy 3 water purification systems for villages in Ghana and India. We also hope to be able to do more to help folks locally with food, rent and utility needs. Also all year end giving must be postmarked by Dec. 31st for tax credit in 2008.
2008 has been a GREAT year at Pantano Christian Church. I can’t tell you how I love this church. Thank you all for your generous giving. You’ve given your hearts in service. In fact last year about 1070 of our members averaged 43 hours of service each in ministry outside our church (that’s 46,000 hours of volunteer service in our city and the world). And if you add all those who have served on our campus … WOW! This is a church that exists to serve others. I’m so proud to be a part of this kind of community that honors Jesus. Thank you!
While the final numbers for the year are not in, we know our attendance since July has been averaging 250 higher than last year. Our new campus in Sierra Vista has averaged a 100 folks. Since July about a 100 folks have been baptized. While we are $85,000 behind budget, our giving is much better than last year. That is great news in a recession. Plus, we’ve been able to pay off $470,000 of our mortgage through Free and Clear (saving us over a million in principle and interest over the life of the loan). Thank you for your commitment to Christ’s church.
We’ve got some great teaching series planned for 2009. I’m already excited. In January we’ll start the “Can You Hear Me Now?” 5 week series on prayer. We’ll follow that with a 3 week series “God, Sex and the Bible.” In March we’ll do a 5 week series called “Secrets.” After Easter, we’ll do a 6 week series called “One Month to Live” about how to live purposefully and intentionally. In June we start a 7 week series called “7 Things that Kill” where we look at what has traditionally been called the 7 deadly sins.
May this New Year bring the reality of God’s grace and blessing close to you. May you so richly experience God’s blessing that you can freely bless others. Keep being and doing who you are.
Lord willing I’ll be snow skiing next Thursday so I’ll skip my blog for next week.
Together to make a difference in 2009,
Glen
Every so often I look back over my teaching on the weekends to look for patterns. God often teaches me things that keep showing up in different ways and it then usually spills over into my teaching. Here’s what I’ve noticed.
I’ve come to the very strong conviction based on my experience that the key to life is the daily experience of God. Okay, not so revolutionary of an idea, until you actually experience God and His presence on a regular basis. When I think about all the issues we face in life, the challenges, our brokenness, our desire to please God and follow Jesus well – it isn’t about just doing practical things or following the right steps. These “things” and “steps” can be very helpful but only if they lead us to a real connection with God. They are a means to an end.
One of the problems with “religion” is that we lock on to the traditions (which are often good) but miss God (Read Jesus’ powerful teaching on this in Mark 7:1-23). We do this in the Christian faith. “Good Christians read the Bible!” This is true. But just to do it misses the point. Why read? To experience and know God. “Good Christians pray!” Of course! But praying just to pray misses the point. Why pray? To connect with God and be with him because he is present.
God is present. I think that is the most basic and foundational promise of God. He is with us – Immanuel. He will never forsake us or leave us. His presence changes everything. He removes my fear of the future and my fear of people. He calms my anxiety. He directs my steps. But these things are only true as I experience his presence.
God is present. We just miss Him. We don’t notice Him. We often don’t even know what to look for. We get so busy we run right past Him. Our agenda crowds out His agenda. The noise of conversations, the stereo and the TV drown out the voice of God. We look to people first rather than God. And then we wonder where God is when things don’t go well.
This time of year there’s so much attention on beautifully wrapped presents that we give and receive. May we somehow learn, every day of the year, to focus on God’s presence. His presence is more real than any wrapped present. His presence is the ultimate gift. It is the gift that changes everything.
Wishing you and your family a great Christmas celebration – the celebration of God with us. Immanuel! May you experience God in the present.
Together, seeking His presence;
Glen Elliott
GLORee
This past weekend our children’s choir did an outstanding job. Michelle Moll and her team of volunteers worked since summer to prepare for the outstanding presentation reminding us what Christmas is all about. Our kids are just the best! What a great way to start the Christmas season.
Bethlehem Conspiracy
This week we start our Christmas series – The Bethlehem Conspiracy. God had a plan to save and change the world. The first Christmas took most by surprise. We’ll take a fresh look at the ancient Christmas story.
Christmas Eve Services
At the E. Tucson campus we will have 3 Christmas Eve services at 4, 6 and 11pm. The Sierra Vista campus service will be at 4pm. These are family services (no child care). We’ll sing, tell the Christmas story, share communion and end with a candle lighting service. The services will last about an hour.
Christmas Eve Offering
Our Christmas Eve offering this year will be divided between our local benevolence needs and the purchase of 3 water systems. Many are facing huge financial needs right now. Our requests for emergency help are at an all time high. We don’t just give welfare; we help families fix the problems that got them into trouble.
Contaminated water is the #1 cause of death in developing countries. A child dies every fifteen seconds due to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene. 80% of all sickness in the world is attributable to unsafe water and sanitation. PCC and its international partners take a holistic approach to a solution – providing education plus water purification systems.
Water purification systems purify up to 10,000 gallons of water per day. They kill all the germs in the water and the full cost is $1,200 per system. Our partners with the greatest need of water purification systems are in Ghana and Bihar state, India.
Trained PCC members will travel to Africa and India to train our partners in the set up and maintenance of the systems. Our partners will do the hygiene, sanitation, and water source protection training.
Special Christmas Eve offering envelopes will be available in the seats or you can give online as always. This is another way we make a difference.
Together to make a difference;
Glen
I’m encouraging all of us to join the Christmas Challenge this year and it has been well received. The Christmas Challenge is about three things: 1) relax – make the Christmas season unhurried to remember Jesus, 2) give relational gifts – give the gift of time and service or make something and 3) make a difference – take some money saved from buying lots of gifts and help out someone in need. I’ve been excited as I’m planning my relational gifts for my family and friends.
At one of the services when I introduced the relational gift idea, I had this weird inner pause (I hope no one noticed!). It’s amazing the internal conversations I can have while I’m teaching – very strange multi-tasking. Anyway, as I encouraged us all to give relational gifts I said something like; “Instead of giving lots of store bought gifts, give the gift of you.” Then it hit me in that surreal moment. I wonder if others would want “me” rather than store bought gifts. Is Jesus so real in me that others would see a personal gift of time together or my service to them as a desired gift? Would I make a good gift? That was a sobering moment.
How about you? Would you make a good gift? What is getting in the way of you being a blessing to others? What needs to change so that others would desire the gift of you?
That first Christmas day, God offered us the best gift ever – the gift of Himself. God took on flesh and was born into the world as a baby. God came not just to live among us but to give himself fully to us. He held nothing back, not even his life. He gave us unconditional love, the promise of loyalty and forgiveness and grace upon grace. There is no better gift – ever!
The shocking thing to me still is that some don’t want the gift of Jesus. I realize that many reject God because they have rejected his church (God’s people) that has not always acted with integrity, authenticity and grace. And maybe that’s the point again. Are we the kind of folks others want to be around? Are we so much like Jesus that folks would want to be around us more than anything? Or are we the kind of folks that the world looks at and says “No thank you!” Whether we like it or not, we reflect on God by who we are. We are often the only Jesus others see and experience. Pretty humbling and very weighty!
This Christmas, give yourself – a person being formed to be more and more like Jesus. In other words, this Christmas and everyday, give the gift of Jesus to others in the everyday activities and conversations. We are blessed to be a blessing.
Together to make a difference;
Glen
