I trust you had a wonderful Christmas!  I wanted to thank everyone who joined us for our Christmas Eve service and our Christmas Day service.  Both went very well.  We even had to set up an extra 5 rows of chairs on Saturday night to accommodate everyone!  My biggest hope is that the seed of the gospel that was sown will bear fruit and grow in all who heard!  Thanks for bringing family and friends to join us, and for all who were out of town – we missed you!

As we mentioned leading up to those services, we were planning to take an offering at these two services since these would be the last services in 2011 to give.   However, there is still opportunity to give prior to the end of the year and for that contribution to be included in your 2011 tax deductions.  Here are the important things to realize:

1.  Checks DATED December 31st are NOT tax-deductible in  2011 if give on January 1st or later.

2.  Sunday falls on January 1st this year. According to IRS rules, checks given in the offering on Sunday, January 1st, must be counted as a gift in 2012 even if you put a December 2011 date on the check.

3.  If you would like for your contribution to be included in 2011, you can drop off your offering at the office this week.  Our office will be open normal hours Tuesday – Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.  You can  also mail your offering, but again, according to IRS rules, envelopes must be postmarked by December 31st in order to be tax deductible in 2011.

If you have any questions please feel free to call Christine in the church office (757-436-7264).

As always, we are grateful for your giving and support of the gospel here at Sovereign Grace Church.

Grace to you this week,
Eric

PS:  We didn’t have a chance to announce this past weekend, but I wanted to let you know that Mike Napier will be preaching God’s word to us this Sunday!  Last year Matt Hennessey did a wonderful job serving us and we are looking forward to Mike instructing and encouraging us this year.  We’ll see you in the New Year at 10:00 Sunday morning at the corner!

Our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service is this Saturday at 7:00. Cookies and coffee after! See you there!

Many of you may recall that recently on a Sunday morning, one of our care group leaders, Ken Hulme, shared about an upcoming trip to Africa.  We had a chance to here about the plans for the trip and hold Ken up in prayer while he was gone.  Well, as Kirk mentioned this past Sunday, Ken has returned from that trip and will be sharing about his experiences tomorrow night here at the church. Ken will be telling some amazing stories, including stories of miracles, and providing an update about his friend Cyprien’s mother’s journey to heaven.  If you’re interested in hearing more, please join Ken in the Spurgeon Room on Thursday, December 15th, at 6pm.

Please join us tonight at 7:30 at the church for a time of corporate prayer.  We look forward to gathering together as a church family to pray.  We are more desperate for God than we know and He is more eager to meet us and answer prayer than we can imagine.  Please come and let us pray together.

This morning I mentioned the sermon given by Ted Kober, president of Ambassadors of Reconciliation.  The SGM website says:  “At the end of his message, Ted gave a preliminary overview of what his team is learning about Sovereign Grace Ministries. Those comments, which start at the 49-minute mark of the audio, include these observations from their initial research and interviews:

1. SGM has been blessed to grow over the last three decades.
2. SGM has been effective in their focus on church planting and witness.
3. SGM’s quick growth has not been accompanied by the appropriate development of structure, process, and policy (and he lists several examples).
4. A number of people have expressed hurts and anger over the way discipline has been handled within SGM churches.
5. When significant charges were brought against the chairman and several board members, SGM had to develop processes in the midst of conflict. This is extremely difficult. Ideally a system is in place so everyone knows what to expect, but this was not the case for those bringing or receiving allegations.
6. No matter who assisted SGM during this crisis, they were going to be criticized. Nobody could come into the middle of a crisis and design a system that satisfied everyone, and everyone will be able to find something to criticize. This is to be expected in the middle of a conflict.

I would encourage you to listen to the entire message here, but especially the last section in order to receive an update about the process ahead.  As usual, please feel free to ask me or any of the pastors any questions you have.

It was great to be together this morning!

Eric

Good morning,

I want to share with you a wonderful blessing the Lord has provided our church.  Peter Mitchell is a young man who attends our Homeschool Enrichment Program and is working toward advancing to Eagle Scout.  He approached our church several weeks back and volunteered to build us a fire pit, complete with wooden benches.

He and a team of fellow Scouts came out Sunday afternoon and completed the fire pit and benches.  Check out the picture below!  And make sure you stop by and see the real thing sometime.  It’s in the field directly behind the auditorium. 

What a great blessing this will be to our church, especially as these past days have been perfect for a fire!  Great work Peter and thank you Lord for all your many expressions of love and care for SGC.