Whiteboard: Catching Up

Now that we are through the Christmas Season, my holiday travels, and an early 2014 Clergy Retreat, it is time to get caught back up on The Blog!

Here are the last several week's worth of Whiteboard posts complete with a link to the corresponding sermon the church website!

 With the Christ Candle lit this could mean only one thing: the celebration of Christ's birth
(in our hearts and in our world) on Christmas Eve. Click here to listen to my
Christmas Eve homily entitled "An Answer to Prayer."

 Okay, you caught me. This isn't a Whiteboard picture. Instead it is a photo card of my son Henry
and my nephew Ben wishing you a Happy New Year. I was in Texas most of that week, so I
didn't have access to The Whiteboard in my office, but I did still make it back in timeto preach my first sermon of 2014 entitled "What Will It Bring?"

Did you know that the holiest day of the year for the early church wasn't Christmas or Easter?
It wasn't Pentecost or Good Friday or Maundy Thursday either. The holiest day of the year
for the early church was the day they celebrated The Baptism of Christ. Which got me thinking
about "The Fifth With First" and the most holy day of 2014. Click here to listen to

my sermon entitled "The Most Holy Day."

Newsbrief: Invitations

“There are 19 days until Christmas.”

That’s what Henry said to me this morning.

Leave it to my six-year-old son to keep a running count!

So if there are 19 days until Christmas, that means we have 18 days until our Christmas Eve Worship Service! And I need your help getting the word out.

Our Christmas Eve Worship Serive will be a family friendly affair (complete with a Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long and an interactive Children’s Sermon) so make sure to invite your kids or your grandkids, your nieces and nephews, your cousins and any other family member you can think of.

We’ll be sharing stories from scripture, but we’re doing it in a different way this year. So make sure and invite anyone who needs to hear the Christmas story once more and all over again and be touched by the beauty of scripture in a new way. Make sure to invite your friends, your neighbors, your postman, that nice person standing in line in front of you at the mall, and anyone else who can help us celebrate the birth of Christ!

The music is going to be spectacular on Christmas Eve. We’ll have congregational singing, our Celebration praise team is already hard at work on special music, and the Chancel Choir will make their glorious return on Christmas Eve! (The Chancel Choir will be rehearsing this Sunday immediately after worship if you would like to join us.)

In fact, you’ll want to get here early on Christmas Eve to make sure and get a seat (we’re expecting a full sanctuary) and to be a part of the music. The Christmas Carol Sing-A-Long will be a part of our Gathering Music in advance of worship. The Christmas Eve Service will start at 7PM, but we’ll start gathering and singing at least 10 minutes before that…more details to come.

So spread the word and countdown those days until Christmas Eve. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday December 24 at 7PM in the sanctuary. You know, and each Sunday in between too!

Yours in the Journey,
Rev. Brian

Three Things from the Deacon's Meeting

Time to kick-off a new running feature on the blog: The Three Things You Need to Know From...

As I attend different meetings in the life of the church, this running feature will keep you informed on what is going on at Encanto Community Church. I'll do my best to add a post just like this one for every single committee meeting that I attend in the life of the church. And I'll try to post it no later than one day after the meeting!

So without further ado, The Three Things You Need to Know From The Deacon's Meeting!
1) We have made plans and begun assigning parts for the Christmas Eve Worship Service, which will be held at 7:30 PM on Wednesday December 24th in our sanctuary. Won't you please joins us!

2) It will be a service of lessons and carols, with different Deacons reading the scriptural story of Christ's birth and we as the congregation joining our voices with the choirs of angels (and the Encanto Community Church Choir...our local batch of the angelic chorus!) to sing our glad tidings and songs of praise. So really, please join us!

3) Laity Sunday will January 18th and Cindy and Jane will be heading up that service.

Tonight the Trustees and the Church Council will meet, so I'll give you a similar 3-point recap tomorrow of those important meetings in the life of the congregation.