Today I preached the first message in the series, From Humbug to Hallelujah - a sermon series celebrating Advent and the Christmas season. This year we are making a concerted effort to not wait until Christmas to celebrate the coming of Jesus to the earth. It is so typical for us as Baptists to neglect anything that remotely resembles Christian tradition for fear of being too "Catholic", but the fact is that the early church and the church throughout the centuries has established the Christian calendar with Advent, Epiphany, and Lent (to name a few) to help us remember what God has done and give us a calendar to celebrate with. So we used an Advent wreath (the first time I have ever seen one used in a Baptist church) and celebrated the first week of Advent, which is preparing for the coming of Christ. It was good. The music left much to be desired because of some confusion with the power point. The music was selected well, dealing with preparing for Christ's coming (Come Thou Long Expected Jesus and O Come, O Come Emmanuel), but the execution was not good. Oh well - these things happen, right?!
This was the completion of the Thanksgiving weekend, and we were WAY down in attendance because of vacations as well as illness. We only had 46 (which three months ago would have been a great attendance!), but the Spirit was present. We had Christine, Joey's sister with us, and she seemed to be moved by the message. Kim and Andy were with us again, and I think Andy is ready to make a commitment to us beyond the occasional attending. Rod and Elizabeth have done a tremendous job in ministering to them. I have to meet with Andy and Kim on Thursday evening, and I am looking forward to fielding some of their questions.
So while it was a below average day attendance-wise, we had a good day this first week of Advent, and God continues to bless The Journey.
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