Chads News - 28th November 2024
28 November 2024 12:00
Dear Church Family,
December is nearly here and with it the start of Advent. Advent is a season of anticipation as we await Jesus’s return and remember that he came into poverty, to set us free and from humble beginnings bring hope of a better kingdom. We are marking the start of Advent with ‘Missions Sunday’ on 1st December. This will be an opportunity to build on last week’s sermon of Good News for the poor and hear more from Katie about her trip to Uganda. (She did promise to share more in her wonderful letter in last week’s Chads news)
We have so much going on through December that we are going to be sending you Chads News weekly for a few weeks rather than overwhelm you! One of the joys of this season is that it gives each of our ministries and partnership opportunities for special events, to invite members of our community to take the journey home, to knowing Jesus for themselves. We reach out throughout the year and so Christmas is an opportunity to take the relationships deeper, through enthusiastically inviting those we connect with through the year, and helping them to connect with Jesus.
First and foremost, please pray. Pray for those who are part of the ministries you serve, pray for those you know in your community and friendship network, pray for those you will be inviting to St Chads this Christmas. When we pray, God does amazing things and without prayer our efforts are to be honest, fairly futile in comparison to God’s work. So pray! Oasis, Mini-Chadders, The Cherry Tree Project, Warm Space, Blast, the LifeCentre, the care home visiting team, our youth groups and Rainbow all have special events coming up. Chads News isn’t the place to share all the details of specific groups, (again we don’t want to overwhelm you) and each group will be communicating directly with those who are involved. So please pray for those running those events and for all who will be invited to hear more about Jesus.
We will be gathering to pray for all that is going on this Christmas on Tues 10th (evening) and Weds 11th (daytime), these really are such a vital part of St Chads life, we long to see others share in the hope that we have found in Jesus. So do join us for those events.
And finally, can I encourage you to prayerfully give to our Christmas generosity campaign if you haven’t already done so. It is a real privilege to be able to bless those in need in our community in this way and in order to prepare that and distribute the gifts in time for Christmas the final deadline for responses for that are this Sunday 1st December.
With love,
Richard