The Songs of Christmas
Telling the Story through Music
2 great opportunities for you to experience the sounds of the Christmas season this Sunday...
Our Choir will presenting The First Noel: Celebrating the Birthday of the King at the 8:45 service.
Our 525 Worship team will also be leading us in the songs of Christmas at the 10:45 service.
Come to receive the gift of music at 8:45...stay to keep singing the songs of the season at 10:45 (after a wonderful hour of fellowship and discipleship at Soul Cafe/Kingdom Quest/Fuel/etc.).
I'll be sharing the message: He Came to Bring...LOVE at the 10:45 service.
We'll be receiving our "regular" offering and "March to the Manger" special missions offering at both services on Sunday. Our March to the Manger offering, along with our Christmas Eve and pre-Easter "Parade of Palms" offerings, goes to fund our annual missions budget. Our 2019 Missions Budget is set at $13,300. In 2018, giving above and beyond the mission team's budgeted line items has also been used to help support Chaddock Children's Home, the Our Conference/Our Kids initiative, United Methodist supported disaster relief, our community ministry partnerships, and MORE.
In recent years, many families have given a tithe (or 10%) of their total Christmas spending to the March to the Manger/Christmas Eve offerings. Others have "matched" the cost of the most expensive gift they've purchased for themselves or family members, added a few dollars, and given that amount to this special offering as a way to ensure Jesus receives their biggest gift at Christmas (after all it is His birthday, and He has given us the greatest gift ever).
I'm looking forward to celebrating "The Birthday of the King" with you all on Sunday...and in the coming weeks!
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Pastor Steve
* Ministries supported within our Missions Budget include: the Midwest Distribution Center, the Salvation Army, South Side Mission, Peoria's Neighborhood House, Peoria Bethel UMC's Neighborhood Ministry, Common Place, the Center for Prevention of Abuse, Central Illinois Young Life, Redbird Mission, Chaddock Children's Home, the Baby Fold, Habitat for Humanity, our own food pantry and MANY more local/national/international ministries!