Friday, December 18, 2009

Preparing For Worship: December 20th, 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I can't believe 2009 is almost in the history books, and once again, we are poised to celebrate the birth of Christ. How time flies!

This is a year of firsts yet again at Crossroads, and we're excited to celebrate! It's the first Sunday that we will have THREE services! Yes, count them, THREE! This is just a special change for this Sunday, seeing that it's "Christmas Sunday." The times for our three services are 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am, so you have three chances to join us for worship and celebration!

The second "first" is that it's the first time that we will have a CHOIR! The Crossroads Christmas Choir has been hard at work for the past seven weeks preparing to help lead worship with the worship band, and also preparing a special piece of their own for your enjoyment!

Our 8:00am service is for the "most godly" of you (as Pastor Todd would say), since it's the earliest, and most selfless service to attend (selfless because it opens up more seats in the 2nd and 3rd services). We'll be doing it a little bit "candle light" style as we sing carols, and celebrate the birth of the Savior.

The 9:30 and 11:00am services will be identical, and will also feature a short musical presentation from our Kids ministry featuring all of our Crossroads kids called "Come To The Manger!"

Here's what's in store:

All three services will start with a pair of carols: "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Joy To The World." High energy, joy-filled carols that call us to celebrate the reality of God made man to live among us!

Then we'll celebrate the outreach that is taking place as I type this down at the Union Rescue Mission, with a short slide show presentation.

Pastor Todd will come up and welcome everyone and pray for the morning, and then during the second and third services, we'll enjoy "Come To The Manger" presented by our 1st-6th grade kids.

Todd will come back up and dismiss us to a short welcome and greeting time. There are sure to be visitors and visiting family, so use this time to minister to someone who may be there for the first time!

We'll pick up our carol-singing again after that with the first and last verses of "O Holy Night" as we let the majesty and wonder of the night affect us, and hopefully cause us to see the manger with fresh eyes and soft hearts.

The choir will then share their song with us entitled "Hope Has Come" which is a great tune from Sovereign Grace Ministries, which by-the-way has a good Christmas album called "Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man" (Click the title to check it out at the Sovereign Grace store).

Then Pastor Todd will come and preach the final message in our Christmas 2009 series called "Looking For Something More?" from Luke 2.

We'll sing one more song together after the sermon "Go Tell It On The Mountain" which is a great way to close our meeting, and take the joy of Christ's birth out into the world.

Lots of really cool stuff happening, so prepare your hearts and minds, and come rejoice in the hope of the Savior with us!

See you there!

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