SIMPLE CHRISTMAS

This year’s advent theme has been SIMPLE CHRISTMAS. It has been fun to tell the story of Jesus’ birth using some of the main characters involved in the Christmas Story. Sean brought a message about the Simple Worship of the Shepherds. I brought the teachings about the Simple Offering of the Inn Keeper offering Mary and Joseph what he had. We can’t offer him what we do not have right? This past Sunday we talked about the Simple Message of the Angels: fear not, give God glory, peace on earth and the favor of God. This coming Sunday morning I will talk about Simple Gifts given by the Magi. I have enjoyed this teaching series on Simple Christmas.

We celebrate the ultimate meaning of Simple Christmas this Sunday evening with our annual Christmas Carols, Communion and Candlelight Service at 6:00 p.m. For years this has been the largest attended service of the year for JIBC. We are planning for a beautiful service built around our Advent theme…Simple Christmas. We will have a preschool nursery available. School age children will join us in the Worship Center for our service.

Thank you for the mission support for James Island Outreach, Florence Crittenton, Lowcountry Pregnancy Center, and Lowcountry Orphan Relief. Your response to help the poor and less fortunate has been outstanding. You put the Christ in Christmas with joy and love. Thank you.

If you are still looking for a way to give and make an impact, I suggest a gift to Southern Baptist International Missions, Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Missionaries around the world will be blessed with your gifts. Every penny you give goes to the missionaries and not one cent is used for promotion or other fees. It really is getting the biggest bang for your buck. Southern Baptists support almost 4,000 full time missionaries around the world. At least four of them are from James Island Baptist. Thank you for praying and supporting them.

I hope to see you this Sunday morning at worship and then for the Christmas Eve service. If I do not, Janie and I wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christ-filled Christmas.

Pastor Tom

2018 New Addition to our Ministry

We have budgeted for and are planning on having a police officer present at our morning services. An officer may not be present every week but will most likely be present most weeks. I know it is hard to believe, but this is becoming more and more a standard operating procedure for many church families.