The word advent means arrival or coming. In our case, the case of Christianity, it refers to the coming, the arrival of Jesus Christ. We celebrate two advents: the first celebrates the birth of Christ and the second celebrates His return.
The Advent season includes the four Sundays before Christmas. You know I love all things Christmas. The only thing I do not really love is the temptation to go into debt to pay for more celebrating than can be afforded. I love Christmas decorations…and by the time you read this my family decorations and the church decorations should be up! I love the Christmas lights at the county park and in the neighborhoods. I love the Biblical stories about the advent/coming of Christ. I love Christmas music, the old hymns, FM102.5 that plays Christmas music and all my old school Christmas CD’s.
All that being said, one of my favorite parts of Christmas at JIBC is how we have connected missions and worship. Each Sunday of Advent has a different mission emphasis. We partner with others to accomplish the work of Christ. The first Sunday of Advent is November 29. We will highlight the mission of The Lowcountry Pregnancy Center. We are helping them to collect diapers of any size. If you would like to buy some diapers, you can bring them any Sunday during December. The second Sunday of Advent, December 6, highlights The Lottie Moon International Missions. We have some really cool opportunities here. Janie and I always make the Lottie Moon Offering our first Christmas gift of the year. The third Sunday of Advent helps children in our community who are at risk of not having a meal over the weekend. This past Thursday, as we were leaving James Island Outreach, a team from JIBC was arriving to help pack food bags for Backpack Buddies. I love it! Then the last Sunday of Advent, December 20 is our mission partner, James Island Outreach. Our church family is the jelly church. We have been asked to provide jelly for the outreach. So when you are shopping, look for the BOGO deals on jelly! By the way, JIBC is on track to give 10,000 pounds of food for 2020. In a year of greatest need you gave the greatest offering in our history!
We top it all off with our annual Christmas Eve Carols, Communion and Candlelight services at 4:00 and 6:00 PM. Covid-19 has made this a little bit challenging but we are up to the challenge. We will be giving out free tickets that will help us monitor the size of our attendance. You may reserve your tickets at www.jamesislandbaptist.com. And we will have an overflow room in the Fellowship Hall that will have a wonderful experience should we run out of seats!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Enjoy and celebrate the Gospel story revealed in the Christmas event. See you Sunday, good Lord willing!
Pastor Tom
