IT IS OFFICIAL!

We have just entered into the “Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!” I usually wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas and start listening to Christmas music. By the time we gather again, it will be officially Christmas Season. I say it every year, so let me go ahead and get it out of the way. I love almost every part of Christmas: The Christmas Story, Christmas music, lights, festivals, gift giving, special meals and goodies, the cooler temperatures, caroling at the nursing homes and on and on I could go. I do not like the extra traffic. Although, who could tell if it was extra or just regular terrible traffic! And, I do not like stories of people going into debt over Christmas. Please do not make this wonderful time of the year a financial burden.

Our Advent Theme this year is “The Best Gifts Ever”. I will be teaching a series of messages about the best gifts God has ever given us. By the way, the word “advent” means coming. It refers to the coming of our Lord Jesus. It is the celebration of the birth of God’s Son, our Savior. I am of the opinion that you cannot celebrate that too much. Just because the secular world tries to take “Jesus” out of Christmas does not mean we throw the baby Jesus out with the bath water…so to speak. We use Advent to help us WORSHIIP the King and to celebrate His coming. We also use advent to do MISSIONS. We combine the giving of Christmas with giving to help others. Here is how we can do it this year. If you are able, please join us in donating the following. 1) Diapers or wipes for The Lowcountry Pregnancy Center. Let’s help those who courageously chose life over death.  2) We are the jelly church on James Island. Let’s bring jelly and/or pancake syrup to help the underserved. 3) We can never forget the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering that goes to support our International Missionaries. 4) We are asking for Visa Gift cards of any amount. These will all go to Western North Carolina to help hurricane Helene victims.

Someone once asked “How come people aren’t this giving all year long?” I replied, “You need to come hang around the James Island Baptist Family. It is the most wonderful time of the year all year long for these great folks!”

See you Sunday at our first week of Advent celebration.

Pastor Tom

THIS SUNDAY: A SUNDAY OF THANKSGIVING

This Sunday is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I am praying it will be a special day in so many ways.

FIRST: We will combine the 9:00 Worship Gathering with the 11:00 Worship Gathering. There will NOT be a 9:00 service this Sunday. If you show up at 9:00 for worship, our Kitchen Krew will put you to work helping prep for the Thanksgiving Meal! Lol. As a part of this day of unity combining the two services, we will have name tags available at all the entrances. Our greeters will be glad to assist you. We should have a packed house!

SECOND: We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. The Greek word Eucharist means “thanksgiving”. It has become synonymous with “the Lord’s Supper”. We will put our focus on the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. We do this in remembrance of Him! There will be communion stations in 6 different locations around the worship center. Feel free to visit any of them when we reach that point in the service.

THIRD: We will have a church-wide Thanksgiving lunch together. I have already heard people talking about Chef Barry’s dressing! Bring it on. No charge, just wonderful fellowship and delicious food. It may be a little crowded but we can make it work. There will be seating in the Genesis Class room also. As an overflow, we will have tables ready to set up upstairs in the Youth Worship room. What a great day this will be!

FOURTH: If you still have energy and are looking for your cup to be filled even more, there is the Community Wide Thanksgiving Service at Emmanuel Baptist Church on Folly Road. It is always an inspiring service or praise and thanksgiving! It starts at 4:00.

Now, it is not too early to shift gears and talk about Advent. Advent means coming and it refers to the coming of Jesus to Bethlehem. It is the Christmas Story. At JIBC we have tried hard to let Advent overshadow the commercial side of Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas songs, decorations, lights and gift giving. The only thing I really do not like about Christmas is IF someone goes in debt! Please do not do that.

This year’s advent theme is “ADVENT: THE BEST GIFTS EVER!”. We have combined mission, worship and celebration to the Advent season. We are asking our church family and friends to consider donations to our four mission projects. 1) Diapers and wipes for Lowcountry Pregnancy Center; 2) Jelly and syrup for James Island Outreach; 3) An offering for International Missions/Lottie Moon Christmas Offering; 4) Visa gift cards to be taken to Western North Carolina Helene victims. Worship and mission…I love the combination!

See you Sunday, good Lord willing.

Pastor Tom

Three Blessings Coming Soon

First, the blessing of Thanksgiving. Starting this Sunday I will be preaching a two-part teaching series on “Giving Thanks”. The goal is to lead us right up to the Thanksgiving Season with hearts and minds prepared to celebrate the goodness of God. Of all the spiritual disciplines that I could recommend, giving thanks and being thankful would be at the top of the list.

Second, on Sunday, November 24 we will be observing the Lord’s Supper together. Now, here is the catch. We will have only one service on November 24. The 9:00 Worship service will join the 11:00 service. The Lord’s Supper is sometimes referred to as Communion. What a great word. Communion with God, the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Communion with our forever family! It is a great word. Communion is based on the Greek word for fellowship. It will be one of the few times we all join together (koinonia-fellowship) in one service!

The third blessing is something we have not tried in a while. Out Kitchen Krew will be preparing and serving a special Thanksgiving Meal for our entire church family. There is no charge for this meal …just come and enjoy. The Kitchen Krew did ask that anyone who would feel so inclined might make and bring your favorite dessert! This Sunday will necessitate a little disruption for the two Bible Study Connection Groups that meet weekly in the Fellowship Hall and in the Genesis Class room. I think Jan Cooper’s class will meet upstairs in the Youth Room and the Genesis Class will meet in their room, but around the tables that are set up for the Sunday meal.

So, there you go, three blessings yours for the taking! I hope you will participate and be blessed by all three. Believe it or not, when we are finishing the Thanksgiving Meal on November 24, our “Christmas Elves Team” will be in fully engaged in decorating the worship center for the Advent Season! Don’t say it, don’t say it…sorry, I have to say it “IT’S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!” I love this time of the year from the Fall Festival to the last Sunday of Advent.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

ONE BITE AT A TIME

I know it is an old joke: “how do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time!” That is how I think about our church-wide ministry “PRAY CHARLESTON 24/7”. This is a BIG elephant to eat. Here are the basics. There seems to be a Kingdom movement happening in the greater Charleston area. At last count there were over 100 churches representing over 16 different denominations working together to pray for Charleston 24 hours a day every day. Different churches will approach this different ways. Bottom line is that there will be Followers of Jesus that will be praying for Charleston, every day, all day! I cannot remember the last day event that called together over 100 churches from over 16 denominations. Maybe a Billy Graham Crusade but I cannot think of much else. That signals to me that this is something special, something different. It feels like and even “smells” like a Kingdom of God movement.

HOW DO YOU FIT IN? We are asking our JIBC friends and family to pick one 15 minute time slot for every month on the 10th. So, November 10 will be our “soft launching”. Then we will pray again on Tuesday, December 10. Then we will cover the next 10th, which would be Friday, January 10.

• You are asked to pray for one 15 minute time period. You do not have to pray for that entire day, the 10th. Only for the 15 minute time period you signed up for.

• You can pray for your city, the Mayor, your representatives, the homeless, First Responders, etc. We are seeking to cover our city with prayer asking God’s forgiveness and asking for His blessings.

• Of course you can pray for more that 15 minutes. And we may very well have several people praying during the same time slot, say 1:30 p.m. on every day that is the 10th. No problem is someone picks the same time as you. That is great! If my math is right, we will need to cover a total of 96 fifteen minute time periods. Those really tough hours, we are asking some of our overseas mission partners to join in for coverage. *Remember, you can pray at home. This does not need to be at the church campus. You can pray at home, on lunch break, traveling in your car. He can hear us wherever we are.

Imagine if every day of 2025 there were believers praying and seeking God’s face. Hundreds of churches, maybe thousands of believers, and over 16 denominations uniting our Holy City in prayer. Now that is a worthy goal. We are starting now in order to get our system ironed out. This Sunday will be our “soft launch”. We will be warming up in November and December. Come January, we will be in full “Go Mode”.

Two or three ways you can get on board with the mission. One, you can go to the church app; go to missions tab; tap the Pray Charleston tab, choose your time slot. There are other resources there about how to pray, what to pray, prayer topics, etc. This is a great entry point for those just starting to add prayer to their spiritual habits. It is also a challenge to those who are already on their prayer journey.

Two, there will soon be a sign up point on the main church bulletin boards by the water fountain going into the Fellowship Hall. Third way, see me or Kyle and hand us a piece of paper with your name and time preference, we will get ‘er done for you!

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you fill a 24 hour prayer vigil? One 15 minute slot at a time. See you Sunday,

Pastor Tom