This past Sunday we saw a great response to three needs: First we saw a lot of jelly for James Island Outreach and the effort to help provide food for the under-served and those in need. For those who are a little more ambitious, you can order jelly on line from Dollar Tree for $1 a jar…they are smaller jars, but that is still a pretty good deal! Second, we saw lots and lots of candy come in for the Fall Festival. Wow…that is a lot of sweets. We still need around a ton and a half more, lol; so keep it coming. Third, we are seeing a good response to the sign up for the Fall Festival Booths. We expect to have over 500 guests on Monday, October 31. It will take a JIBC army to have all the bases covered. Our Connection Groups and volunteers can make it happen.
We have some new folks in our church family, so let me share again, the vision of Fall Festival. We try to put on a family friendly, safe event that goes head to head with Halloween. This is not a Halloween Festival, it is a Fall Festival. We are taking back what the enemy has stolen. So, we ask that everyone from JIBC that participates, not wear scary, spooky, ghoulish, bloody, sexy, provocative, disturbing costumes. Sorry if I ruined your favorite holiday. There are plenty of other events for you to go to. This one is designed to be a family friendly fun event. Your children can still have an outstanding time, get lots of goodies and enjoy your time together as a family. Now here is the deal. When the public is invited, we do not stop them from coming dressed in traditional costumes. Kind of the same way we don’t stop people from coming to worship with us who live traditional secular lives. Every Sunday we have people, some of us included, who wear masks. We just wear the nice mask on the outside to cover the real scary stuff underneath. You get that right? Not everyone who comes on Sunday is Christ focused. Some don’t yet know Him and some who say they know Him act like they don’t really like Him. Every week we have a gathering of the nones (they don’t identify with any belief or religion); the nominals (those who are believers but are not really serious about it) and the Bible believing, Christ-centered followers (those who seriously try to live out their faith). That is exactly who we expect to come to the Fall Festival. It is our prayer, that we can help build a bridge for them to know and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. We try to move them from the community, to the crowd to the church, to the committed to the core to the sent!
Way to go JIBC, way to go!
Pastor Tom
