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To My Grace Place Church Family,

I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and have been able to enjoy some family and relaxation over the holidays.  Here are important several things for you to know:

·        Break the Famine

We are reading through the Bible together as a congregation starting Thursday, January 1.  The reading plan for each day can be accessed from the front page of our website if you don’t have your reading plan with you.  If you ordered a journal or Bible and haven’t picked it up yet, you can stop by either office today or tomorrow before noon.

This week there will be a limited number of bookmarks available at each service for those who did not purchase a journal.  The bookmarks indicate the daily reading plan for the first three months of the year.  They will be distributed on a quarterly basis.

Let us know if you are not in a small group and would like to join one or are willing to host or facilitate.  We are planning three regional small group gatherings (Loveland, Berthoud, and Longmont) in January so you can meet others in your area who are in small groups or wanting to join small groups.  Watch for details.

·        Giving

There has been a strong surge in giving the last couple weeks (compared to the first two weeks of December). This is such a blessing since we have been very tight financially.  Thanks for your faithfulness and generosity toward God’s work through Grace Place.  If you would still like to make a donation before the end of the calendar year you can stop by either campus office before noon tomorrow (New Year’s Eve), or put a check in the mail and get it postmarked no later than December 31.

·        New Series

This weekend we begin a new six part series called “Origins of Grace.”  We will survey the main stories found in the book of Genesis and look especially at how we can see Jesus and the gospel foreshadowed in those stories.  If you are following the Break the Famine reading plan, you will read the stories before I teach on them which will make the messages even more meaningful.  I encourage you to bring your Bibles to the worship gatherings for maximum impact and learning.

·        Thursday Night Worship

To all of our faithful Thursday night regulars in Berthoud (and occasional Thursday night visitors) we ARE meeting for worship this Thursday, January 1.  What a great way to start the new year.  Tom Ewing will be our guest worship leader.

·        Crystal Darkness

On Wednesday, January 7, 6:30—7:00 PM, the broadcasters of Colorado are teaming together to air a Telly and Emmy Award winning documentary called Childhelp Crystal Darkness aimed at fighting back against the scourge of crystal methamphetamine. Nearly every broadcaster in the state will be participating and they will be pre-empting all programming to air this in unison. It’s an unprecedented event in the history of the state.  Meth is a drug that is tearing apart families and all of our children are targeted.  This is helpful information as we team up as a state to fight back!

·        Desperate Houselives

Mark your calendars for a spiritual feast on February 12-15.  My friend and mentor, Dr. Richard Fredericks, Senior Pastor of Damascus Road Community Church, will be here presenting a weekend series called Desperate Houselives:  1) Desperate Parenting, Thursday, 6:45 PM (Berthoud); 2) Desperate Marriages, Saturday morning (Berthoud); 3) Desperate Finances, Sunday (regular service times at both campuses).  You can attend any or all of the series. Richard will present thought-provoking and wise counsel from God’s Word in a practical and gospel-centered way.

On Saturday (Valentines Day) we will be hosting a Marriage Summit during the morning and early afternoon which will include continental breakfast and lunch.  Pre-registration will be required.  Make plans now to attend.  More information will follow.

·        Baptisms

Last weekend there were 10 baptisms in Berthoud and Loveland—some planned, some spontaneous.  In the coming year we hope to include more frequent opportunities for baptism in our worship gatherings and look forward to seeing many take the plunge!

Happy New Year!

With much love,

Clay

We will be starting a new series Jan 1/Jan 4 entitiled “Origins of Grace”…

I’m looking forward to being with the Grace Place church family tonight for Christmas Eve, 5 PM at Thompson Valley High School.  Come early at 4 for children’s pictures with St. Nick, or at 4:30 for a concert with Brett Wilson and band.  If you’re traveling, be safe and hurry back soon.  Have a blessed Christmas celebration and remember what it is all about:

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11)

I was on a roll, lamenting the fact that biblical illiteracy is not only in the world but in the church.  I was giving examples of how many young people in my wife Selene’s classroom don’t even know the basic stories of the Bible.  It’s bad enough that I did a double mess up without even catching it, but to do so while I was passionately decrying the fact that many today don’t know the most well known stories that everyone should know—well, I guess I deserve to be laughed at.  So… go ahead and laugh!

The Bible says that believers are supposed to grow up and become mature.  “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation.” (1 Peter 2:2). If we stay in the highchair spiritually and on the bottle we will remain a spiritual “fat little baby.”  We showed this video at our worship gatherings last week (thanks Becky for making it!).  There is something seriously disturbing about grown men in diapers!

As Christians celebrating “Christmas” is not just focusing on December 25^th [a day], but entering into a whole Advent season. 

Christmas as a materialist’s dream day is actually a very recent phenomenon from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (racking up serious debt at Christmas didn’t arrive until the advent of plastic in the 1960’s). In this version, happiness arrives as piles of presents wrapped in boxes, now purchased on credit—gifts no one will remember in three years (what was your favorite Christmas present in 2005?—quick answer!)  

Historically Christians celebrate the whole month, not in frantic gift-buying, but by honoring the Incarnation: God coming to be with us. Jesus’ birth is recorded in Luke 1-2 and Matthew 1-2.  The spirit in this great story, so counter to a sprit of greed, becomes infectious.  It is the spirit of great joy (Luke 2:9-12).

Resist debt. Don’t buy things people don’t really need and the whole month will be better.  Those of you with children, gifts matter, but not nearly as much as stories read and the memories of walks and talks and heart-moments.  

Here are seven tips for the Advent Season:

1. Read through the Gospel of Luke, chapter one and two by December 15^th.  If you’ve read them dozens of times, then ask God to show you something new. Then read Luke 2 again on Christmas day.
2. Be amazed at God entering the suffering of our world to redeem it; becoming a Baby to restore us into His family.
3. Dive into Rick Warren’s: The Purpose of Christmas, a heart-orientation toward the meaning of this season.
4. Read O Henry’s short story: The Gift of the Magi.  Do it again if it has been a while, it takes only a few minutes, but its perspective can reorient your whole month.
5. Watch: It’s a Wonderful Life for the 20^th time.  But before you hit play, ask yourself: who, in this story, more accurately portrays my spirit this season: Mr. Potter or George Bailey?
6. Watch the George C. Scott version of Dickens’s Christmas Carol and really ponder how Scrooge became Scrooge, the lesson Jacob Marley teaches, the key point of each spirit’s redemptive lesson.
7. Listen to the lyrics of the biblically-based Christmas carols playing all around you.  Don’t zone them out.  Ask yourself: Do I believe that?  Do I trust that God, that love, that salvation, right now?