First Sunday of Advent worship service
Sunday, Dec. 3 at 10:30 a.m.

Second Sunday of Advent service
Sunday, Dec.10 at 10:30 a.m.

Third Sunday of Advent service
with Children’s Christmas Pageant
Sunday, Dec. 17 at 10:30 a.m.

Fourth Sunday of Advent Christmas Eve Service
with “God with Us” Cantata
Sunday, Dec. 24 at 10:30 a.m.

Christmas Day Celebration of Lessons and Carols
Monday, Dec. 25 at 10:00 a.m.

Join us for an old fashioned Hymn Sing on the evening of October 29 at 7:00 p.m. Bring your friends!  It will be followed by a dessert potluck, so bring your favorite dessert as well.

Mark your calendars for a Back To School Family Fun Night at the church on Friday, August 25 at 5:00 pm. Join others for dinner and ‘Minute to Win it’ games. It will be a blast!!

Volunteers are needed to perform mock interviews for the residents of Alameda Point Collaborative.  The days are July 17, 24, 31, and August 4 between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm.  Two or three hour increments are greatly appreciated.  Sectors that would be useful to have represented include Healthcare, Technology, Construction, Trades, Administration, Hospitality, and Management.  If you are interested in serving, please contact Rosalyn Oyenuga at ROyenuga@apcollaborative.org.

Come help cook and serve a free breakfast at Alameda Point Collaborative Residence on Saturday, May 20.  A breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and ham, pancakes, syrup, strawberries, fruits, muffins, orange juice, coffee, tea, and milk will be served from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.  We’re asking volunteers to come at 8:30 to prepare the food and to do the set ups, and then to take an hour afterward to clean up.  If you are interested in volunteering for this event, please stop by the bulletin board by the Fellowship Hall and sign-up.

Children’s Christian Theater Camp (CCTC) is happening again this summer from June 26-30!  This marks our 3rd year of having the opportunity to spend a week sharing God’s love with the kids who come and teaching them how to glorify God through singing, acting, and dancing. See the CCTC page to register.

This Sunday is our GEMS Girls’ Club Sunday. Throughout this GEMS season we have been learning what it means to receive God’s love! God asks us to accept His invitation – He asks us to open our hearts to His personal, pursuing love. And when we do, the overflow continues. His all-encompassing love flows through us and into others.

Join us this Sunday, May 7, at our 10:30 service. We’d love to have you!

Manhattan Christian High School choir and band will be joining us next Sunday, April 9, for our Palm Sunday worship service. This 50-member group from Montana, under the direction of Anna Kalfs, will be performing for the prelude, offertory, special music piece, and postlude in addition to leading in congregational singing.

Lent is a forty-day preparation period for Good Friday and Easter which begins on Ash Wednesday and continues through the Thursday before Easter, not counting Sundays.  In this penitential season, Christians around the world renew their commitment to prayer (right relationship with God), fasting (right relationship with self), and giving (right relationship with others).  These spiritual disciplines slow us down, help us to see the world and our faith in a new way, and hopefully lead us toward greater shalom and justice.

We use the color purple in the sanctuary during Lent. The color symbolizes both the pain and suffering leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus but it is also the color of royalty, and so anticipates through the suffering and death of Jesus the coming resurrection and hope of newness that will be celebrated in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.