Do you ever have something coming up in your life, which causes you to be excited thinking of its arrival?  I’m in that situation as I look forward to our worship series for advent.  Our series is titled, “Heaven and Nature Sing! 300 years of Joy to the World.  Yes, the treasured hymn, “Joy to the World,” has been around now for 300 years.

This advent season, we will consider joy, and its intended purpose in our lives.  With the first week of advent, we will explore Hopeful Joy.   In the weeks to follow, we will consider Loving Joy, Unabashed Joy, Peaceful Joy. On Christmas Eve, we will take a look at Incarnate Joy.  Finally, we will close our series on December 29th by considering Compassionate Joy.

Theresa Manning will be leading a study during this time to augment the series, with a book study on Ann Voskamp’s book, One Thousand Gifts.  Theresa will conduct these studies on Sunday mornings during the 9:30 service, and another morning during the week.  Look to next week’s Messenger for further details on the study.

Through our series this advent, I hope we will all find the courage to pursue joy because happiness will never be enough for our hearts. Still, joy will lead and feed us even when life brings its many challenges.

Anticipating Blessings,
Rev. Don