GlocalNet

Three more days!  It’s almost here.

I caught my kids under the tree early in the morning one day last week.  They were shaking each gift and counting how many they could find with their names.  Their joy and anticipation is infectious.  Even today I have found myself sitting in front of the fireplace full of warm fuzzies as I imagine the upcoming activities of this week.  I’m all about listening to the carols and watching White Christmas and Holiday Inn and all of those feel good holiday movies.  I’m the one who can’t sleep on Christmas Eve, waiting for the hours to pass until the sound of 3 little girls feet come running down the steps to see what Santa has delivered.  I love the candlelight of a Christmas Eve service and putting my arms around my family as the Christmas Story is read.  And in the past few years I have learned to enjoy the pureness of community as friends, who like us, have no where to go on Christmas Eve, gather and celebrate Christ’s birth as family in my living room or at the home of someone else from our church.  It’s the time of year when everyone seems to come together.

This morning I was reading USA Today and an article caught my eye.  It was entitled, “Can faith help heal our divide?”  It was an article about our country and the mess that our world finds itself in these days.  And the bottom line of the story was the idea that local pastors (of every faith) might be called upon to do some of the “heavy lifting” to restore our nation.  It was about the whole idea that our nation needs to experience community again and that clergy might be the best people to influence that trend again in our self-centered world.  It was a good article - a bit weak, but all the same, impressive insight for USA Today.

I bet you have already experienced this community that is starting to evolve.  Isn’t it interesting that when all else fails and we come to the end of our own ropes, it’s then that people turn to God?  Neighbors and friends and loved ones need us today quite possibly more than we have ever experienced in our ministries.  They come to us for hope and for a listening ear.  And what do they really need?  COMMUNITY!!  What a unique time to be a church planter. 

It’s my prayer that during this holiday season you will fully experience the joy of children running to the tree to see what Santa delivered.  I pray you will have opportunities to sit back in the warmth of a hot cup of coffee and feel the warm fuzzies of nostalgia and peace.  I pray you will be engulfed with the wonder of Christ’s birth.  And as church planter’s, I pray you will continue to extend community to all of those who need us and the Hope that we have during this season and as the New Year begins.  USA Today might be right.  The healing might just start with us.

Merry Christmas!
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posted by Amy Colón
To continue to connect even more, check out the church planting wives group on Facebook