CCC Gainesville | Blog
This month the Financial Team* has been putting before you 5 minute presentations on various aspects of stewardship. Entitled “The Costs of Ministry; The Rewards of Generosity”, the topics have been:
Week 1: CCC 2013 Financial Presentation Pt 1 (through the lens of creation/fall/redemption)–Rob Pendley
Week 1: CCC 2013 Financial Presentation Pt 1 (through the lens of creation/fall/redemption)–Rob Pendley
Week 2: Where we (Christ Community) are financially; a basic financial update—Adam Means, deacon and church treasurer
Week 3: CCC 2013 Financial Presentation Pt 3—Nate Henkel, elder
Week 4: Personal Testimony, Awareness of ways to give and classes to help– Jen & Tony Hernandez
Anytime money and stewardship is discussed there are chords struck. If you find yourself in a spot to make some changes in the way you steward your resources–great! We’re all growing and learning. One thing we’ve learned is that as church leadership we haven’t been keeping God’s teaching on money before you very well. Though we mail quarterly giving statements, I wondered what we’d done elsewhere. I looked back at what we’d blogged in 2013 and they were either in February or the last 3 weeks. We’re committed to being more regular in our communication in 2014.
2013 financial posts–so far
What is Stewardship? (February 6)
How should I steward my wealth? (February 7)
The Costs of Ministry, the rewards of generosity (November 7)
Financial presentation from Adam Means (November 14)
*Your financial team is: Adam Means, Tony & Jen Hernandez, Debbie Staples, Ron Thaler, James Schrader
We would like to give some information about events going on with the youth group for the rest of the year.
There is NO youth group Sunday, November 24th. This past Sunday, November 17th was our final youth group of the 2013 calendar year.
While the weekly Sunday night youth group meetings have ended, there still is one final event for the 2013 calendar year. There will be a Christmas progressive dinner that will take place on Sunday December 8th from 5 pm – 8:30 pm.
The youth will enjoy a three-course meal as we travel to 3 different houses! There will be games and contests that will take place at each house. All of the details for this event are currently being planned by the Youth Team, but we will send out an email with further information by Wednesday, December 4th at the latest. We hope that many of your youth (and their friends!) will be able to enjoy a night of food, fun, fellowship, and festivities on December 8th!
In Christ,
The Youth Team
(Anthony DeAugustino, Joey Roberts, Angela White, Steven Eicholtz, Bethany Norman, & Tori Jacob)
Three Great Men Died That Day:
C.S. Lewis, Aldous Huxley, and JFK
Fifty years ago, three great men died within a few hours of each other: C. S. Lewis, John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. In 1982, philosophy professor Peter Kreeft imagined the three of them in conversation after their deaths.
Positioning Lewis as a proponent of ancient Western theism, Kennedy as a modern Western humanist, and Huxley as an ancient Eastern pantheist, Kreeft wrote a conversational book entitled Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis & Aldous Huxley.
————–
One of the Reasons C.S. Lewis Remains So Widely Read 50 Years after His Death, ByJohn Piper:
Lewis’s unwavering commitment to what is True and Real and Valuable, as opposed to what is trendy or fashionable or current, has been another kind of liberation for me, namely, from “chronological snobbery.” He loved the wisdom of the ages, not the whimsy of the passing present. He called himself a Neanderthaler and a dinosaur.
He didn’t read newspapers.
He never wore a watch.
He never learned to type.
He did not own or drive a car.
He cared nothing about cutting a good appearance and wore the same old clothes until they were threadbare.
He was incredibly free from the addicting powers of the present moment.
The effect of this on me has been to make me wary of what he called “chronological snobbery.” That is, he has shown me that “newness” is no virtue, and “oldness” is no fault. He considered the present time to be provincial with its own blind spots. He said once: every third book you read should be from outside your own (provincial) century. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern. This has freed me from the tyranny of novelty and opened for me the wisdom of the centuries.
Join Nathan and Penny in celebrating the birth of their daughter. Lydia Marie Lewis was born at 11:13 pm on 11/17/13, weighing 7 lbs 13 oz. Mom and baby are doing great, and big brothers Isaac and Asher couldn’t be prouder.
Holli Best coordinates meals for new families! 352.246.1590 hollibestATgmailDOTcom
For the past month our church has been talking about Operation Christmas Child and collection week is finally here!
If Operation Christmas Child is new to you and you have never packed a shoebox gift, please check out theOperation Christmas Child website and this video below which tells more about the project.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQxzM08YDc0
As they say, all it takes is a simple gift to make a difference in a child’s life. I hope you will all pack a box! The deadline to drop off your boxes is this Sunday, November 24. After the second service the boxes will all be taken to one of the local collection centers. (Email harmony812 [at] gmail [dot] com to help take the boxes.)
Here is how to pack a shoebox gift:
Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please), a small plastic container or just grab a box from church. You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required. Most importantly, pray for the child who will receive your gift.
Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age category: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14. Print out the appropriate boy/girl label by downloading the artwork from the OCC website. Mark the correct age category on the label, and tape the label to the top of your box.
Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child. Use the gift ideas provided on the bottom of this page.
Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover shipping and other project costs. You can give online by using the “Follow Your Box Donation” option, or you can write a check to Samaritan’s Purse (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box. If you or your family are preparing more than one shoe box, please make one combined donation.
Place a rubber band around each closed shoe box and drop it off at church.
And if you still need more motivation to pack a box…please visit the OCC Stories page to read story after story of how God uses these simple gifts to change hearts and lives and communities around the world. It is truly amazing to see how God uses something we would consider insignificant to spread his Kingdom and glory all through the Earth.
If you have any questions, please contact kids@christcommunitychurch.com.
