Pastor's Note - November 24 
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. I love Christmas season. The lights, the change of pace from the rest of the year, the gift-giving and generosity, the opportunities to minister, the food, the formation of traditions… I love all of it. Granted, it can be a busy season. And if we are not careful, we can be distracted from the real purpose in all of this (and all of life) – casting our hearts and minds on Jesus our Savior and Lord, and giving our lives in praise to Him. We can easily be distracted from our central purpose of worship. On the other hand, the Christmas season can be a time of refocusing our worship. It can be a providential opportunity to re-center on Christ in your mind, heart, and home. For example, advent devotionals can be great tools for guiding you through Scripture reading and prayer. This can form a new habit of personal and family worship, or just further solidify such routines. We use the advent season every year to read and pray and worship with our kids. Our habit is fairly simple. We read a kids’ advent book together (there are several good ones), we pray together, sing a Christmas hymn, and then send the kids on a treasure hunt through the house for an advent treat (usually something small and simple like a Hershey’s kiss for each kid). All of that takes about ten minutes, and it forms a routine of reading and praying together. However, you may not know where and how to start with this. So, if you want ideas as to how you might form a habit of personal or family worship this season, stop by the resource table in the lobby. Starting this week, we’ll have resources out there to help you along in worship during this season. There is no shortage of excellent and helpful resources out there, from the deeply theological to the introductory and accessible. My prayer is that, as a church, we can encourage each other along to worship well this Christmas season!