A New Year to Spend for Christ

Rocky Mountains seen from the Boulder Seventh Day Baptist Church, Colorado

Cast of the Christmas Play

I hope your New Year is off to a great start! December was a busy ministry month for Full Gospel Seventh Day Baptist Church. I helped the children prepare a Christmas play, written by two of them, ages 9 and 10. It featured lively caroling and pointed to the meaning of Christmas underlying our traditions. I’ll continue to work with the children this winter/spring as I teach Sabbath School. We’re learning the books of the Bible and the major Old Testament stories with accompanying songs (Arky, Arky, Father Abraham, Only a Boy Named David).

 

 

On “Moonlight Madness” shopping night we set up the ministry table downtown and gave away 75 mini candy canes with a gospel poem attached. 

At the local nursing home we led the residents in singing carols while Pastor Ron shared the Christmas story from the Bible. The candlelight Christmas Eve service was advertised in the paper resulting in a few from the community coming.

 

God does amazing things when we follow His lead. We’d wanted to pass out gospel tracts at a nearby indoor mall but they don’t allow it. However, we were welcome to come and sing Christmas carols.  In faith we set a date and signed their vendor contract. Realizing an opportunity (and need) to partner, I contacted an elder of Friendship Haven Church, whom I’d met when I got my car serviced at his shop, and received permission to make an announcement during their worship service.  I invited them to join us for this caroling and outreach event. A number of people expressed interest but what really excited me was the youth pastor saying he was bringing the youth group. We had 13 from our church and 19 from theirs show up! We sang carols heralding the Savior’s birth to the shoppers and praised God for putting together His perfect choir to give Him glory and bear witness.

 

I took advantage of being near historical sights to visit Old Bedford Village (30 minutes north) and see their recreation of Christmas celebrations from 150 to 250 years ago. I went there with my friend from business networking, Monica, and her husband. It was very peaceful to wander through the village lit only by candles and oil lamps, hearing carolers and smelling freshly baked cookies.  I was reminded that darkness has to flee when light comes.  Jesus said, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).

The week of Christmas I spent in Colorado visiting family and friends and giving an update to my sending church in Boulder. It was very refreshing and I was grateful to see everyone.  I'm pictured with my sister, Mary Ellen Felling, and mother, Barbara Burdick.

I enjoyed the first week of the New Year with my grown kids, Ana and Paul, in Wheeling, WV. Ana is an audio technician for a Disney on Ice show, currently touring the eastern U.S. We got to see the show, watch Ana work live, go hiking with some of the crew, and even visit a local drive-through light display.  Paul is a new missionary to college students working with the Navigators at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Both have challenging mission fields! 

Pastor Ron Higson. Full Gospel SDB

One unexpected blessing for the church has been a growing number of worshippers attending online.  We live stream the service at 11:00 Eastern time on Sabbath (Saturday) morning. Some are SDBs who can’t make it to their local church that week, and some don’t have a SDB church nearby. We also make the sermons available as YouTube videos. If you want to point someone to the live service, it’s available from the church website, www.fullgospelSDB.org.

I’ve been very excited recently while studying the book of Acts, as I lead our weekly Bible study, and also by reading “Radical” by David Platt. When I think of church planting, I don’t think of a new building where people meet for worship, I think of a dedicated group of believers crying out to God to use them to reach the world for Jesus, beginning in their community.  Here is an excerpt from “Radical.”

“One of the unintended consequences of contemporary church strategies that revolve around performances, places, programs, and professionals is that somewhere along the way people get left out of the picture. But according to Jesus, people are God’s method for winning the world to Himself. People who have been radically transformed by Jesus. People who are not sidelined to sit in a chair on Sundays while they watch professionals take care of ministry for them. People who are equipped on Sundays to participate in ministry every day of the week. People who are fit and free to do precisely what Jesus did and what Jesus told us to do. Make disciples.”

Please pray for the evangelism training course I’m teaching on January 31; that it would inspire us to have deeper conversations daily with those who do not know Jesus, so that God would be glorified and draw more souls to Himself. I’ve invited the folks who partnered with us for the caroling and Pastor Ron has invited other churches as well.

May you also let your light shine!  “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  2 Corinthians 4:6