Boxing Night Clothing Drive for the Homeless – The Geneva Youth will be collecting blankets, coats and clothing for Fort Street
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Winter Dinner Series
Dealing with Difficult People
We all have them – people in our lives who are hard to get along with, let alone love. And yet Jesus tells us that we are to love them and bless them. Join us on Wednesday nights beginning January 12 as Bryan Smith leads us through an exploration of the different types of difficult people, what blessing them might look like, and specific strategies for dealing with them. Dinner is at 5:45 with class time at 6:30. Children and youth will continue their regular LifeStream programs. Donation for dinner: $3.50 for adults, $1.50 for children 10 and under.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
This Week at Geneva
Holiday Worship Schedule
Christmas Eve
4:00 – Celebration of the Christmas Story
A joyful retelling of the Christmas story in which
children are invited to play a part
7:00 & 9:00 – Service of Lessons and Carols
with candlelight and communion
Sunday, December 26
10:00 am – Worship
Sunday, January 2
10:00 am -- Worship
Pray for our missions and missionaries:
Geneva’s Annual Boxing Night Clothing Drive for the Homeless
On Sunday, December 26th beginning at 8pm the Geneva Senior Highs will be spending the night in the church parking lot to kick off our 16th annual Boxing Night Clothing Drive for the Homeless. We will be collecting warm winter clothing, blankets, winter outer wear and toiletries from December 26th through January 7. Bring your donations to the church. All donations will be taken to Fort Street Presbyterian Church Open Door Ministry to the homeless. Tell your neighbors!
Sock Drive – There is a chronic shortage of socks at The Open Door Clothing Bank at Fort St. Presbyterian Church. From now through Christmas, we will collect warm clean, new or gently used men's socks for distribution through the Open Door Ministry. Look for the brightly decorated collection box in the entryway.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Worship Preview for Sunday, December 12
I recently heard a story on NPR about how Google is going to launch a book-selling web site to compete with Amazon.com. It seems the internet giant is looking to the future and foreseeing a rapidly changing picture. Their old ways of doing things, ways that have brought them enormous success, power and wealth, will only work for a short while longer. If they don’t change in some innovative ways, and change soon, experts predict that they will fade into the background while newer companies step up to the plate. Google, the envy of the internet world, will become a dinosaur.
Google’s experience could be a metaphor for our contemporary lives. No sooner do we chalk up one success that we have to start looking for ways either to protect it, or to top it with an even greater success. If you snooze, the saying goes, you lose. Life is one big competition and only those who win will be able to live life to the fullest.
That may be the way of contemporary life, but it’s not the way of the Gospel. Jesus came to give us a gift He called joy, and the place we find it isn’t on the top of the heap, but somewhere else entirely. This Sunday we will be looking at someone who found the surprising secret of where true joy is to be found.
As you prepare for worship on Sunday, please read Luke 1:39-45 and John 3:22-30, 35 and ponder the following questions.
How would you define “joy”?
Where have you experienced joy in your life? On what does it depend?
How might Jesus be asking you to become less so He can become greater?
Google’s experience could be a metaphor for our contemporary lives. No sooner do we chalk up one success that we have to start looking for ways either to protect it, or to top it with an even greater success. If you snooze, the saying goes, you lose. Life is one big competition and only those who win will be able to live life to the fullest.
That may be the way of contemporary life, but it’s not the way of the Gospel. Jesus came to give us a gift He called joy, and the place we find it isn’t on the top of the heap, but somewhere else entirely. This Sunday we will be looking at someone who found the surprising secret of where true joy is to be found.
As you prepare for worship on Sunday, please read Luke 1:39-45 and John 3:22-30, 35 and ponder the following questions.
How would you define “joy”?
Where have you experienced joy in your life? On what does it depend?
How might Jesus be asking you to become less so He can become greater?
Friday, December 3, 2010
Worship Preview for Sunday, December 5, 2010
Last Sunday we began Advent by concluding a sermon series on the six Great Ends of the Church, focusing on “the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.” What an appropriate way to begin Advent, the season in which we prepare to celebrate God’s bodily exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven in the person of Jesus Christ. This Sunday, and throughout Advent, we will continue to examine what it means for the people of God to proclaim, through its very presence, the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, to show experientially what that Kingdom is like, and to invite others to join us in the Kingdom.
This week our Advent focus is on the gift of Peace. It is difficult to look around us and find any reason for peace. Many of the things we have depended upon to help us feel safe and secure have been crumbling before our very eyes: jobs in jeopardy, the threat of terrorism, our country embroiled in two seemingly endless wars, political turmoil. It seems as though everywhere we turn there is reason for worry. It is easy to feel as though we are living one step from disaster. And yet, the church is called to experience and to exhibit to the world a peace that is beyond our ability to comprehend, a peace that is ours regardless of the turmoil around us.
It was to people living on the margins of society that Jesus spoke these words: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear” (Luke 12:22). But how is that possible? Did Jesus have his head in the clouds? Was he not in touch with reality? Did he really mean what he said, or was he merely waxing poetic? How can we not worry when we live in such a worrisome world?
As you prepare for worship on Sunday, please read John 10:7-10 and Luke 12:22-34 and ponder these questions:
How would you describe an abundant life?
Do you feel like you are living an abundant life?
What are you worried about?
What would it take for you to be able to stop worrying?
This week our Advent focus is on the gift of Peace. It is difficult to look around us and find any reason for peace. Many of the things we have depended upon to help us feel safe and secure have been crumbling before our very eyes: jobs in jeopardy, the threat of terrorism, our country embroiled in two seemingly endless wars, political turmoil. It seems as though everywhere we turn there is reason for worry. It is easy to feel as though we are living one step from disaster. And yet, the church is called to experience and to exhibit to the world a peace that is beyond our ability to comprehend, a peace that is ours regardless of the turmoil around us.
It was to people living on the margins of society that Jesus spoke these words: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear” (Luke 12:22). But how is that possible? Did Jesus have his head in the clouds? Was he not in touch with reality? Did he really mean what he said, or was he merely waxing poetic? How can we not worry when we live in such a worrisome world?
As you prepare for worship on Sunday, please read John 10:7-10 and Luke 12:22-34 and ponder these questions:
How would you describe an abundant life?
Do you feel like you are living an abundant life?
What are you worried about?
What would it take for you to be able to stop worrying?
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Advent at Geneva
Intergenerational Christmas Celebration – Please join us on Wednesday December 15th for a special Christmas celebration. We’ll have dinner served family style at 5:45.
At 6:30 we will enjoy a brief family friendly reflection by our youth. The evening will end 7:45. The sounds of Christmas music, the smell of good food and the beauty of the season will delight your senses.
There will an opportunity for all ages to make ornaments to decorate a tree in the gathering area. This night will be a great way for you and your family to focus not on the stress but on the spirit of Christmas. Entrance fee is a donation of canned goods.
Advent Dinner Series, Reclaiming Christmas – On Wednesday, December 8, we will continue our Advent Dinner Series, Reclaiming Christmas. This week our focus will be on Spending Less, Giving More.
Our culture tells us that a successful Christmas is one in which retailers make lots of money, we spend lots of money, and our Christmas trees are piled high with plentiful and preferably expensive gifts.
- But what if we decided not to let Madison Avenue tell us how to celebrate the birth of Christ?
- What would our family and friends think if we really did follow through on our decisions to spend less on gifts this year?
- And how is it possible that spending less could translate into giving more?
Join us on Wednesday and find out how you can have a subversive Christmas, one that blesses you, your loved ones and the heart of God more than ever before.
Dinner is at 5:45, followed by classes for all ages at 6:30. Suggested donation for dinner is $3.50 for adults and $1.50 for children 10 and under. Check sign-up #5.
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