By Dawn Abel

Ya know I’ve learned some lessons in my life. This last year has been a real eye opener for me. I used to stress a lot about directing the Celebration Service. I worried that we wouldn’t have an acolyte. I worried that we wouldn’t have a piano player. I even worried about how loud the sound was and if it was TOO loud. About a year ago my mother in law, Bea was diagnosed with cancer. She would fight a long hard battle that she would eventually lose after 9 months. We were fortunate enough to have her in our lives every single day. In that last 9 months we learned to pay more attention to the lessons she was trying to teach us. She’d always say “I just don’t know WHY things have to be so darn complicated nowadays!” Bea taught me a great deal about the simple things in life and how we should never take them for granted. This month we’re going to do what we’ve done every year for Advent and Christmas. We’re going back to the basics. “Heart of Worship” is a contemporary song that speaks of how much more connected we can become to God if we just let everything else fade. SO, from now on I’m not going to worry if we have an acolyte. I’m not going to worry if there’s someone to play the piano and I’m not going to worry (too much) about how loud we are.

I’m coming back to the HEART of worship – Jesus Christ. At our December 21st service, we’ll be doing our traditional Christmas hymn sing with children reading the story of Christ’s Birth through Scripture. I hope you’ll join us for this special service to encourage our youth in ministry. Our prayer is that you’ll find your way back to basics through our contemporary service this month and connect with God on a deeper level. See you at 9:45!