Student Ministry December 2016
Dear Church Family,
I hope you are just as excited about the Christmas season as I am! While it may not be all that it is cracked up to be, the Christmas season is a great time for us as Christians to share our faith in Jesus with a world of lost and self-centered souls. The commercialism of this time of year is to be lamented, but we cannot let selfish consumerism quench the truth of the gospel that we can so easily point to at Christmas time! I hope you will celebrate (as we should normally) the wonderful reality that our Lord became flesh in order to take the punishment of death that we deserved for our sins. I also hope that we all will share that truth with the lost people we see around us.
What does this time of year usually mean for our students though?? Often it means telling family members how they can best appease their desires for worldly goods. There is nothing wrong with letting people know how they can best bless you with a gift, but it is utterly devastating if that is the only thing our students are thinking about. If you are a parent or grandparent, I encourage you to take some time this Christmas season to sit down and talk with your children/grandchildren about the true meaning of Christmas. If you have prayed for opportunities to share the gospel with your young-ones, the Christmas season is one answer to that prayer. What better time than now to go shopping with your student(s) and ask them what they think Christmas is all about and how that should affect their lives? Even if you don’t have children or grandchildren here at Oakhill, there are plenty of students who need spiritual parents to reach out to them and show them the gospel this Christmas. It is my prayer that we would show our students at Oakhill the gospel in a fresh way this season.
One way we hope to accomplish that this December is by discussing the good news of Peace with God through Christ. Peace is not something we often talk about. We mention it as a good ideal, but we rarely discuss it as a genuine reality for believers today. It is Jesus who brings peace between God and man. Peace on earth is the good news of Jesus’ arrival on earth. Because of Jesus and his sacrifice for our sins, we can have genuine fellowship with God and other believers in Christ. Genuine peace in fellowship can be hard to find, but it is not impossible to have. It is the peace of Christ that we pursue in our relationships here on earth. Christmas is a time for us to be reminded that Jesus left his heavenly throne to be born a peasant and die on a cross so that we can have real peace and fellowship with God and each other. I am so happy he did that! I hope that truth gives you joy as well!
The student ministry will be expressing some of our joy together on December 14 at our annual Christmas party! This year’s theme is Christmas Movies/Characters. We will dress up as our favorite Christmas movie characters, play some games, and have a white elephant gift exchange! We will talk about the meaning of Christmas and enjoy such sweet fellowship. If you can join us, then you are more than welcome! Just because it is a “youth” Christmas party, it doesn’t mean adults are unwelcome. We would love to see students and adults continue to build and grow relationships with one another this December, and what better time to do that than at a party? If you are interested in hanging out with the students, either at this Christmas party or just in general, come talk to me about how I can help you get connected.
Merry Christmas, and may God bless you and your family!
Brian Van Doren