For most of us, the month of December is a mixture of shopping, stress, excitement, joy, a little more stress, travel, and general busyness. At PVCC, we try to be respectful of peoples’ calendars; we know it’s easy to get overwhelmed at this time of year. However, we also try to offer God’s people meaningful opportunities for service, fellowship, outreach, worship, and teaching.
Here’s a general outline of what Christmas looks like at Prairie View Christian Church:
1. Last Sunday, we took our yearly trip to NorthRidge Gracious Retirement Living to do some Christmas Caroling. The people of NorthRidge love when we come to visit; one resident even gave me a thank-you card saying our carolers were “wonderful”! Caroling may not seem like much to many people, but a simple act of service to our neighbors – a small reminder that the church down the road cares for them – can be especially heartwarming on a cold December night.
2. Following our trip to NorthRidge, we gathered back at PVCC for a catered dinner. PVCC provided the food, mainly as a showing of gratitude to our congregation for another year of ministry together. We even had two strangers come in and join us for the meal! What started out as a fellowship event ended up serving as an opportunity to show hospitality.
3. This Saturday, December 16, our Men’s Breakfast will be devoted to inviting neighbors to join us for worship services on Sunday, December 24. We’ll be passing out simple invitation cards, praying that even just one person might come – and knowing that many people are more open to church attendance at Christmas than they are at other times of the year. We also ordered plenty of extra invitation cards, that way you can take some home on Sunday to share with your neighbors, coworkers, classmates, family – whoever you want!
4. And finally, we look forward to worshiping with you on Christmas Eve. We’ll worship at 10 AM that morning like usual, finishing up our “Christmas in the Psalms” sermon series. We’ll worship again that evening at 5 PM, ending our time together with a candlelight singing of “Silent Night”. These two services will not be identical, so we hope you’ll join us for both. And out of respect for your plans with family and friends, our 5 PM service will last no longer than one hour.
Again, we know how exhausting the month of December can be; however, we encourage you to take time for the things we mentioned above: service to your neighbors, fellowship with your fellow believers, outreach to those who may not recognize the birth of Jesus as something to celebrate, worship of the God who has saved us, and teaching from Scripture. And every year, we hope and pray PVCC is a place where you have the opportunity to do all of those things.
For more information about any of the events listed above, don’t hesitate to ask one of our Staff or Elders.
