Faith Community

Waiting for Jesus amid the pandemic

Christmas is almost here. Will it even feel like Christmas this year?

To say this year is has been a tough one is an understatement. I’m not sure anyone could have predicted a global pandemic would have literally turned our lives inside out and upside down, but it has. Our activities, our daily patterns and even the things we take for granted have all been affected.

In my writings this year I’ve asked you to re-think what it means to be the church, to re-think our mission and to re-imagine our
vision as our congregation coped with big changes in our community and our world. What have been your answers to those questions? Have you shared them?

In the midst of all of what has happened, we’ve found ways to be the church of Jesus Christ in North Clairemont. We still feed the hungry. We’ve still had spiritual counseling via phone and online
conferencing. We’ve continued with worship in a variety
of ways: completely online, outdoors and with limited attendance indoors. But it takes a tremendous amount of work to put on worship these days.

We’ve also been able to hold Bible studies and have community groups back on our church campus, but we have had some
problems with this as well with groups not following safety protocols. And after years of work and waiting, we moved yet another step closer to our goal of building a new Fellowship Hall, and in this issue you will read about the efforts to make this happen.

Through all of the stress of this year—the spread of the novel Coronavirus, the everchanging public health orders and
restrictions, isolation from the ones we love, empty store shelves, the presidential election—we have managed to hold out
hope for the one who was, who is, and who is to come: Jesus the Messiah.

While Christmas may look and feel different this year, we can’t lose sight of the light that shines in the darkness, for the darkness has not overcome it. Our hope is in the one who came to be
friend, teacher, healer and the prince of peace: Jesus, the eternal savior of the world.

Beginning our Advent Adventure

From Eddie McCoven, church staff member

Our journey to Christmas is not like that of the rest of the world. Like Mary the mother of Jesus, we, too, ponder the words of the angel who spoke of the coming of the child and cherish them in our hearts. We join with our ancestors in the faith in the longing and waiting for God's promised messiah.

Advent is a time of preparation. The world arrives at the modern day adaptation of Christmas very quickly, and then the celebration ends just as abruptly as it began. But as people of faith, we keep watch, and we heed the words of the voice crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord.

Our preparations began by collecting food during the month of November through our Reverse Advent calendar of giving. 

We then kicked off Advent this year with much fanfare. Our Children's Choirs and Rise & Shine Choir presented their musicals during the 10:00 a.m. worship hour on Sunday, Dec. 2. 

Later in the day, we gathered for our annual Advent Adventure, a time of arts and crafts for children and their families.

We then heard songs of the season from our Esperanza Youth Choir.

As we go through these next few weeks together as a community of faith, let us be mindful of God's promises for our lives, and let us once again make way for the one who is to come, the one who will be and is the prince of peace, whose dominion will have no end.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel.