November 25

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving If you are on the road away from home visiting family and friends this weekend, may God's traveling mercies be with you. Get back to us safely.

As you can see from the picture above, Cheri and I had a good time on Thursday giving thanks for corn, dogs, and pie...among many other things. We're also foreshadowing one of the shows we may use for God On Broadway next year. If you watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, you saw the cast from the show sing a couple of songs from the musical. You can tell me tomorrow if you figured out what show it is.

Tomorrow will be the last Sunday in the church liturgical year. It will also conclude our Stewardship Month. This month we learned a lot about stewardship from the the Addams Family during God On Broadway, from the legacies we celebrated of those who remembered Asbury in their Will, from Linda Combs who shared what Asbury means to her, and from our Finance Chair, Temperance West, who spoke about our church budget and ministries. We had a great Commitment Service last Sunday as people brought their 2024 Pledge Cards to our communal basket. Rev. Richard Allen had a blessing for all of the pledges and pledgers. How fitting it was for Richard to do this for us, since he blesses us with an article about stewardship in the church newsletter every month.

We realize that some of our church family could not attend the service last week. So this Sunday, people will again have the opportunity to place their pledges into the communal basket. If you do not have a pledge card, we have extras at the church. We will also be hearing from our Stewardship Chair, Helen Downing. For many years, we have heard Helen talk about stewardship as Tinker Bell and as Grandmama Addams. This Sunday, however, Helen will be speaking as "Helen." I hope everyone who is in town will be at church to hear her, and I hope those who are somewhere in the diaspora, tune into our Livestream Service. This is Helen's last year serving as our Stewardship Chair. She had planned to pass the baton off to someone else last year, but I pleaded for her to serve one more year because she is the best. It's not every day you can have a stewardship chair who has been the director of a United Way Campaign, a Bible Study teacher for decades, and a faithful member of Asbury for over 30 years. Her only drawback is that she roots for that crimson-colored team west of us, but we try to look past that transgression She truly is the epitome of a stewardship chair, and we look forward to having her share with us tomorrow.

The anthem that the choir will be singing tomorrow is titled, Look at the World. It's a beautiful song of praise and thanksgiving for all of our blessings. Choir director, Ray Ellis, told me that the instruments accompanying the choir will be harp, flute, oboe, and organ. How good it will be not only to have these extra musicians playing for the anthem, but also for the hymns we sing. What a wonderful way for us to conclude the church's liturgical year!

Since tomorrow is the last Sunday in the liturgical year, next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. That means it's time to decorate the church! For those who can join us, we'll start at 1:00...right after Coffee Hour. Thanks, in advance, to those of you who are willing to help.

Please plan on joining us at the Church Christmas Party which will be Sunday, December 10th at 5:00 pm. 

Also mark on your calendar that we will be going Christmas caroling after church on Sunday, December 17th.

Since Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year, we will not have our "evening" Christmas Eve Service this year...only the service at 11:15 a.m. Wesley Oak will be offering a Christmas Eve Service at 5:00 p.m.

Last, but certainly not least, join us for our Annual December Church Conference by ZOOM on Monday, December 11th at 6:30 pm. All members of Asbury Memorial and Wesley Oak are encouraged to attend. I previously announced that it was going to be on December 5th. It's actually going to be Monday, December 11th. Please make note of this change in your calendar.

Love & Blessings,
Billy