Serve Somebody

God has blessed you so that you can be a blessing. This week, give thanks for all that God has done for you and then serve somebody with your gifts, talents, abilities, resources and experiences. You have the Holy Spirit. You have the power. You have been gifted. Give thanks. Give back.

And…here is a service opportunity for you. This Sunday @ 2:00 PM we will be decorating the church for Christmas. Everyone is invited and welcome to help. Even if you cannot help on Sunday we would love for you to be involved. We would like the Christmas tree in the lobby to reflect our families and traditions so please bring an ornament (not a new one, but one that has been around a while) with you to church to hang on the tree in the lobby. Bring an ornament and place it on the tree in the lobby on this Sunday.

Upcoming Events:
November 28th – Christmas Decorating @ 2:00 PM
December 4th – Women’s Ministry Christmas Party
December 5th – Men’s Ministry
December 24th – Christmas Eve Service @ 6:00 PM.
January 28th – Women’s Ministry Retreat

60/60 Rolls On

Dear Venice Family,

For us to become all that God intended we need people around us. We don’t need people around us to remind us of the junk and baggage that we are leaving behind. We need people around us to remind us that God has created as His masterpiece and that we are created anew in Christ so that we can become all that He planned. We need people to remind us to stay willing before God. We need people to encourage us to hang with God so that He can remove all the baggage and all the stuff that has kept us from being and living as God intended, as the masterpiece that He created us to be. We need a lot of encouragement. The Bible says it this way.

Hebrews3:12-13
Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. 13) You must warn each other every day, while it is still "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God.

This week in the 60/60 Experiment we will learn how to develop new habits that will allow us to stay willing to follow God’s leading and become all that He intended. Read chapters 12 &13 in Soul Revolution. Hang in there. We are almost home.

Blessings,
Craig



Hey Family,

I would like to touch base with you on few items this week. Here is what you need to know…

On Sunday November 28th @ 2:00 PM we will be decorating the church for Christmas. I would like the Christmas tree in the lobby to reflect our families and traditions. Please bring an ornament of your choosing and place it on the tree in the lobby beginning on the 28th.

Ladies…if you have not RSVP’d for the Ladies Christmas Party you can do so by responding to this email or let Becky Henson know by sending her an email at henson.becky@yahoo.com.

And finally…we need to deliver the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes to the Palisades this week. We need a large vehicle or truck to get the job done. If you can help with your time and your vehicle it would be greatly appreciated.

Much Love,
Amy



Upcoming Events:

December 4th – Women’s Ministry Christmas Party

December 5th – Men’s Ministry

December 24th – Christmas Eve Service @ 6:30 PM.

January 28th – Women’s Ministry Retreat

Get Baptized This Sunday!

We all desire to be known and loved. We all long to be known and loved and yet there are things about us that we don’t want people to know about us because if they knew those things that would not love us and they would not want to know us. If people really knew us they would not love us and so we try to bury those things. We run from those things. We hide from those things. What we begin to discover and realize is that we can’t hide from them. They actually contaminate our lives. They keep us from experiencing what we long for…to be loved.

This week in the 60/60 Experiment we will learn how to move past our pride so that we can bring our failures into the light so that God can remove them. Read chapters 10-13 in Soul Revolution. You will be glad that you did.

And…if you have not been baptized and would like to be baptized…we will baptize in the Worship Center this Sunday near the end of the service.. If you have questions about baptism or would like to sign up to be baptized you can respond to this email and I will contact you with everything that you need to know.

Upcoming Events:
November 11th – EPIC Winter Camp
November 14th – Baptism
December 4th – Women’s Ministry Christmas Party
January 28th – Women’s Ministry Retreat

Fall Back

God wants to take the torn pieces of our lives and our relationships and He wants to rework them and make them new. As we are willing to place our lives and our relationships in His hand He reclaims and reforms and reconciles our relationships. He takes them and forms then into something new. This will be one of God’s primary objectives as we stay connected to Him. Spiritual growth is all about relationships. It is about learning to love God and learning to love people. That is what we are doing in this 60/60 Experiment. We learn to love God and we demonstrate love for God when we respond to His involvement in our lives and as we willingly respond to his will throughout the day. As we talked about last week, we cannot really love God until we learn to love other people.
We can’t do this relationship thing alone. That is why we are learning to respond to God. We can’t do difficult relationships on our own. In fact, we can’t even do the good relationships well on our own. That is why we are learning to be connected and stay connected to God. This is why we are learning to hear and respond to the God promptings that we hear throughout our day. God wants to guide us and He wants to teach us how to love with a higher love.

If you receive this email, but are not a member of Venice Church but are interested in becoming a member of Venice Church then CLASS 101:Discovering Membership is for you. The class is being offered tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM. I would love to see you there. If you have any questions about the class just respond to this email.

Don’t forget to “fall back” on Saturday night. Set your clock back one hour or you will be very early for church on Sunday!

Men’s Ministry will meet this Sunday following the morning service. We will have Tito’s Tacos for lunch. For more information, search Venice Church Men’s Ministry on Facebook.

And…if you have not been baptized and would like to be baptized…we will baptize in the Worship Center on Sunday November 14th. If you have questions about baptism or would like to sign up to be baptized you can respond to this email and I will contact you asap.

Upcoming Events:
November 4th – CLASS 101: Discovering Membership
November 7th – Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 7th – Men’s Ministry
November 11th – EPIC Winter Camp
November 14th – Baptism
December 4th – Women’s Ministry Christmas Party
January 28th – Women’s Ministry Retreat