Advent begins this Sunday. I love Advent, the light of God breaking forth into the darkness of the world. Advent is a time that goes through the day with this least amount of time where the sun is shining or what people call the shortest day of the year (even though it still has 24 hours). There is always a desire to just move into Christmas and people this year more than ever have been trying to move to Christmas with the joy it brings. Yet, Advent truly prepares us to be thankful for the Christ child breaking forth into this world. Advent is a time where we are reminded that while it is dark, God is still shining light into our lives and the world. This Advent we are going to look at some dark times of humanity and see how people kept the faith even in the midst of those dark times. We will be reminded that God is always shining light into the darkness even when we don't see the light. This Sunday we celebrate hope, hope of brighter and better days to come! I hope and pray it will be a powerful Advent worship season for us all no matter how we decide to gather in worship at Tom's Creek.
This Sunday is the same protocol we have been having with the possibility of 25 worshipping upstairs and 25 worshipping downstairs with many options for people who are staying home. At one point I announced that this Sunday would all online but I have decided that with these lower numbers there is plenty of room for people to stay distant from one another and to keep safe. That being said if you have put yourself in a riskier position as you celebrated Thanksgiving please consider joining us online this Sunday.
Attached is the bulletin for this Sunday. Please invite people to join us online. They don't have to live nearby to be able to join us in worship. There are churches that are still not able to really have online worship and some people are searching for a place to worship so invite them. And now for all the details on how to join us for 9am worship.
You can catch the Facebook Livestream at: https://www.facebook.com/tomscreekumc .
We will start the Facebook Livestream at @8:45am and you will see announcements scroll and hear music playing. This is the best option if you want to interact with others online. Feel free to chat to each other before and during the service. You can put prayer requests in the chat. This is great way to be able to interact with others if you watch it live with others in your church family who are staying home but want to worship as part of an online community.
You can catch this livestream on our Toms Creek UMC channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6E7eCwH2ZGYspkSCF0CGw/featured. We will start the YouTube Livestream at 8:45am and you will see announcements scroll and hear music playing. This format is best if you are watching on a television or large screen with lots of people gathered around. You can have it fill the whole screen and just watch it without any distractions. There is a way to chat on YouTube but it normally has a lot less people and is normally a lot less chatty than the our Facebook livestream.
You can go to our website here https://www.tomscreekumc.com/service-videos and by Monday morning there should be shortened version of our service that will contain the Scripture, the Middle Hymn, the Sermon, and through the end of the service.
You can can also use a phone to listen to our service by calling 857-799-9465 from any phone starting at 8:45 am. This will only have sound coming through and you will not be able to see anything that is occurring. This is also the one where there might be sound issues because it does not always pick up the sound as well as we would like in the sanctuary. If you would like can we make a DVD of the service for you to watch just let the church office know.
To give your financial offering you can go to https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/Vanco_ver3.vps?appver3=oo37DPDB_IkRvUYRT4XYFRYSLkeAY30iWl4jNLjDjUcC8Jr39BzhtDTFkxI3DZSBY_unSDo0t_cJRJZ70AK2W-3avdPht8ScFTxSmF__f6PvRYXz8yGhqw7JCJZOvaQG OR
you can go to our website and hit the donate button OR
you can mail your offering to:
Tom's Creek United Methodist Church 10926 Simmons Road Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Advent can be a powerful time of seeing the light that God is shining into this world. It can be powerful time as we remember that one day Christ will return breaking forth light everywhere! Until then we wait and we prepare and we continue to have Faith in the Son, even on the darkest days.
Peace,
Pastor Heath
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