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I hope you maximized your “extra” hour that we received this weekend. How sad is it to see the sun disappear so quickly! Feels fitting then that we had a productive meeting planning this year's Christmas Eve service today. Many thanks to Kay Swarr for her leadership in this year's service, we look forward to sharing more details with you as we approach the Advent season! 

This week finally holds the Big Drop event in partnership with Solid Rock Youth Ministries! We are looking forward to this community outreach event that we are hosting, here at MGCB, for Solid Rock and local community families. There will be no regular Wednesday Roots Night programming, for the exception of the Adult Choir, everyone will participate and serve together during “The Big Drop” event. Bring your family, friends and neighbors for this fall fun night! We’ll end the evening dropping (and smashing!) some big pumpkins from a firetruck ladder and talk about what it means to drop everything (get it?!) and follow Jesus! Solid Rock and the Witness Commission are asking that all participants register in advance to help with food numbers. You can do that here: https://www.mgcb.org/events/the-big-drop/2025-11-05. 

I’m looking forward to participating in a Youth Leader training tomorrow at Encounter Church. Aside from that my week will be busy supporting the Witness Commission in preparation for the Big Drop as well as some upcoming curriculum and administrative tasks. 

I reminded you last week of the upcoming Congregational Business Meeting. Don’t forget to grab (and read!!) your copy of the Congregational Business Meeting packet. There is a lot of important information and updates for you to be aware of as you pray for, support and share your voice on church issues. 

I also shared last week about the Youth Wing renovations taking place on the third floor. The final piece was completed last week, we’re really excited about that space specifically designed for our teens. Go up there and take a peek at it!

Thanks to all who shared kind notes and generous gifts with Scott and I during Pastor Appreciate Month. Though I do not hold the title of “pastor” I was encouraged greatly by the words and thoughts of many of you! It is a joy to serve our church family in this role!

 

What WE’RE Learning This Week: A nugget of what our Lil’, Youth and Adults Roots heard this week

Our Family Theme: God Wants Me to Talk To Him

Our Root Text: Ephesians 6:18 NIV

How Every Generation Lives This Out: Start a family prayer wall or prayer journal. Keep track of each other's requests and praises. Watch God answer these requests!

Check Out This Week’s PODCAST EPISODE

 

What I’M Learning This Week: Sharing what I’m reading and listening to lately

I stumbled across this sermon by Alistair Begg this week because its title struck me given some personal things going on in my life right now. But boy was I surprised and encouraged to find out that his teaching text for this sermon was a large portion of Romans 8. I’ve shared with you before that D-Group, the Bible study group that I lead, is working on memorizing the whole chapter of Romans 8 in 2025. It’s been quite a task. 

 

I’ve found sometimes; however, in the thick of memorizing large passages of scripture that sometimes we forget to “stop and smell the roses,” if you will, and recall the context and application of the verses that we’re hiding in our hearts. As I was listening to this sermon, I was moved by the way his teaching was helping me apply verses that I struggled to understand or even recall somedays, to a very relevant part of my life. 

 

The Holy Spirit is wonderful that way, bringing to the surface the Word which has been there all along. 

 

The whole sermon is really wonderful, as is the sermon that follows it, but for now, maybe you, like me, just really need his benediction prayer held close to your heart… 

“The God who made the world and everything in it … does not live in temples made by hands,” nor is he in need of anyone of us. He’s in control of history and of geography. He’s in control of the details of the lives of his children. And so we pray, gracious God, that when trials come to prove us and to reprove us, in the ongoing experience of suffering, we pray that you will give us grace to wait until our feelings catch up with the facts; that we might know, in a way that stands on the promises of your Word, that although for a little while we face these trials of various kinds, that it is built into the very scheme of things that the joy that we will one day know will so obliterate any memory of the trials that they will appear to have been insignificant and passed in a moment. But for now, they don’t appear so. For now, they nag at our heels. For now, they confront us again and again. And so we pray that you will help us to stand on the promises of your Word. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit rest upon and remain with each one who believes, now and forevermore. Amen.”

 

Make Every Week Count: Parenting, Grandparenting & Spiritual Mentoring Resources

Something to Read: This just popped up in some of my feeds recently, looks like a solid resource for parents and grandparents… Away Game: A Christian Parent’s Guide to Navigating Youth Sports

Something to Listen to: Lil’ Roots “Song of the Series” for our Wednesday Roots Nights is called “God of Wow” and it’s so fun! Grab it to sing along with them!

Something to Follow: I know, lots of talk about the Trinity lately, but it’s been so fun helping our Roots Kids explore this more on Roots Nights! Here’s a GREAT Trinity resource, I keep one tucked in my Bible all the time!

 

How Can You Pray? Prayer Requests and Praises from Roots Ministries

PRAY for the families we will get to serve this week at The Big Drop!

PRAISE for all of our musicians who faithfully serve in our worship services!