Special Edition
LIFE TOGETHER ON WEST MORRIS STREET
A weekly information and prayer journal by Pastor John Hay, Jr.


December 19, 2007

CONTENTS
- Christmas is for Adults
- Praying
- Gathering
- Word Centering
- Incarnating Christ
- My 5 Favorite Christmas Quotes
- Blessing

CHRISTMAS IS FOR ADULTS

I wrote the following poem last year, thinking about the possibility of Christmas making a spiritual change in the hearts of adults, not just children.

It is not enough to say
"Christmas is for children."
So it is, and ever so.
But it is especially for adults,
those routinous creatures
with furrowed brows wrapped
in self-absorbing pursuits.

These lamentable beings need
Christmas if they are ever
to be whole again.
They are so forgetful of
things that matter
and so clamorous for
things that don't.

Christmas, if it can pierce
their thick facade and
deflate their oversized egos,
may touch a forgotten place--
an abandoned but still
life-giving place--in adult souls.

Christmas invites children
and adults alike to a
place where room is made for
a Child and that Child is
adored and honored as
a gift, a hope--even
salvation for one and all.

HOPE IS THE WORD If waiting is the spiritual discipline of Advent, then hope is the grace. We're exploring hope as a grace throughout December. For two more weeks, discover with us how hope changes our past, shapes our future and gives purpose to our present challenges.

GET DAILY DOSES OF HOPE I prepare Daily Doses of Hope and make them available on our website each day. Go to www.westmorrisfm.org and click on "Daily Doses of Hope" to get your daily dose! These are Word-centering Scriptures, reflections and spiritual exercises that build this grace into our daily living.

CHRISTMAS EVE - A CELEBRATION OF HOPE! I look forward to this WEMO tradition. We'll celebrate Christmas together at 5:00 pm in the Sanctuary with a variety of music, drama, Scripture, and candlelight carol singing. Come as you are. Bring whatever family and friends you can. May worship and your faith family be central in your Christmas celebration.

PRAYING

PRAY IN INTERCESSION Pray God's comfort, healing touch and answers for the following requested concerns:
-- Pray comfort for Pat Strange and all the family of Jim Strange in these days of grieving.
-- Pray healing for Loy Sutton, who is improved and now at home after being at Methodist Hospital.
-- Pray daily strength and healing grace for Kathy Fryman who completed her fourth round of chemotherapy. We're all thankful to God for news that cancer markers are way down.
-- Pray healing grace for Mike Leak as he improves in rehab at St. Francis Beech Grove.
-- Duane West is home and doing well after surgery on his leg last week at St. Vincent Hospital.
-- Pray healing and encouragement for Ruby Hill in rehab at Plainfield Healthcare Center. Ruby fell and had hip surgery.
-- Pray healing for Jackie Logue who continues in treatment at Methodist Hospital, but is hoping to go home Friday.
-- Pray encouragement and grace for Betty Duewel.
-- Vance Robbins continues receiving medical care at home and is doing well.
-- Grace for Joe Black at Lakeview; also for Phyllis who attends to him each day.

PRAY FOR BREAKTHROUGH With thanksgiving, pray for encouragement, wisdom and spiritual breakthrough:
-- Pray wisdom for our city's elected, appointed and assigned leaders as they serve the common good of our residents.
-- Pray a hunger and thirst for righteousness in our church, in our community, in our nation, and in our world.
- Pray grace for troops and peacekeepers spending the holidays in arenas of international conflict.
-- Pray inspiration in our midweek ministries this evening.
-- Pray for spiritual breakthrough and salvation for parents of children and youth we minister to each week.
-- For Comunidad Cristiana and Pastor Nicolás Estrella.
-- Pray daily for our Free Methodist missionaries: Dr. Joel & Janette Miller (Mexico), David & Sheryl Yardy (Asia), Kay Stotts (Chile), and Michael & Maria Long (Greece) Check new prayer requests online at: www.fmwm.org.
-- For generous year-end giving for our local ministry.

MEN'S PRAYER BREAKFAST All men are invited each Wednesday @ 6:15 am in Ellis Hall. Food, fellowship & prayer. Donations support Dr. Wes Duewel's ministry.

GATHERING

WEMO SOCIETY MEETING This Sunday, December 23, immediately following Morning Worship, West Morris Street FMC members will gather at the front of the Sanctuary to review and consider the proposed 2008 Church Budget. Hopefully, this will be a brief meeting. You may request an electronic copy of the proposed 2008 church budget via e-mail - wmsfmc@juno.com. The document requires Microsoft Excel to read.

LOOKING FORWARD Please note the following upcoming gatherings and opportunities to express and experience the Body of Christ:
- Youth Christmas Party - Dec 19, 6:15-8 pm
- Christmas Basket distribution - Sat, Dec 22, 9 am
- WEMO Society Meeting - This Sunday, Dec 23, 12 pm, front of Sanctuary (to consider 2008 Church Budget)
- Christmas Eve Service, Dec 24, 5:00 pm - "A Celebration of Hope!"
- College/Career Carry-in Dinner & ice skating-Dec 28 @ 6:30 pm
- "Sixth Day of Christmas All-Church Pitch-in Dinner," Sun, Dec 30, 12: 15 pm, Lower Level. Bring enough food for yourself, your family and some to share. Great for holiday leftovers!
- Campus Crusade for Christ Neighborhood Outreach - Sun, Dec 30, 4:00 pm Cookies needed for 200 students
- New Year's Eve Praise Celebration - Dec 31, 8 pm in the Sanctuary

WORD CENTERING

4TH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Hope you can join us for Morning Worship this Sunday. Since we lost last Sunday we've got lots of ground to cover in our exploration of hope. Use The Compass online each week and access Daily Doses of Hope on our website.

THE WIRED WORD All post-high school and young adults please consider: "The Wired Word" with Mike Conkle on Sundays @ 9:30 in the Lower Level. Not your typical Bible lesson!.

SUNDAY EVENING BIBLE STUDY A chapter-by-chapter open Bible study will not meet on Sunday evenings until January 6, as Steve & Judy Strange are visiting Matt, Susan and their grandchildren in Taiwan until the end of the year.

INCARNATING CHRIST

CHRISTMAS BASKET HELP NEEDED Volunteers are needed on Saturday, December 22 at 9 am to help pick up and deliver Christmas Baskets for 20 families. Please contact Dee or Denise in the church office if you can help.

COOKIES FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS On Sunday, December 30, 200 college students from Campus Crusade will be at WEMO to pass out food boxes to our neighbors. We would like to have cookies and hot chocolate to serve them when they return to the Lower Level at 4:00 pm. If you can donate cookies, please e-mail Georgia (ggbl82@gmail.com) and let her know how many dozen you will provide. They can be put in the Lower Level freezer this Sunday, Dec. 23, or brought any time during next week. You can even bring them Dec. 30, but we'd like to know the amount you can provide ahead of time. Thank you for your service to these students.

COLLECTING WINTER ITEMS FOR HOMELESS NEIGHBORS Again this year, we are collecting gloves, scarves, hats, socks, and underwear for our homeless neighbors who are guests of Horizon House. Please place these items in the gift box at Main Foyer Christmas Tree on Sundays through December 23.

VAN CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME An effort is being made to secure funds (after/beyond tithes and giving for missions) to replace the old red van with a newer, safer vehicle. Mark your gift “for van” if you’d like to contribute.

MY 5 FAVORITE CHRISTMAS QUOTES

ACTIVE WAITING "Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We wait during Advent for the birth of Jesus. We wait after Easter for the coming of the Spirit, and after the ascension of Jesus we wait for His coming again in glory. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God's footsteps. Waiting for God is an active, alert - yes, joyful - waiting. As we wait we remember Him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember Him we create a community ready to welcome Him when He comes." - Henri J. M. Nouwen

WHAT WE MAY BECOME "The Son of God became the son of man to enable sons of men to become sons of God." -- C.S. Lewis

GREAT AND SMALL "Maker of the sun, He is made under the sun. In the Father He remains, from His mother He goes forth. Creator of heaven and earth, He was born on earth under heaven. Unspeakably wise, He is wisely speechless. Filling the world, He lies in a manger. Ruler of the stars, He nurses at His mother's bosom. He is both great in the nature of God, and small in the form of a servant." -- Augustine

PUSHING OUT PASSION & PREJUDICE "Human nature is like a stable inhabited by the ox of passion and the ass of prejudice; animals which take up a lot of room and which I suppose most of us are feeding on the quiet. And it is there between them, pushing them out, that Christ must be born and in their very manger he must be laid - and they will be the first to fall on their knees before him. Sometimes Christians seem far nearer to those animals than to Christ in his simple poverty, self-abandoned to God." -- Evelyn Underhill

ANCIENT PARADOX "It is in the old Christmas carols, hymns, and traditions--those which date from the Middle Ages--that we find not only what makes Christmas poetic and soothing and stately, but first and foremost what makes Christmas exciting. The exciting quality of Christmas rests on an ancient and admitted paradox. It rests upon the paradox that the power and center of the whole universe may be found in some seemingly small matter, that the stars in their courses may move like a moving wheel around the neglected outhouse of an inn." - G. K. Chesterton

BLESSING

THANKS FROM WANDA DUNHAM "Thank you to all that prayed for me during my surgery. For all calls, cards & visits. I appreciated it so much. 'God is Good.'"

BENEDICTION May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13, NIV

West Morris Street Free Methodist Church
2302 West Morris Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46221
John Hay, Jr., Senior Pastor
Phone: 317.632.8311
Office e-mail: wmsfmc@juno.com
Website: www.westmorrisfm.org

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