Reconnect with Christmas by Stewart Perry
Well as the old song says… “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”… in reality it’s been looking like Christmas for quite a while in the shopping centres at least…
Attached to our weekly newsletter and on our website you’ll be able to find the details of all our Advent and Christmas services. So get your diaries out and mark them all down and come to as many of them as you can (or watch online for the ones you can’t make it to in person). Of course our services will all be subject to whatever requirements and restrictions are in place at the time but we are hopeful that we can gather both physically and online in a number of ways to enable a profound and impactful Advent and Christmas for our regular members and those who reconnect during this season.
And reconnection is our overriding theme this Advent/Christmas. “Reconnect with Christmas” with an emphasis on the ‘Christ’ part. There has been a long season of disconnection for many in our world, whether it be family members, missing milestones or just not able to do the things we are used to doing the way we are used to doing them. I know there is much hope with the promise of borders opening that there will follow a season of reconnection. My hope and prayer is that there might be a yearning in our world to reconnect with the most important thing – Christ.
Christmas is our season as a church, it’s a time when the narrative will always have its origin story in Jesus. Despite the distractions of commercialisation and family time you can’t avoid the Jesus part lurking in the background, even if you don’t believe. My hope is that as a church we can play a small part in bringing Jesus out of the background and more into the centre… that of course starts with us. Is Jesus the centre of your Christmas preparations this year? If not yet, pause the online shopping frenzy that is occurring at the moment and just take a few moments and think of how you and those close to you can bring Jesus more into the centre.
Part of our reconnection story this year will be working in collaboration with our neighbouring Anglican Church in Burleigh Heads. For those who might not be aware, the church which is now Robina was originally planted by Burleigh Heads parish having its first stage of life in Mermaid Beach. It’s a little bit like bringing the family back together for Christmas this year as we’ll be cross promoting our services, helping each other out and we’ll be sharing some of the services we have done in the past with the parish of Burleigh Heads at Burleigh Heads because of their location and connection with the community. I know our team is excited as is the priest and Parish Council at Burleigh Heads. I do believe churches working together will always be more effective than those who just chose to go it alone… so this Christmas we will reconnect in a few meaningful ways with our family at St John’s Burleigh Heads.
One of the biggest challenges for us this year is that Boxing Day falls on a Sunday and there will be a hoard of post-Christmas shoppers decending on the Town Centre at the same time we would hold our usual church service the Sunday after Christmas. We will have a gathering onsite but we will be encouraging only those who can walk to Church to attend in person and for others to join us online at 8:30am on Boxing Day.
If you have any questions about Christmas, please let one of the staff team know, if you’d like to be involved in helping logistically and serving we’d also love to hear from you.
Let’s reconnect to Christ this Christmas.
Happy Advent (almost…)