Presence

Our High School ministry is doing a 3 week series called "Presence" for Christmas.

I'm loving it so far.

Our first weekend we talked about "Practicing the Presence" of Christ. The premise is that Jesus is Immanuel...and since God is with us we should get our cues from Him to celebrate Christmas properly: invest in others.

Outside of the Reach Beyonds our small groups are doing, we are encouraging students to either do some of the following by themselves or in a group of 2 or 3 friends in order to be a picture of Immanuel to someone else. This isn't our complete list, but a good sampling.

1. Write a letter to a persecuted Christian. (guidelines and 'how to's were given out)
2. Write out 3 Christmas cards to the most rejected kids at your school. Invite them to church with you at Christmas.
3. Visit nursing home patients who will have no family to visit them this year. (instructions on 'how to' were given)
4. Give away all or your top 2 Christmas gifts this year. (mouths literally dropped at this one.)
5. Visit the childrens ward at the local hospital on Christmas eve or Christmas day. (did this last year with 7 students, awesome time!)

Got any ideas to add to the list?

We encouraged students to take pictures and journal their experience so we can celebrate with them.