"What Does Love Look Like?"

Scripture: Luke 1:36-51

I want to share with you something that happened last night and hope that it inspires you this Christmas. At 4:00 p.m. a group of 27 singers arrived to go share the good news of Jesus' birth with others by singing Christmas carols. We went to four homes and even walked one of the neighborhood streets singing carols. It was an inspiring time and I was struck by the willingness of our LOTC family to be there for others. We had all age groups represented in our choir. Shy people, extroverted people, all kinds of people were part of the group. But as all of the voices sang out together, each individual voice grew stronger. It was an object lesson for me about when the church is the strongest - when we are all singing together in one voice. This is an important realization as we consider our time of discernment for LOTC 2.0 in 2012.

Then, when I thought I had learned enough, god had more to teach me. Cindy, Corran and I went over to BJ's for dinner after caroling. Atone point we were talking with our waitress who mentioned she was trying out a new church. Corran said to her, "You should come to our church. It's just over there." And that began a conversation about the virtues of LOTC. Our mission is to be "a welcoming community of faith where spiritual seekers become loving, serving followers of Jesus Christ." My son seems to understand that pretty well. In fact, most of our children do. My prayer is that in 2012, the rest of us understand this. A great place to get started is to invite someone to worship this week. The Longest Night service is on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve services are at 5 pm and 7 pm. We will be having a casual worship service on Christmas Day at 9:30 am. What does love look like? How will you answer that question? God bless.