This Week @ High Peak … an exciting time to celebrate Christmas!

Here in mid-December its all about Christmas. Tonight we will have our last Christmas With the Kranks Bibly study with snacks provided by Barb and I as our way of saying thanks to all of you for all you do for our church and for us as your pastor and pastor’s family. Tonight’s clip will conclude the movie and deal with forgiveness.

Second, we have our Christmas Program this Sunday night at 6 PM. The program is called The Night Before Christmas and the choir sounds great. We heard a bit of it at our annual Christmas Dinner for the ministers of the association. They did a great job on the songs we heard, so I expect it will be inspiring and entertaining. Please invite friends and family. The drama portion by the youth and kids of our church will share the Gospel.

Finally, remember that next week on Wednesday we will have our annual Christmas Candlelight Communion service at 7 PM on the 21st. And on Christmas Day we will have worship service only at 11 AM. Come casually or wear your new Christmas clothes. I plan to just dress in dress casually with no suit/tie.

Here’s what’s happening This Week @ High Peak!

• Senior’s Christmas Dinner is today at 11 am.
• Christmas with the Kranks Bible Study – Wed at 7 pm with snacks provided by the Kevin and Barb as our way of saying thanks to the church
• Christmas Social – Sunday at 5 pm
• Christmas Program Practice Wed at 6 pm but not on Sunday this week
• Catawba River Baptists Association Toy Store all week at Calvary Baptist Church – please be in prayer for it
• Sunday Night Football in Fellowship Hall after the Christmas Dinner this week

The Bible study on Christmas with the Kranks will focus on the issue of commitment in the midst of obstacles and opposition. I hope you will come a little early and get some snacks or stay after an enjoy some fellowship. Below is the trailer for the movie:

Barb Purcell kissing Santa Clause at last year's social

The Social will include meat provided by the church. Just bring your favorite dish and dessert to share. The kids will enjoy eating with Santa Claus who will be joining us for the party.

After the social, if you want to stay or come back, we will hook up the Satellite and enjoy Sunday Night Football with the Giants taking not the Cowboys. Invite friends to watch on the big screen!

All week our Association will be giving away toys to needy families so that they can give their children a nice Christmas. Please pray as we share the Gospel with these parents and also pray that God will use this ministry to help them know the joy of Christmas in Jesus Christ, not just presents.

Wayne Stamey waits to counsel someone at the 2009 Toy Store

Also, remember the other upcoming Christmas season events:

• Christmas program – Dec. 18 at 6 pm
• Christmas Day worship – Dec. 25 at 11 am – no other activities that day
• Christmas Candlelight Communion – Wed, Dec. 21 at 7 pm

Here’s the Youth Calendar for December 2011. You can view it below or download and print the files below:

• December Youth Calendar PDF File
• December Youth Calendar Word Processor File

DECEMBER 2011
YOUTH GROUP SCOOP

SUNDAY – December 4th
5:00 pm
YOUTH CHRISTMAS PARTY
Everyone Bring Goodies to Eat!
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SUNDAY – December 11th
5:00 pm
CHURCH CHRISTMAS SOCIAL

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SUNDAY – December 18th
6:00 pm
CHRISTMAS CANTATA & PLAY
(No Youth Meeting)

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SUNDAY – December 25th
CHRISTMAS DAY
11:00 am
Worship Service Only

Here’s what’s happening at High Peak Baptist Church!

Thanksgiving Service at Amherst Baptist Church

7:00 pm @ Amherst Baptist Church

Our annual community Thanksgiving worship service will be held at Amherst Baptist Church with Pleasant View Baptist Church also taking part with us. Our three choirs will sing together and we will collect non-perishable food items for the food ministry that Amherst supports, which also happens to be the Pleasant View ministry. I will be preaching the message this week from Psalm 95.

See below for mapping information:

No Regular Wednesday Worship or Activities

Regular Wednesday activities are cancelled because of the Thanksgiving service and the holiday the next day. The youth will be going to work at Samaritan’s Purse and some of the children and younger youth will work at the Outreach Center on Tuesday.

Missions Study

5:00 pm @ High Peak

The International Missions Study will be focusing on London, England. We will start at 5:00 pm and go till 7:00 with a meal midway through at 6:45 for everyone. We have a children’s class, a youth class, and an adults class.

Here is the November Youth calendar of activities. You can download the calendar in either PDF or a file that will open in Word. Print it off and post it on the family fridge or another place where you will see the activities you need to support and bathe in prayer.

Here is the Youth Calendar for the month of October. You can download it here.

Here are some of the excitement that the Youth Team planned for you this month:

• Fifth Quarter – Every Friday from 9-11:30 pm
• Youth Group Sunday Nights at 5 pm
• Luncheon for Seniors and Parents – Oct 23 after AM worship
• Fifth Sunday Breakfast – Oct 30 at 9:45 am
• Visiting Shut-ins – Oct 30 5 pm

Our next Thrive Team Meeting will be Wednesday, September 21 after a special time of Prayer and Devotion for Thrive and our church.

The goal of our Thrive Team is to help our church Thrive Again! in the Acts 2 model where the church was devoted to the practices of the church and resulted in powerful growth in their relationships with Jesus Christ, their number, the kinds of ministry they were doing and the number of churches that eventually were established.

Our team will be going through a few phases:

1. Learning: what a Biblical church looks like, what kind of community we live in and where we’ve been as a church
2. Dreaming: what could we become as a church if we transitioned into a Thriving church
3. Planning: put together some goals and suggested ways for our church to transition into a Thriving church
4. Sharing: communicating what God taught us and we believe he told us should be the future of our church

Our Thrive Team members are made up of people from all the different age groups of our church, people who have been long time members and very new members, and both men and women. Pray for Thrive! Pray every day during our 30 Days of Prayer which continues for another two weeks.

A quick note to remind everyone of the movie night that we are hosting at the Jacumin Plaza on Friday Night, September 9 starting at 9:00 PM. We need a few people to be on hand to help service popcorn, snacks and drinks. The movie will start at 9, but we need helpers to be on hand at 8:00 to set up. We will pass out information about the church.

The September Youth Calendar is now live with all of our youth group events in the next month. The highlights include:

• Adopt a Shut-in Night Sep 11
• Fifth Quarter Friday Nights starting Sep 16 at 9 PM
• Momentum Youth Conference and Concert Sep 24th

Pray for our youth and make sure all of the teenagers in our church know about these events!

Here is the June 2011 calendar of events for our youth group at High Peak Baptist Church.

Click to download the Youth Calendar

And remember that this year we have a youth class each night of Vacation Bible School. Download the calendar to find out what each night’s theme is about.