Does it seem to you that Christmas decorations appear earlier every year? When I was a child, all the stores put up their trees and wreaths and window dressings the day after Thanksgiving. But now we start celebrating Christmas even before Halloween arrives. Our local Hallmark store has had Christmas ornaments on display since July.

A friend and I have had discussions about this. I prefer to wait to begin Christmas preparations at least until after the Thanksgiving stupor has worn off! But she loves everything Christmas and delights in anything that gets the season rolling as early as possible. And the malls are on her side!

In any case, Advent is upon us and all too soon Christmas will be here. Our Emmanuel family will be celebrating this holy season in a variety of ways. There will be opportunities for giving and helping as well as times for singing and celebrating. I hope you will take part in the festivities.

And I encourage you to invite you friends and family who may not have a church home to join in as well. Invite them to come with you to an Advent worship service or to one of our Christmas Eve services. There’s no better way to welcome Jesus than by welcoming others into his family.

May you and yours enjoy this Christmas season and all the preparations of Advent. And may the One who is coming soon bless you and keep you in his care.

Mary Saylor

Last month my husband George and I went on a grand adventure. We took a cruise up the Rhine River from Amsterdam to Basel, stopping at various places along the way to see the sights and sample the local culture and cuisine. The weather was cold, but not cold enough to prevent our exploring parts of Europe we’d never seen. The scenery was beautiful, and we visited dozens of windmills, castles, forts, and cathedrals. The food was spectacular, both onboard ship and in the local restaurants— where we dined on wiener schnitzel almost every day!

One of the things I most enjoyed about our trip was visiting the many places of worship included on our itinerary. It gives one pause to think that at one time in their history, the people of Europe were so committed to their Christian faith that they invested such enormous amounts of their time and energy and resources to erect those beautiful sacred buildings to the glory of God, not just in the cities of Cologne and Heidelberg and Strasbourg, but in every little village dotting the Rhine.

While it is lamentable from a faith perspective to realize that many of these places of worship are now attended by very few people or have been repurposed to house museums or shops, their existence still bears testimony to persistent faith of those who built them. The stonemasons who laid the foundation of the cathedral in Cologne in 1248 may not have known that that great church would not be completed until 1880, but they would certainly have been aware that their children and grandchildren, and even their great- grandchildren, would not see the completion of that great edifice. Yet they labored on with faith that what they were doing was to the glory of God and would someday reach completion, no matter who sat on the throne or what direction history would take.

I don’t remember much from my high school Latin classes, but I do remember learning the Latin word discere, which means to learn. And it’s from a related Latin word, discipulus, that we get our English word disciple, which means pupil, student, learner. Being a disciple of Jesus means that we are always in student mode. We never finish the course; we never graduate. The business of discipleship is a life- long learning enterprise.

As we get into the swing of the new academic year, I encourage you to consider ways in which you might grow in your own discipleship. Our congregation offers several small groups that meet regularly for study and growth together. Watch your Sunday bulletin for a complete listing or contact the church office to find out which group might fit your schedule. And during the fall we will be hearing from members of our congregation about what being a disciple of Jesus means for them not only in the context of our worship life together, but in the setting of our weekday lives away from our campus as well.

In July of 2013 our session voted to become part of the Acts 16:5 project, a nation-wide program designed to revitalize congregations and help them grow disciples. For the past three years Emmanuel Presbyterian Church has participated, along with about twenty of our sister churches, in the Acts 16:5 project sponsored by Grand Canyon Presbytery. Our Acts 16:5 Vision Team attended nine weekend workshops over the past three years led by Stan Ott, the director of Acts 16:5 Ministries. Our team (nine people including our parish associate) also met monthly, gathering on Friday nights in one of our member’s homes to share a meal and reflect on how to apply what we’ve learned. I have also been part of a pastors’ group that meets every month for lunch, mutual support, and prayer.

Acts 16:5 has helped us look at programs and evaluate if we were just doing the same things because we had always done them. We decided not to do some of the things we’d done for years (our annual fall Fun Fest and VBS, for instance) to move in other directions. And we’ve tried some new things that have been well received—Terrific Tuesdays, Motorcycle Sunday, a pulpit exchange among five Acts 16:5 churches, and our first annual women’s retreat, to name a few. Our participation in the Acts 16:5 project has been an enormous blessing not only for me and our team, but for our congregation and beyond. (See the article “Acts 16:5 at EPC” on page 7 for more examples.)

As our commitment to the presbytery program comes to an end in July, our vision team is considering continuing to meet together for fellowship, prayer, and reflection on how the Spirit might be moving us in new directions. The clergy group I am part of has already decided we enjoy each other’s company and companionship too much to stop our monthly meetings! I am grateful for the opportunity to have been part of this wonderful program offered by our presbytery. And I am grateful to our vision team (Jereme Bintz, Pat Hall, Dana Huether, George Saylor, Kristine Smith, Dirk Van Dyke, Laurie Van Dyke, and Valerie Zehr) for their enthusiastic participation. As our three-year commitment to the presbytery program comes to an end, we are grateful for the blessing of participating and excited to see where God will lead us going forward!

Blessings— Mary Saylor