Worship for 11 Dec: Third Sunday of Advent

Light in our Darkness

In the middle of the shortest and darkest days of the year, the metaphor of light has extraordinary power. Jesus is declared to be the “light of the world,” and John’s Gospel calls us to not only witness Jesus as the light, but to testify to its good news for everyone. In this season of expectation, we can trust the promise of God to shine light into every darkened corner of our world through the one who is the light in our darkness.

Worship Assistants

Greeters: Richard and Inga Lee
Ushers: Heidi Wagstaff and Jim Heater
Acolyte: Maggie Tellefsen
Lector: Jaycie Drinnon
Communion Assistant: Allison Ward
Nursery: Susan Tellefsen

Poinsettias for Christmas Eve

Would you like to purchase a poinsettia to help beautify the Sanctuary for Christmas Eve? All of the double monet are booked. We have 6 double red, 16 single red, 9 single monet available. Forms (with prices) to purchase the poinsettias are on the table in the narthex. Please attach your check and return it to the office. You can take your poinsettia home after Christmas Eve Worship or ask that it be donated to brighten up someone's Christmas.

Second Sunday Lunch

The youth will be serving soup for lunch after the Worship service on Sunday to raise money for their journey to the National Youth Gathering this summer. If you'd like to bring food, please contact Sylvia Wallis.

Christmas Dinner and Sing-along

Sunday, 18 December at 6pm, Redeemer will meet for a potluck dinner and Christmas Carol sing-along. There's a sign-up sheet in the Narthex for those bringing food. Please contact Pastor Cobb or the church office if you can help with setup, decorating, cleanup, or if you'd be willing to drive someone who may not like to drive after dark. See you there!

LSG Angel Tree

You are invited to do some shopping to provide a gift for someone who might otherwise get nothing. Take a tag and return the wrapped gift with the tag attached to Redeemer by Thursday, 15 December. Your gifts go to persons in the Lutheran Services of Georgia foster care program.

Redeemer Tree

You are also invited to take a tag from the Redeemer tree to give the congregation something that the normal offering might not cover. If you don't want to buy the gift, you can just provide the means. You don't need to buy a toner cartridge for the copier, but you can make it happen.

Annual Meeting

Redeemer's annual congregation meeting will be 22 January, right after the Worship service.

The agenda includes:

• electing four new Council members,
• approving annual reports and the budget for 2012,
• approving changes to the Constitution to bring Redeemer in line with the ELCA model constitution,
• approving the Guiding Principles, and
• approving a Call for Allison Ward to become a Diaconal Minister.

Church Property Update

You may have noticed that the ice machine and freezer in the kitchen have been off. We've been looking at power consumption at Redeemer and ways to reduce our electric bill. Although the ice machine can be convenient, it costs around $600 per year to operate! Likewise, the commercial freezer draws a lot of power just to keep a few old hot dogs around. We may be looking to sell the ice machine and freezer and buy a high-quality residential freezer instead. We're also looking at the outside lighting and may choose to operate this for fewer hours.

The other big power draw is the electric heat. We don't want anyone to be uncomfortable, but we'll be looking at ways to schedule the heat cycles to keep our peak load down.

Thank you for your patience.