By Bill Hall, GCI National Director, Canada It has been my custom as Canadian Director to send a year-end card to Canadian donors thanking them for their financial support over the past year. As it is also the Christmas season, the image I select for this card features some rendering of the nativity scene. This … Continue reading "A Child Is Born…For Us" Read the article
The 12 days of Christmas is a good time to remind ourselves of the story of Jesus. December 25 — Luke 1:26-56 December 26 — Luke 2:1-21 December 27 — Luke 2:22-38 December 28 — Luke 2:41-52 December 29— Isaiah 7:10-17; Isaiah 9:2-7 December 30 — John 1:1-18 December 31 — Matthew 2:1-12 January 1 … Continue reading "Suggested Readings for the 12 Days of Christmas" Read the article
By Cara Garrity, GCI Development Coordinator It seems Christmas sneaks up on me almost every year. Maybe it’s the busyness of the year-end or the daily routines that obscure meaningful passing of time. Maybe it’s overwhelming preparations or inattentiveness and distractibility. Whatever the cause, I wonder if you are like me and find yourself unprepared … Continue reading "Christmas Presence" Read the article
GCI Creative Christmas Ideas As we approach Advent and Christmas many of our Hope Avenue leaders are thinking about creative ways to celebrate the season while still holding digital services. Check out the ideas below generated by our GCI Creative Community Facebook Page . Drop a comment below with any additional ideas, and join the … Continue reading "GCI Creative Community Christmas Ideas" Read the article
As all GCI churches are making efforts toward better church health, one key focus across all avenues is the development of new leaders. Through mentoring relationships, ministry leaders are developed and the lives of both mentor and mentee are enriched. Check out this month’s Church Hack about the mentoring relationship. Read the article
The impact of the pandemic has touched every area of our lives, including the life of the church. Because of Jesus’ call to love our neighbors well, we have found innovative ways to safely worship together and developed new policies to keep one another safe. This means that there are new ways to serve within … Continue reading "GCI Church Hack: Avenue Job Descriptions" Read the article
If you are using PowerPoint for your worship service, here are a number of tips to make things run smoothly. By Tim Sitterley, U.S. Regional Director, West In the not-too-distant past, movies were delivered to theaters on large rolls of film. The skill of the projectionist was to sync the film so that when one … Continue reading "PowerPoint Pointers" Read the article
Worship leaders have the blessing/responsibility to lead us in joining the heavenly hosts in worship. Here are three things to keep in mind. By Dr. Kathleen Horwood, Business Manager for GCI Canada and Pastor for Saskatoon. From Genesis to Revelation, we see that God’s people have been worshippers. We worship God for his faithfulness, his … Continue reading "Exalt, Encounter and Respond in Worship" Read the article
A healthy church worship service is centered around Jesus. He is the center of our gathering, preaching, sharing communion, and dismissal. By Bill Hall, National Director, Canada I recently started to read A Lay Preacher’s Guide: How to Craft a Faithful Sermon, by Karoline Lewis. (She is the associate professor of biblical preaching at Luther … Continue reading "“I Saw, I Heard, I Felt Jesus Today”" Read the article
The revised common lectionary provides four scripture passages for each week of the year. The Psalm is primarily used as a call to worship. We choose one passage (pericope) to build each sermon upon and our Gospel Reverb podcast focuses on the four or five pericopes for each month. In addition, we often use a … Continue reading "Sermon Pericopes for RCL Year B (2020-2021)" Read the article
