Christmas at Kerith - It’s ON!
Hi Bracknellians (seriously this is an actual word)
You know if you’ve been around churches for a while that once half term is over there is ONLY ONE conversation on the lips of the staff team. YES, CHRISTMAS! So we thought we’d go early to help get our hearts and diaries prepared for December!
Our previous Senior Pastor, Ben Davies, often talked about 2 festivals at Christmas time: the celebration of the Birth of Jesus; and the ‘Winterval’ Festival (including all things Father Christmas, Pantos and the Grinch!). Our culture does an great job at the Winterval, and we love to celebrate with them BUT ALSO as Christians we are the experts in celebrating the Birth of Jesus Christ, Our friends and family need HOPE this Christmas more than ever and we know The Source of all HOPE. What an amazing opportunity to share Him with them.
Here are 3 ideas to help us get our hearts and diaries in good shape for making the most of this Christmas…
Have confidence to invite your friends this Christmas. Give your friends and family the GIFT of an invite to hear for themselves why Christmas matters. We’ll have invites, make sure you share our social media posts, WhatsApp friends or drop round to neighbours! Be creative and be intentional. We’d love to hear your ideas and invite stories!
Get involved. There is a small (but big-hearted!) Bracknell office team BUT there are hundreds of Bracknell Kerithers like you! We need your ideas, expertise, volunteering hands and PRAYING hearts for this season (see below for details). The BEST time to get to know people well is to help with an event - working together on something is such a gift. Come and join in!
Create space for your faith this Christmas. This is a defining moment in our yearly calendar yet it can get stolen from us so quickly in all the ‘doing’. A bit of diary planning can really help you encounter Jesus in the season: Try to plan a retreat day/evening/hour to look again at the Christmas story; Purchase or download an Advent Bible reading companion to take you through the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas; Plan to be at Church so you can be part of the Kerith Christmas story as it unfolds through the December Sundays.
How to get involved this Christmas!
Kerith Christmas Experience Event Sunday 11th December 16:00- 19:00 Kerith Centre.
We’ve wrapped 2 family friendly indoor carol concerts (16:30 & 18:00) in outdoor fun, food, animals and live music!
We’d love to hear from you if you are able to give us some of you time to help set up / set down, host the many stalls or welcome guests Sign up to Serve HERE.
If you make goods or have a business you think would work well with our Christmassy theme we’d love to have options for people to buy some last minute presents on our outdoor stalls! Email beccy.oliver@kerith.church if this is you!
Christmas Eve - Unplugged 21:00 The Kerith Centre
We love the vibe of our Christmas Eve event, it’s stripped back and includes communion so a great space to worship together in expectation of Christmas day, If you’re coming along to this event we’d love your help in making it happen. Add your name to the volunteering form HERE
Christmas Day 10am
Celebrate Jesus’ birth with the church family! It’s a jam packed hour together and then we wrap it and head off so people can get back to the turkey in the oven!! Sign up HERE if you are able to support this event.
New Years Eve at Kerith Bracknell 22:00 - just after midnight
A super mix of games, bring-and-share food and a worship/prayer and celebration on New Year’s Eve. We’ve not been able to do this for a number of years so we’re really excited that it’s BACK! The brilliant Sola and Funmi Bamgboye are heading this evening up so they’d love to hear from you if you’d like to be part of the team! Sign up HERE to help out.