I have a friend who hosted Thanksgiving dinner at his house last week.  After the dinner when his and her entire family sat sprawled out on their couches and chairs, half-heartedly peering at the ‘good-for-nothing’ football games that take up airwave space on T-giving, his wife got the idea to take this opportunity and pick names for the upcoming Christmas swap.  So my friend rounded up the names of everyone present (pun intended) and they all joyfully picked a name of the family member to whom they will be giving a gift.

After the cheery fun of picking the names had commenced, my friends wife walked sheepishly over to him and said, “Honey, I just thought of something.”  “Yes?” He answered inquisitively.  “I already bought all the gifts for everyone in our family.”

After much thought, they came up with a solution:  They would give their family members they had picked the gifts they had purchased for them, and they would sell the other gifts to the people who had picked the recipients of the gift they had purchased.  That way they wouldn’t really have to pay for everyone’s gifts, which is the reason for the swap in the first place, and the other people wouldn’t have to sacrifice to go out amidst the hustle ad bustle of the shopping world and get a gift for their pick.

Aaaaaahhhh the joy of Christmas and the spirit of giving.

Which one of these are turkeys at Fellowship Church?

Now that’s a good helping of turkey to start off your Thanksgiving!
And to the others I am thankful for their huge helping of teamwork at Fellowship!

People and the way they connect and build one another up to become more like Christ.

This is the one reason why I love church.  Sure you have serving and teaching and organization and leadership and bearing one another’s burdens and music, and for some there might be other reasons why they love the church, but for me, that’s it.

Last night Carie and I finished another season connecting and building up (and being built up) a group of people who we have come to love as our family.  We mixed in there a few people who will be a part of our next season of community, and in the midst of all this, I’m reminded why I do what I do.  It will be another few weeks of awkward time getting to know a new group and having them get to know us.  No doubt there will be some lull in the conversation and an inability to decipher what someone is trying to say, but in the end, I’ll be back here in a year or two writing in this blog, on a natural high, telling you how I’ve come to love this new group of people.

We are expanding our influence, challenging one another to serve, love, and give more than we think, and moving to deeper levels of intimacy with the God who we serve and the Christ who makes it possible.

And in the process, we become different people

Thanksgiving with my small group - November 20, 2008

May this holiday not only remind you of our responsibility to be thankful, but make you more thankful than you already are.  I’m thankful for:

My God.
My wife, Carie.
My church family.
My family (including my friends.).

To you, for being a part of my community.

The day is upon us.  The day that we are so thankful, we stuff ourselves silly and watch the Lions lose again.  Besides turkey…

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving food?