First Assembly of God Newsletter                                                                    November/December 2011

I am challenged this month as to what to write about since we are covering two months in which two special holidays occur. After much thought, I have decided to focus my comments on the importance of being "Thankful". A positive, thankful person is a great witness in this dark world. Our light shines for the Lord when we live and express our thankfulness for God's many blessings. Instead of looking at the negatives in our lives and complaining, we must look for the positives and be quick to give thanks.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." Giving thanks is God's will for our lives. It is what pleases the Lord most. A few years ago, the cartoon 'Peanuts' pictured Charlie Brown bringing Snoopy his dinner on Thanksgiving Day. But, it was just his usual dog food in the bowl. Snoopy took one look at his bowl and said, "This isn't fair. The rest of the world is eating turkey with all the trimmings and all I get is dog food." He stands there and looks at his dog food for a moment and says, "I guess it could have been worse. I could be a turkey." Instead of thinking about how little we have, we need to count our blessings and give thanks.

I believe that if we as individuals can develop a "servant's heart" that we as a congregation can impact our community, our nation, and the world. Please join with me in praying for the following three things: 1) That we will become a church that is known for its love. My prayer is that we will soon have the reputation of being the friendliest church in the Valley, 2) That we will be a praying church. I encourage you to set aside time every day (minimum of 7 minutes) to spend with God, and allow Him to speak to you (Psalm 46:10). Pray for your pastor and his family and our church leaders and their families (1 Timothy 2:1-3), and 3) That our motive in serving God and others is pure and Christ-honoring. Scripture instructs that whatever we do, we should do it as though we were doing for the Lord.

In closing, I want to remind you of some events that will be taking place during the remainder of the year:

First, we will be receiving an offering on Sunday. November 6 at the end of the morning service to help feed the world for a day. Check your weekly church bulletin for further details about this wonderful opportunity to help fight world hunger. Next, we will be having a Community Outreach on Saturday, November 12th from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. We will be visiting local neighborhoods passing out information about our church and inviting them to come worship with us. On November 14th we will be having a Church Leadership meeting for all church ministry leaders at 7:00 p.m. in the Kidz Express room. Come with your ideas about how we can better minister to the needs of our community and model Christ to all ages.

We would like to make up Thanksgiving baskets again this year for needy families in our church. The items needed are boneless turkey breasts (5-8 lbs.), stuffing, gravy, large box of instant potatoes, a large can of corn, a large can of green beans, rolls, fruit pie, and butter. We need these items by Tuesday, November 22nd. Cash donations are also welcome.

We also are in need of medium sized boxes. Please bring these items to the kitchen off the main sanctuary. Thank you for your help. I also would like to invite you to the Christmas Banquet and evening of Christmas Music on Wednesday, December 7th at 6:30 p.m. here at First Assembly. Cost is $7.00 (Age 12 - Adult), $4.00 (Age 4 - 11), and No Charge (Ages 0-3). More details will be given in the near future. A sign up sheet is at the Welcome Center.

I pray that you and your family will have a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! Make lots of lifetime memories, and remember to thank God for His many blessings!

—Pastor Jeff

Since we are now doing the newsletter every other month this will be the last time I get to share with you this year. It doesn't seem possible that 2011 will be over in two months, but since it will be, there a couple of administrative details I would like to share with you.

In early December we will be putting out the 2012 tithing envelopes. I encourage all of you to pick up a box of envelopes and sign your name on the list next to the number that is on your box. The best way for you to insure proper credit for your giving is to use assigned tithing envelopes and make sure that they are filled out when you place them in the offering. The counters and Treasurer do their best to accurately account for your giving desires in the offering, but it is most helpful when you use tithing envelopes and have filled in your name and appropriate designations on the envelope. You may be surprised to know that counters fill out an envelope for every loose check that is in the offering and they record all of the pertinent information (name and designated giving amounts) on the envelope. We thank you in advance for your cooperation in making this a less burdensome task for the counters.

At this time of year it is also appropriate to remind you of the IRS requirements for year-end giving and how it is receipted. The general rule is:

All offerings that you wish to have credited to your 2011 giving must be received at the church by December 31, 2011, or they must be dated, mailed, and postmarked by that date. Now would also be a good time to check with your financial advisor if you are thinking about year-end charitable contributions from investments. Your advisor can properly guide you on the best way to handle those charitable contributions.

We sincerely thank you for your continued giving to support the ministries of First Assembly. This has been another challenging year financially, however we could not do all the things we do without your faithful support. May God richly bless you during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, and the upcoming new year of 2012.

—Steve Parsons