Christmas Eve Service — Dec. 24, 6:00 PM
This will be a traditional Christmas Eve service with carols, candles & communion. Please bring your family and friends with you. Anyone who seeks to follow Jesus as Lord and Savior is welcome to receive the Lord’s Supper.
Christmas Eve Child Care
During the 6:00 Christmas Eve service, the infant nursery will be open for children under the age of two. Room 110 will be available for parents and restless children, and a simulcast of the service will be playing.

Learn more about this journey Edward and Olivia Hoffman are on as they look to adopt the nephews from Uganda.

Click here to watch  the video

You’ve probably heard the preflight announcement so many times you have it memorized. ”In the unlikely event of sudden cabin depressurization an oxygen mask will drop down in front of your face. Pull down firmly on the tub to start the flow of oxygen. Place the mask over your nose and mouth. Pull on the elastic tabs on the side of the mask to adjust the fit and breathe normally. Even thought the bag does not inflate oxygen is flowing. Put on your own mask before helping those around you with theirs.”

While I’ve always had to suppress a chuckle at the line “and breathe normally,” like THAT is going to happen!

But there is timeless wisdom in the next line. “Put on your own mask before helping those around you.”Unheeded the words could be deadly. Helping all those around you and unable to breathe would soon lead to hypoxia, impaired judgement, unconsciousness or worse.

The obvious application is clear. Self care is critical to providing quality care for those you are trying to help, serve and reach.

So, how is this crazy time of year going for you in the area of self-care? How’s your emotional, physical and relational health? How are you doing spiritually? How are you managing your time? Are you consistently living out your core values? Are you being a good steward of all of your resources?

What is your most formidable obstacle to improving your own self-care? What do you intend to do about it?

For your sake and those seated around you…invest in your own self-care.

Three things that can help.

1 – Make Time to Rest.

We are commanded to keep a sabbath and make it holy. What’s that mean? regular time for rest, reflection and renewal. Make sure your weekly rhythm includes a day of mostly down time. I know, I know…you’re laughing. I also know the source of that laughter is not humor but pain. Let’s face it most of us run too fast, too far and too heavily burdened. We also now there is never a good time to do anything so if anything is going to happen you simply have to decide and do. This goes for rest too.

2 – Learn to Say No.

Since all of us have only 24 hours per day and 365 days per year, it only makes sense that almost all of the above issues are not due to having less time but misspending the time we do have. How can we get back the time we misspend? We can’t. But what we can do is change how we spend the remaining time we do have. The single most effective way is to learn to say, “no.” I’ll talk more about this in a future UPDATE but the simple fact is saying yes too often leads to more difficulty in saying no. The strength to say no to unnecessary things is when we have a stronger yes driving us on the inside. This yes must first be regarding out relationship with god, family and others. Then the yes of only those things that deepen the previous three. Chronic busy-ness often times is a symptom of a someone that is attempting fill themselves up because they believe the either “have to” because the culture is demanding it or they believe they are missing something and are trying to fill that something up with activity. Learning to say no begins with learning to ask why to each and every activity.

3 – Make Room for Silence.

We generally never truly rest because we are so very, very busy and we are so very busy because we don’t say no and we don’t say no because we seldom take time to reflect and we don’t take time to reflect because we don’t make room to be quiet. Ever stop to think why so many good ideas come to you while you’re in the shower? Ever wonder why? Good ideas come to us in the shower because that’s one of the few waking hours when we are quiet. The running water blocks the outside noise and in that silence amazing things happen. This begs the question: what could happen if you specifically made room for silence? By silence I mean quiet enough you can hear your own breathing. At first this will drive you crazy but if you stay after it for at least a week you will find that you will start liking it! Why? Well just imagine what could happen if you made room just for silent reflection in your regular routine? What if you took time away from noise? Away from the TV, the radio, stereo, iPod, XM, etc etc etc just to be and in quiet. My guess is you’d find solutions to the above dilemmas, you’d find strength in reasoning to say no, you’d feel a little less stressed, you might just find yourself no only liking it but wanting it.

Breathing.

Normally.

Two things that you and I need a great deal more of and two things that, I believe are God’s will for all of us.

Tom

PrayerPage. Westview takes prayer seriously. We pray fervently for our church family and community, and we will pray for you!

On Wednesday(October 27, 2010) we will have an Evening of Worship and Prayer in the Sanctuary from 7:00 to 8:30. Childcare is provided. Join us for a time of refreshing, renewal, worship and prayer. Special prayer will be offered for the sick and the unemployed. Then Curtis and the band will lead us in worship and praise. There will be no sermon. Just scripture, worship and prayer.

Then Thursday through Saturday there will be a wonderful prayer and devotional experience offered called the Prayer Path.  This is not three nights of services for everyone to attend rather it is a prayer adventure being offered over three evenings.  When you arrive you will go to the north (pantry) entrance and come to room 109. There you will be given a portable stereo with earphones and a small booklet. Then proceed to the sanctuary. The sanctuary will have been transformed. Laid out on the floor and clearly marked will be labyrinth (it looks like a maze but it’s not confusing) with eleven multi-media prayer stations. With a narrator guiding you on your portable stereo you will move from station to station completing a brief time spiritual reflection, worship and worshipful action. The eleven stations will take you on a journey to help you “let go” of the busyness, hurts and distractions that can spoil relationships; “center” your life on God; and reach out to the world with Christ’s love.  When you conclude you will return the stereo and booklet. There will be a guest book where participants can record their experience if the wish. There will be a quiet area set aside to go if needed after the Prayer Path.

The Elder Board and Leadership Team went through the Prayer Path during our retreat last month. Unanimously, they said everyone should walk the Prayer Path! Each participant experienced something slightly different during the Prayer Path and all agreed it was a very private, individualized and moving experience that enriched their prayer life!

The Prayer Path will be open 7:00 to 9:00 Thursday and Friday and 4:00 to 8:00 on Saturday. Since the Prayer Path is an individual experience every participant will not be able to start right when they arrive so some waiting may be involved. Therefore it is a good idea if you plan to attend with your small group to call the church office to make a reservation. Please understand priority will be given to all non Westviewers who attend.

The Prayer Path is also a bit labor intensive so we are looking for volunteers to help organize on Wednesday, set-up, host and provide child care on Thursday, host and child care on Friday as well as host, child-care and tear down on Saturday.

Please sign-up for a time to pray, join us on Wednesday night at 7:00 and one of the evenings for the Prayer Path.

Westview Church is a serving church and a house of prayer. You don’t have to look very far to see that indeed we are a serving church! The Free Clinic and Food Pantry it is really quite obvious. Being a house of prayer is sometimes harder to detect but that doesn’t mean we aren’t a house of prayer. None the less, this week we are inviting everyone connected to Westview to join us in a special prayer emphasis.

Starting Monday we trying to empower prayer to be happening for three days straight (that’s 72 hours!) with people signing up for as many hours as they are willing! There is a place in your bulletin to sign up. This is private intercessory prayer in your home.

In those times please pray for:

our country,
our economy,
the up coming elections,
our military,
our civic leaders,
our police, fire and EMT workers,
pray for their peace and safety,
pray for the spiritually lost,
those who need employment,
the sick among us,
the search team as they seek out a new pastor,
pray for our pastors and staff,
the children who attend our pre-school,
the children of our congregation,
pray for our Discovery Hour teachers,
pray for God’s will to be done at and through Westview.

Also check the website www.westview.org for additional prayer needs.

On Wednesday we will have an Evening of Worship and Prayer in the Sanctuary from 7:00 to 8:30. Childcare is provided. Join us for a time of refreshing, renewal, worship and prayer. Special prayer will be offered for the sick and the unemployed. The Curtis and the band will lead us in worship and praise. There will be no sermon. Just scripture, worship and prayer.

Then Thursday through Saturday there will be a wonderful prayer and devotional experience offered called the Prayer Path. This is not three nights of services for everyone to attend rather it is a prayer adventure being offered over three evenings. When you arrive you will go to the north (pantry) entrance and come to room 109. There you will be given a portable stereo with earphones and a small booklet. Then proceed to the sanctuary. The sanctuary will have been transformed. Laid out on the floor and clearly marked will be labyrinth (it looks like a maze but it’s not confusing) with eleven multi-media prayer stations. With a narrator guiding you on your portable stereo you will move from station to station completing a brief time spiritual reflection, worship and worshipful action. The eleven stations will take you on a journey to help you “let go” of the busyness, hurts and distractions that can spoil relationships; “center” your life on God; and reach out to the world with Christ’s love. When you conclude you will return the stereo and booklet. There will be a guest book where participants can record their experience if the wish. There will be a quiet area set aside to go if needed after the Prayer Path.

The Elder Board and Leadership Team went through the Prayer Path during our retreat last month. Unanimously, they said everyone should walk the Prayer Path! Each participant experienced something slightly different during the Prayer Path and all agreed it was a very private, individualized and moving experience that enriched their prayer life!

The Prayer Path will be open 7:00 to 9:00 Thursday and Friday and 4:00 to 8:00 on Saturday. Since the Prayer Path is an individual experience every participant will not be able to start right when they arrive so some waiting may be involved. Therefore it is a good idea if you plan to attend with your small group to call the church office to make a reservation. Please understand priority will be given to all non Westviewers who attend.

The Prayer Path is also a bit labor intensive so we are looking for volunteers to help organize on Wednesday, set-up, host and provide child care on Thursday, host and child care on Friday as well as host, child-care and tear down on Saturday.

Please sign-up for a time to pray, join us on Wednesday night at 7:00 and one of the evenings for the Prayer Path.

You’ll be glad you did,

Tom

Click here for pdf —> Discovery Hour 9-19-2010 Growth Barriers

Please join us for Adult discovery Hour…above is a link to the slides for 9/19/2010  – Tom’s discussion on Breaking Barriers….

Join us as we discuss challenges churches face to break through different growth barriers.  Sundays at 9AM

Healthy things grow,
growing things change,
changes challenge us,
challenges force us to trust God,
trust leads to obedience,
obedience makes us healthy,
healthy things grow

Over the past eight weeks Westview has experienced some pretty significant changes! Just think about them for a minute: The founding pastor departed to start another church out west. The elder board selected an interim pastor. We redecorated and remodeled the sanctuary. The service and Discovery Hour times were adjusted. And the meeting place for the Youth Ministry was moved. Most would agree that is a significant amount of change.

Change as we all know is disruptive. It causes us to adjust our routines, our patterns and jars our familiarity. It makes us think before we act or speak and makes us pay attention to seemingly mundane details like time, distance and comfort. Change doesn’t affect everyone the same way. Some people love anything and everything new, they thrive on change. Other people just can’t stand change and despise new things, ways or places. Some don’t mind change but become very uncomfortable around others who have become uncomfortable so they just want to “fix” everything so everyone is comfortable once again. Still others just go along not really caring one way or the other.

As disruptive as change may be and as differently as we all handle it, change is one of the constants in our world. Change is also important in following Jesus. Thank about this;

Healthy things grow, that applies as much to gardens, children, investments as it does our soul. Growing things change, growth is a form of change. We can’t grow and stay the same. How many of us parents at times want our children to stop growing or wish they were little again? Changes challenge us, like I’ve already mentioned change can cause all kids of challenges, pressures and stress if we let it. Challenges force us to trust God, I can’t think of anything more true in life! Pain is the primary means God uses to shape our lives and prompt our growth. Just like you, I wish there was another way! Trust leads to obedience, just how great would our world be if we were all more obedient to God? Obedience makes us healthy, whenever I fear God more than I fear man or when I trust Him ore than I trust my circumstances things go much better for me and I know they do for you too.

During this season of change let’s commit to each other and to our Heavenly Father to stay as close to Him as possible, to stay as open and honest with each other as possible and to be patient while we all adjust as well as give the changes a chance to help us learn to trust Him more.

You and I live in an information-soaked world where we are bombarded with e-mail, text messages, phone calls, and a constant stream of noise from the TV, internet and radio. It’s easy to get distracted and become confused about what’s real and what’s hype.

This Sunday we’re starting a new series built around that ancient summary of the Christian faith called the Apostle’s Creed. It’s a timeless message that can cut through the information clutter and give us solid handles to hold on to in our constantly changing culture.

The creed remains important because of its original intentions — to be both memorable and meaningful and the confession of all believers when they were baptized or when they partook of Holy Communion.

It’s also important in the technology-saturated 21st Century, because people still seek what the creed summarizes.

Finally, it’s important to believers because it offers a vocabulary for understanding and communicating our faith.

And vocabulary is more important that you might think.

For instance if I were to go outside and look at the clouds then comeback in and try to explain them to you … it would be a pretty limited conversation because I don’t have much of a vocabulary regarding clouds. Beyond high wispy ones, big fluffy ones and dark ominous ones I don’t have many ways of describing them.

But if I were a meteorologist and knew the distinguishing characteristics of more than seventy varieties of clouds, well then I would see things differently! I would know the nuances, the signs and the tell-tale indicators to look for. The report I would bring would be much more informative, engaging and helpful.

Why?

Because the words would help me see. The words force me to see something. The more words you have for something the better you see it — more precisely, the better you comprehend it.

The trouble many of us have when we are talking about God and thinking about spiritual things is we’re not really sure what these things mean. Do you know what atonement, judgment, sin, faith and many others really mean? The Apostles’ Creed gives us that vocabulary to define the meaning, and therefore increase the understanding. It gives us a framework to understand our faith and waypoints to identify on our journey of faith.

It is our prayer that this series will engage you and your faith on a new level. Help empower you to consider and communicate your faith with a newly fired appreciation. This series is also a summary of what it means to believe, and therefore an excellent opportunity to introduce your friends, relatives, associates and neighbors to Westview and a life in Christ. I hope you will find the confidence to invite someone into our community of faith.

This Sunday were going to take the first word…Faith. What is Faith? We will explore six important elements of faith.

I hope to see you there.

9:00 Discovery Hour

10:30 Sunday Service

Here is a quick look at our new web look.

Parents of all ages of children…We’re asking you to register your children for ALL of our amazing Children’s Ministries:  Discovery Hour, Children’s Worship, and Nursery.  Please print the attached Children’s Ministries Registration Form one per child, complete it, and place it on the Welcome Center at church.  There are copies available on the Welcome Center, too.  Download Form By Clicking here. Thank you for your help with this important step to ensure your children are safe, nurtured, and spiritually-educated!

Prayer for my parents, Mark and Pam, who are serving in Tanzania, Africa for a year at an orphnage. Prayers for safety and good health will be appreciated for the next 11 months. Follow their journey at tanzaniabymarkandpam.blogspot.com