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2007 Year in Review |
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We’ve got something really important to talk about today. Today is December 30, which means tomorrow is the last day of 2007.
And before 2008 starts, we want to stop and give thanks for all that God has done this year.
It’s really easy for us to go from one day to the next, or even one year to the next, without stopping to think about what God has done all around us.
There’s a scripture in 1 Chronicles that talks about giving thanks to God and remembering what He has done.
1 Chronicles 16
8 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.
9 Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
11 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
12 Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
13 O descendants of Israel his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
This morning, as today is the last Sunday of the year, we are going to give thanks to the Lord and remember the wonders he has done in 2007.
- We’re going to do things a little differently this morning, we’ve got a video clip later on and some other fun stuff planned. So I think it will be an adventure for all of us in here today. So, are you ready?
Let’s start with us as a church. It’s been a great year here at CrossRoad, and we want to celebrate what God has done in our midst and the ways that He’s grown us as a congregation.
We had some big events here at church that were a lot of fun – SpringFest, Vacation Bible School for over 400 children, The Leadership Summit, Fall Festival, the Christmas Concert and Reception earlier this month (with over 1100 people here!)
We went off campus for some fun things too – ice skating in July, the day at the zoo, the Suns game where Gee threw out the first pitch
We’ve grown in numbers
We had 95 adults join our congregation in 2007.
We celebrated 11 adult baptisms this year and 43 children’s baptisms.
And we welcomed 19 new babies into our church family this year.
We’ve gone on trips
The youth went hiking on the Appalachian Trail, they went to Student Life Camp,
Access218 went to North Carolina to run a youth week for another church, and they went on a missions trip to Amsterdam
We had another team from CRC go to Haiti last month on a missions trip
We’ve had retreats this year for the women’s AND the men’s ministries
Pastor Len has traveled to Africa, Russia and South America this year
We’ve launched Wednesday nights and the new format of dinner and teaching during the week.
We’ve served others – we had the month of Compassion where we served people all across our city, we just finished the Angel Tree Outreach providing Christmas presents to over 300 children, just last week the youth made blankets and delivered them to people in a nursing home
We’ve supported others financially – there are ministries and missionaries around the world that we support on a regular basis
We reach out to other countries – we sent school supplies to the Bahamas, the knitting group made hats and mittens for kids in Russia and China, we support over 200 children in Haiti with money for education, clothes and healthcare
Church, this is an amazing list of things – and it doesn’t include everything as we don’t have that much time this morning!
God has done incredible things through the people and ministries of this church this year and we want to celebrate that today.
So to help us remember what God has done here at CrossRoad in 2007, we’ve got a video clip for you now with some highlights of this year…
Isn’t that exciting?!
Like the scripture in 1 Chronicles says, give thanks to the Lord and remember the wonders he has done.
So we’ve celebrated as a church what God has done in our congregation, and we’re going to switch gears a bit now.
I want us all to think about 2007 and remember what God has done in each of our lives this year.
Like I said earlier, it’s so easy for us to run from one year to the next without stopping to thank God and give him praise for how He has moved in our lives.
For some of us, 2007 has been a rough year. Maybe the loss of a job, maybe an illness, maybe the loss of a family member or friend.
But in all of those things, God has been there right beside you.
For some of us, 2007 has been a great year. New relationships, new life, new jobs, or even simply good health.
And in all of those things, God has been there right beside you.
For most of us though, 2007 has probably been a little bit of both.
Sure we had great days, and we also had hard days. And whatever the days looked like, we know that God was right there beside us.
He really is the only constant in our lives – jobs, people, stuff, everything else comes and goes. But the presence of the Lord in our lives is constant – it’s ongoing, unchanging, He simply never leaves us.
And the opportunity that we have this morning is beautiful – to stop and think about all that we’ve been through this year – the adventures, the joys, the sorrows, the victories – and to think about how God has been there all along – it’s incredible.
So what we’re going to do is to take a few minutes now to think about what 2007 has been like for us personally.
There’s a card in your bulletin this morning that you can use as a guide.
We’re going to follow the scripture that we read earlier from 1 Chronicles – give thanks to the Lord and remember the wonders he has done.
I’d like to invite you to take a few minutes and thank God for something about 2007, and remember how God was at work in your life this year.
Adults – there are two questions on your card:
What are you thankful for from 2007?
How did you see God working in your life this year?
Kids – we’ve made it really easy for you, you have a special card in the bulletin – just one question – what are you thankful for from 2007?
So we’ll take a few minutes now to think about these things and then we’ll come back together again.
Ok everyone – I hope you enjoyed having that time. Let me hear from the kids again – kids, did you fill out your card with something you’re thankful for?
What I’d like to do now is take some time and share some of the things that we wrote on our cards.
I’ll start with mine.
Now I’d like you to meet two friends of mine – Justin Murphy, who you know from the music ministry here at CrossRoad, and Kendall Hunt, my husband, who leads worship and teaches our 3-5 th graders on Sunday mornings.
They’re going to be walking around in the congregation to ask some of you about what you wrote on your card.
If you’d like to share, please raise your hand and let them know… we’d love to hear from you – kids and youth as well!