I am completely blown away at how God can use us and does use us in helping others hear and receive the gospel. I am confident that God has used us over this past year more than we recognize or more than we even know. Giving to the Great Commission Giving is another way you allow God to use you to spread His good news to people who are in desperate spiritual need. We who know Christ as our Savior have been given a responsibility to help others know Him too. So much of what we do at Immanuel is directed toward fulfilling God's command toward sharing His message with those who don't know Him. God has used you, your giving, and your prayers over the past year here and beyond. Giving to the Great Commission Giving is another opportunity for God to use you and to sacrifice so that others can be saved too. This coming Sunday (December 8) , you will have an opportunity to give to the Great Commission Giving offering at the conclusion at both morning services. 100% of what you give will be given to support missionaries and missions in our state, our nations, and across the world. Your giving does a lot! It helps Southern Baptist missionaries in India share the gospel with Hindus.  It helps the church planter start a church in San Fransisco. It helps the chaplain share the gospel with men and women attending basic training at Ft. Leonard. It allows Southern Baptist missionaries to provide food in poverty stricken countries in Africa. It helps provide leadership and coaching to pastors in Illinois. It helps us provide financing to plant a third church plant. On this side of heaven, you might not fully know the number of people you helped to come to Jesus and the number of missionaries you helped share the gospel in hard places through your giving, but it does a lot. Will you pray about how you can sacrificially give this year to help support missionaries and missions throughout the world through our Great Commission Giving? 

Making Memories at the Manger is an event where we hope to creatively present the truths of Christmas and the gospel with the community. Our heart is to create a fun, family environment where memories are made that last a lifetime. As we Live Love to the community and share the gospel story through our "Why Christmas?" musical our hope is for God to work in the lives of many individuals. The "tour" begins with the 20 minute musical which will start on Thursday and Friday (Dec 12-13) at 6pm, 6:30 and 7pm; and on Saturday (December 14) at 2pm, 2:30, and 3pm. We will have cookies and hot chocolate in Connection Point. There will be three different family activities in the gym: feel free to do all three or pick one! We will have photographers along with different scenes and backdrops for you to have your family picture taken. There will be a petting zoo with multiple animals and horse and donkey rides. It should be a whole lot of fun. We would love for you to come and bring others with you. We hope that you, your family and friends will make some memories at the Manger.  

We could also use your help in offering this Christmas gift to the community. You could help set-up for the event on Sunday, December 8 at 2pm at Immanuel. You could help with registration, being a greeter or a counselor, help with activities, or with the animals for one or multiple of our days. (If you help on Thursday or Friday's, we will have free dinner available from 5pm -5:35pm!) You could help with tear down on Saturday at 4:30pm. We would love for you to help us in attempting to show Christ's love and share His message with our community. Could you help us somewhere? Sign-up at Sign-up Central.  

We would love for you to wear the shirt to both advertise the event
and then to show who the volunteers are for the event. 

We want to create a "Hallmark Christmas Movie" setting for our Making Memories at the Manger event. We would love for you to help us! We are asking each class to decorate their own Christmas tree. Be creative and have fun showing off your class' holiday spirit. Use whatever size tree you would like, but we do need some big ones also. Trees will need to be set up, ready to plug in and display no later that Sunday afternoon the 8th or Monday the 9th of December. There will be prizes! These trees will be a main backdrop for the gym area to greet our guests. Please consider participating as we help to make Christmas special for our community!

As we continue to have many individuals visiting and as our church family grows, will you consider others when you find a parking spot? If you are able to walk and endure the cold, would you consider parking in one of our two gravel lots? Please allow our first time guests, seniors, and those needing handicapped spaces to use the parking spots reserved for them! We are excited to be offering a new parking lot ministry with a golf cart we have rented to help individuals. This was one of the suggestions we heard about from you through our church surveys! We are thankful for Mike and Linda Kathalynas for heading up this important ministry. If you are interested in serving and helping others through this ministry, you can sign-up here or let Mike and Linda know.   

On December 16th we are taking a group of college students to Top Golf in St. Louis! This will be a fun night where we can hang out and relax after a semester of study! We will leave the church at 5:00 pm, play for a couple of hours, and then head home. If you are interested in joining us the cost is $15 per student. We have a limited number of slots so sign up today! I hope you can join us! 

Kids will enjoy free food, games, and movies all night long! Bring your pillow and sleeping bag for this exciting overnight experience. Sign-up at ibcbenton.com/events. 

This class is for all who are seeking membership at Immanuel or just want to know more about our church family. This one session class provides a great snapshot of our church's heart and ministry opportunities. The New Member's Class consists of four segments: Mission, Beliefs, Stewardship, and Spiritual Growth, which will be team taught in one afternoon by our pastoral staff. Qualifications for membership at Immanuel are: a saving relationship with Christ, expressing intent to join, and completion of the New Member's Class. Please sign-up at Sign-up Central.

God's Word says that "Children are a gift of the Lord." (Psalm 127:3) On Sunday, December 15th, we will set aside a special moment for moms and dads who wish to dedicate their babies, young children, or recently adopted children to the Lord. This will be a precious time, as Pastor Sammy and our congregation will join in prayer for each family. If you would like to dedicate your child, please contact the church office by December 11th.  

We will vote for the 2020 church budget at this time and will make a motion for us to move money from the checking to pay down our building debt. We currently owe $804,681.30 on our building. Copies of the budget will be available on Sun., Dec. 8th at the Welcome Desk. 

Join us on Wednesday, December 18th for our annual Christmas caroling event.
We will begin with dinner provided by the church in the gym at 5:00PM.
At 6:00 we will go caroling to the nursing homes and shut-ins.

We hope you are able to join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior
on Tuesday evening, December 24th. This service is always a special one
as we come together to consider God's great gift-Jesus.

Please continue to pray for our team as they prepare to leave on January 16th. Our team of 10 people will be ministering in the the slums of Nairobi, Kenya as we partner with IMFC (International Missionaries for Christ) in reaching the lost in Kenya. Our team is: Brad & Judy Burzynski, Doug Crawford, Wanda Karnes, Shawn Ruffino, Barry & Brenda Sink, Larry Toms, Pastor Casey and Pastor Sammy. There are several team members who are still raising funds for this trip. Will you pray for our team as they are meeting each month to prepare themselves in sharing the gospel? If you would like to help financially, see Margaret Lay. 

We will have our annual Chili Cookoff after the evening service. This is a fun, relaxing time to connect with others after the busy holiday season. Sign-up at Sign-up Central if you are willing to make a pot of chili.