Dear Ginghamsburg Church Family,
Happy Thanksgiving! Today most of us will pause at mealtime, circle around the table with family or friends, and thank God for our many blessings. Some of us will share a Psalm of Thanksgiving or another scripture passage on gratitude. Here
are a few selections from the Bible on thanksgiving. You may want to use them
for your own devotional reading or read selected verses as you have your
mealtime blessing:
- 1 Chronicles 16:8-36 (any number of verses from this passage)
- Psalm 92:1-5
- Psalm 100
- Psalm 107
- Psalm 108:1-5
- Psalm 111
- Psalm 118
If no one else is planning or slated to pray before your Thanksgiving meal, you might ask, “Would you all mind if I said a prayer of thanksgiving for us all?” Here is a prayer you might use if you are not sure what else to say:
“As we gather around this table, O Lord, we thank you for your many blessings in our lives. We thank you for the beauty of this world. We thank you for the gift of life. We thank you for friends and family who enrich our lives. We thank you for the blessings of the last year - how you have sustained us through challenging times, and the surprising moments of joy. We thank you for the meal we are about to receive, and each of the hands that lovingly prepared it for us. We humbly ask for your blessings as we look to the year ahead. Guide our nation's leaders. Give them wisdom for the task at hand. We pray for peace and a just resolution of conflicts around the world. We pray for those who have been affected by the economy, asking that 2023 would be a year for new jobs and new hope. We ask you, O God, to help us to face whatever challenges may lie ahead with courage and faith, and to joyfully receive the blessings yet to be revealed. Thank you, O Lord, for your many blessings in our lives! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Today I also want to thank those who have returned your 2023 Stewardship Commitment Cards this last weekend. After two weeks, we have received 162 cards pledging a total of $1,076,162. Our average commitment received across all campuses so far is $6,643 per household per year which is great! But we have a long way to go! We need more members to submit their pledges. Our proposed 2023 budget is around $2.5 million. If Ginghamsburg Church is your home church family and you haven’t returned your “estimate of giving” commitment card, I’d like to encourage you to do so today. You can pledge online by clicking here, turn it in during worship this weekend, or you can mail it to the church (6759 S Co Rd 25A, Tipp City, OH, 45371). Thank you!
This Sunday, November 27, we kick off the season of Advent! I love this season – the four weeks leading up to Christmas when we sing carols, light the Advent candles, and reflect upon the scriptures that point us towards Christmas. This week our Worship Center at each campus had the greenery hung, the Christmas trees erected, and the lights strung. On Sunday I’ll kick off our Advent sermon series called Christmas Playlist. Christmas carols are often the songs that we have sung the most but understand the least. For many of us we've been singing these songs for years without internalizing the incredible things that we are singing. So, this Advent season, we will sing a song, look at the meaning behind it, then dive into the passage of the Bible that inspired it. This coming Sunday the song on our Christmas playlist is “What Child is This?” The featured scripture passage will be Matthew 1:18-23. I will be preaching at the Tipp City Campus and Karl Penn will be preaching at the Fort McKinley Campus. If you have family in town visiting for the holiday, encourage them to join us for worship in-person. If you are traveling out of town this weekend, make sure to join us online.
On this Thanksgiving Day, among the many things I will give thanks for is YOU. I consider one of the greatest gifts God has given me is to serve as your senior pastor. I’m both proud of and excited by the hundreds of ways you are living out your faith in such a way that the Miami Valley looks more like God’s kingdom because of you.
Love,
Dennis
