NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Bloomington, IL Permit No. 181 r Change Service Requested. 1 Upcoming Events

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1 116 North Cottage Avenue Normal, Illinois, Sunday Schedule: Traditional Worship.9:00 a.m. Bible School All Ages 9:00 a.m. Contemporary Worship.10:30 a.m. Early Childhood Children s Church Elementary Children s Church & Adult Classes.10:30 a.m. MESSENGER DATE: Notice: Our next Messenger will be published January 27th which will include the February, 2016 calendar. If you have any announcements that need to be published prior to that time they will be printed in the Sunday bulletin. Items for the bulletin need to be in the office by Wednesday afternoon. WELCOME Byran & Joy Cumbess by transfer 11/ Sanderson Ct. DINNER Normal, IL Homemade Soups: Chili, Chicken Noodle & Vegetable Gondola Sandwiches OUR SYMPATHY Vegetable Tray To the Eldon Dombrowski family [Jane Billiter s Dad Assorted Dessert passed away December 7th ] Beverages To the Julie Golden [Betty Baird s sister died December 6th] To the Debbie Miller family [Alexis & Treyton s Grammy passed away December 1st] To the Robin Cline family [Diana Peifer s daughter was killed in a truck accident on November 27th] To the Robert Hanna family [Bob s father died November 23rd] To the Judy Anderson family [Dave Butler s sister passed away November 12th] M r U.S. POSTAGE PAID Bloomington, IL Permit No. 181 r Change Service Requested FACTS AND FIGURES: 2015 Weekly Budget - $ 9, YTD Budget - $455, YTD Actual $471, /22 11/29 12/6 12/13 Offering $7, $8, $13, $18, S.S 102+ Family Worship Worship THANK YOU! Sharing Tree would like to give a big thank you to everyone who made cookies and bought cookies for the cookie walk fundraiser. Sharing Tree raised $467.00!!! We appreciate the love and support of the church. Dear Christian Friends, We just want to thank you for your additional donation you recently gave. Your financial support and your prayers are very appreciated. You are making a global impact thru our students. Please continue to pray for them. In His Service, Ardis with TCM International Institute. A Publication of College Park Christian Church 116 N. Cottage Ave. Normal, IL MARK YOUR CALENDAR Sunday, December 20th ~ Holiday Fellowship Between services provided by the Fellowship Team Thursday, December 24th Christmas Eve Services - 5:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. A big Thank You for all who made my 90th birthday a big and happy event. Also for all the birthday cards and wishes and all who came to say "happy birthday", I thank you so much. Martha Nunemacher Thank You for all the prayers, thoughts and cards I have received since losing my daughter Robin Kay Cline. - Diana Peifer ESSENGER December 16, 2015 Volume 33 ~ Issue 12 College Park Church NONPROFIT ORG. Saturday, January 23, :45 p.m. Evening at the Park It s Chili Out The Men s and Women s Ministry Teams are planning a chili cook-off. Mark your calendar and sign up to bring your best pot of chili to this event. Categories include: Mild, Spicy, or Specialty. Numbers of entries will be limited so make plans now to participate in this fun evening for the entire family. Entry Fee: $10.00/entry. Proceeds will go to one of our supported missions. Cook-off participants eat free. Dinner: $5.00/person. - Childcare and meal will be provided Elder Nominations Due (for terms beginning March 1, 2015) Members of the congregation (age 16 & above) are invited to submit names for elders through January 3, Nomination forms are available in the foyer area near the ballot box. BUDGET UPDATE: The budget passed December 6th with a 95% approval (79 Yes and 4 No votes.). Note: No ROOTS MEN S MINISTRY BREAKFAST For January 1 Upcoming Events 2 Messages from Brent & Bob 3 Message from Thadd 4 Other Information Church Cancellation If we need to cancel church on Sundays or Wednesday nights, please listen to WJBC [1230 AM] or WBNQ [101.5 FM], TV Channel 25, the Pantagraph website, our CPCC website [providing we can get the person contacted to make the change] and . Also assuming we can get to the building and in the door, a message will be left on the answering machine concerning any cancellations. Note: If Unit 5 cancels school, church events for the day will be cancelled. Glorifying God and Making Disciples who are becoming more like Jesus.

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3 From Thadd The other day I was given a Christmas present that totally left me speechless. It was a gift given completely from out of the blue and was absolutely unexpected. A gift whose memory I will treasure long after it has been used up. I was given a box of Reese's Peanut Buttercups candy and Starbucks gift cards. I need to rewind a little. A few weeks ago I made a comment on my Facebook page regarding the supposed controversies about the Starbucks red cup and Reese's Peanut Buttercup Christmas trees. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, just do a simple web search and you find all the controversy you need.) Well, a friend of mine took this Facebook post to heart and blew me away with their generosity. I received from my friend a large box filled with 6 different types of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and $60 worth of Starbucks gift cards. I hesitate telling you all any dollar amounts because as we all know "it's the thought that counts". But in this case it showed me just how big the thought was! It would have been one thing to receive a simple 2 pack and a $5 card. And that would have been great! However, this was sooooo (extra "ooo" added for emphasis) much more than that! You see, often times I think we expect certain people will give us gifts. As a dad I'm fairly certain I'll atleast receive a handmade card and possibly a tie or pair of socks. As employees, don't we sometimes expect that end-of-the-year bonus that we've received annually? I don't mean to belittle gifts or the relationships they represent. But this gift was totally unexpected. Not only was it unexpected but it was extravagant! And all of this gets me to thinking about God. James 1:17 says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." I've grown up in the church and there isn't a day I can remember when I didn't know of God's love for me. I've always known of it. And I'm grateful for always knowing of it. However, I think there have been times when I've taken God's love for granted. I've thought, "He's God. Of course He loves me. It's what He does and says He will do." I'll say it again, I've treated Him in ways that took Him for granted. God knew this and so with a simple gift He called me out to something profound. Days after the gift cards had been used and the peanut butter cups were reduced mere wrappers, I'm still left almost speechless. My friend didn't have to do anything for me. No gift would have been needed to give. I wasn't expecting this person, out of all of my friends, to give me anything. But they did. And our Heavenly Father is just like that. Someone who doesn't have to love me so much yet finds me valuable to be given a gift. But His gift isn't simply of coffee and sugar. No, the gift I've really been given is one of life. God sent His son to show us a better way to love and a better way to live. Jesus came down and made his dwelling among men. God incarnate, God with us. And because of Him and through Him humanity can be saved. God used chocolate covered peanut butter and coffee to once again turn my heart to His. May I continually see His love and may I seek to share it with others. Grace and Peace, Thadd Sparrow Spiritual Disciplines and Practices Classes COMING: Sunday evening classes on Spiritual Disciplines and Practices led by some of our elders and ministers. January: 10, 17, 24, 31 & February: 7, 14, 21, 28 ~ 6 7 p.m. During Sunday evenings in January and February our elders and ministers will share scripture and teachings on practices which help Christians to grow in God's presence and becoming more like Jesus. Topics include: Fasting, Prayer, Poetry of the Bible, Service, Silence and Solitude, Christian Literature, Journaling, and Anointing and the Laying on of Hands.

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5 F r o m B r e n t THE STORY: I can t believe our journey through The Story Bible is finished. I heard so many positive remarks throughout the series that I know it was well worth our time to travel through the Bible in this manner. Though our journey through The Story is over Our Story is not! Now it is up to you to determine how you will choose to live out your life s story knowing the great love God has for you. Remember, God loves lost people therefore we should love lost people as well. Be the church God desires and continue to point people to his Son, Jesus! JANUARY SERMON SERIES: I look forward to introducing a new sermon series starting January 3 entitled: Zoe the Transformed Life! We will take four weeks to discover the life that God wants for us a transformed life. We are called to die to an old way of living and with the Spirit s help begin to live a new life, a God-centered life. What does that mean and how does one go about it? These are some of the questions we will answer. The elders and ministers will also be offering some special Sunday evening classes that will go along with this sermon series. They will introduce you to some of the spiritual disciplines, practices that help to place us in the presence of God. See the bottom of Thadd s column for more information ELDER NOMINATIONS: Please remember to turn in Elder nominations by Sun., Jan. 3. We are asking our church family to be in prayer, asking God to raise up spirit-filled, faithful leaders who will help our church grow and mature in the faith. We are setting aside a special day of fasting and prayer for this very reason and hope you will join us. Our day of fasting will begin on Sat., Jan. 2 and end on Sun., Jan. 3 as we partake of the Lord s Supper together to end our fast. RIVERSTONE CHRISTIAN CHURCH MISSION TRIP: We have another trip lined up for Tues., Dec. 29 to go up to Oregon, IL and help out the new church plant, Riverstone Christian Church. We will be leaving at 7:00 am to deliver the rest of the carpet squares and finishing painting the basement classrooms. If you would like to join us please contact the church office. CHRISTMAS GREETINGS! On behalf of our church staff I want to wish our church family a very happy and joyous Christmas season! We are hopeful that the life and message of Jesus is reflected in your holiday celebrations. Please be sure to join us at one of our Christmas Eve services to help you celebrate the season as we focus on our Savior. We will have two services one at 5pm and the other at 7pm. N o t e s f r o m B o b I have enjoyed having Adoration, our choir, assist in leading worship several times over the past month. The choir works hard each Wednesday to prepare an offering of their gifts. I know you will be blessed by the music they share this weekend in our Sunday morning worship times. I hope that your Christmas Eve plans will include taking time to join us for one of our Christmas Eve Candlelight and Communion Worship Experiences. Each year we strive to simply revisit the Christmas story through Scripture and carols through a short (50-55 minutes) time together. The dimly lit sanctuary offers a peaceful place of solace from the craziness of what can be a very busy day (or series of days). Please bring your family and friends and share in this special worship time at either 5:00 or 7:00 p.m. I want to wish each of you a most wonderful Christmas season and a joy-filled New Year. I look forward to our continued partnership in the Gospel in 2016! Bob