Every year we step our efforts to reach our Jewish community (and the Jewish community world wide) with the message of Messiah during the holiday of Chanukah. With so many celebrating the holidays and digging into their personal religion and understanding, it is imperative that we, His witnesses, shine His light and allow Him to change hearts and lives. Typically, this means that we create a unique Sunday sermon series on the Messiahship of Jesus or the Christmas story in the Old Testament. This year, however, we are taking it up a notch!In conjunction with our already established Sunday sermon series, Genesis, we will reading through the birth of Isaac and revealing his foreshadowing of the birth, life, death and resurrection of Messiah. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience, and has caused our Jewish community to rethink their cultural understanding of Isaac and his role on the altar at the hand of his father.
Also, this year we are holding a special outreach event entitled, MESSIAH-mas, for kids. Our kids church department as put together 2-hour program full of games, snacks, songs, and bible lessons on the story of Chanukah and the story of Christmas. They have invited local schools and the neighbors to be a part, and we are praying that many will come to know Jesus and His church as a result. So far, the rewards look promising.
Finally, this year we are also taking full advantage of the Internet. Yes, we have always used Podcasts and YouTube to get the message of Messiah out at Christmas time, but this year we are adding PRINT to our approach through a daily BLOG. Each week, we have explained a little more of the Chanukah story to our readers, infused the proper biblical insight and explanation, and then followed it up Messiah-centered application that should move lives into repentance and a relationship with Jesus.
Of all our planned approaches this year, our BLOG stands to bear the greatest fruit because of it's online medium. A blog can be sent via Email, Social Network, Web links, and more. And because it is online, it can be referrenced and read all year long, for many years to come. Please, please pray for God's word to bear fruit, and for many Jewish and Gentile persons to come into covenant with Jesus!
