Hendersonville Church of the Nazarene

Dear Church Family,

GREETINGS
My heart is full of gratitude to so many for so much in this beautiful Christmas season. From our amazing night together last Sunday with Christmas on Luna Lane to how much everyone has participated in parties, gift giving, and donations towards those in need. I am truly humbled and blessed to be witness to such love expressed from a loving congregation. This morning, Dick Wilson, Pastor Micah, and I had the privilege of delivering the 23 boxes full of food to Walton Elementary. I want to thank everyone who contributed to this great cause as our church has helped to feed 23 families in need in our community over the next two weeks as many of these children rely on school meals that they will not receive during the Christmas break.

Jesus says in Matthew 10:42 – “whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Feeding the poor, taking care of the sick, helping those in need was always a top priority for Jesus and as His followers it will always be a top priority for us as a church. Thank you so much for all that you have done to help us with this project. I want to especially thank April Mortimer and Janet Spann for all of the time they have spent coordinating and organizing the food boxes. We greatly appreciate them!

NEWS AND UPDATES
Here’s what’s happening in the life of our church!

THIS WEEKEND

Staff and Board Christmas Party – Tonight
Our staff and board look forward to a great evening together as we have our annual Christmas Party. I’m very excited to spend this evening with such an amazing and gifted group of Jesus followers and servant leaders in the church. It will be a great night of fun and fellowship.

Men’s Breakfast Tomorrow (Saturday) 8:30 am
Men, don’t forget, we have our Monthly Men’s Breakfast tomorrow morning at 8:30 am. Bring $5 with you for a great breakfast and time of fellowship as iron sharpens iron. There will be eggs, biscuits n gravy, bacon, pancakes, etc. Men, we hope you can join us.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Men’s Ministries Director – Chris Ruck
I’m excited to share with you that we have a new Men’s Ministries Director. Chris Ruck has agreed to take over as the Men’s Ministries director moving forward. Jason Leaverton did a great job getting some things going. We are excited about what God will do through Chris’ leadership in the days ahead!

Mobile Phone Church App – Coming Soon!
We are excited to announce that a mobile phone app for our church is on it’s way. Pastor Caitlin among the many other projects she’s been involved in has over the past several weeks, been diligently developing a mobile phone app that syncs with our website. You will be able to use this app on your mobile device to read bulletin info, keep up with news and events, listen to sermons, pay your tithe, donate to a ministry, read the Friday Focus, and much more. We hope to be able to launch it within he next 30 days!!!

Life Groups – Focus in 2016
I want to briefly share with you that we as a staff are planning to focus more on the development of Life Groups in 2016. If you are interested in being a part of one as we plan to start new life groups, please contact me or Pastor Caitlin at the church office. We will be sharing more after the holidays.

No Sunday School – December 27th (Combined Family Worship)
Next Sunday, December 27th there will be no Sunday School and no Children’s Church. We will have one combined family worship service with our children at 10:15 am. Pre-School will still be meeting.

No Wednesday Evening Church – December 23rd
There will be no Wednesday Evening activities next Wednesday Dec. 23rddue to the Christmas holidays.

HCN VOLUNTEER OF THE WEEK
This week’s HCN Volunteer of the Week is Billy Meikrantz. He has previously served as a board member and then our discipleship pastor as a volunteer. He played a big role in launching our Life Groups ministry last year. He no longer serves on staff but is still very involved in Sunday School planning and organization along with teaching our teens and children. Billy is a great servant of Christ using his gifts to help disciple others at HCN in so many ways. He fills many different roles any given Sunday and Wednesday and is a true gift and blessing to our church. Thank you Billy! We love you and appreciate you so much!

THIS SUNDAY (CHRISTMAS WORSHIP)
We look forward to gathering together this Sunday for a special Christmas worship service. It will be a very special, joyous, and beautiful time together!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

In Christ’s Love,
Pastor Duane

Dear HCN Family,

As we celebrate Advent this month, I pray that God will bring a new and fresh reality of His divine presence into our hearts and souls. His arrival both 2,000 years ago and His arrival yet to come changes everything. Being sandwiched between the first and second coming of Christ, shapes our very existence and identity in every way!

So don’t let this season be viewed as something you dread, or some obligatory gauntlet of parties and events. Rather, let this gauntlet of parties and events be an ongoing celebration of who we are because of who HE is! Think about how all that we are, all that we believe in, and all that we have hope in, all started with Christmas. So, think about every Christmas gathering you will be a part of this season and see it as an opportunity to usher in the Kingdom of God, even if it’s one small slice at a time.

NEWS AND UPDATES
Here’s what is happening in the HCN life over the next few weeks.

Christmas on Luna Lane – Sunday December 13th 6:00 pm.
Join us, invite your friends, family, neighbors, and loved ones to come and celebrate Christmas with us this year through a great night of worship, music, and celebration. Admission is non-perishable food items to support our food pantry and our partnership with Walton Ferry Elementary.

Also, we are encouraging everyone to bring a plate of Christmas cookies with you if you can for that evening as we will be serving desserts during the event.

Children Sunday School Teacher and Volunteer Opportunity
I refuse to use the word need any longer. I refuse to “recruit” anyone else to be a Sunday School teacher for our children. To recruit someone implies that we have to sell you on it or convince you to do it. From now on, we will use the word invite and the word opportunity. We will not beg. Christ only wants those who are willing to follow Him wholeheartedly. So we will no longer recruit. Why? Because it is a priveledge to serve Christ and to invest into our children at HCN. And, we will not just take anyone who is willing to to go and be a children’s Sunday School teacher. it is important to have spiritually mature, responsible, and capable Sunday School teachers for our children. That being said, you’ve heard me share this opportunity before but we have had almost no response. Quite honestly I’m embarrassed and a little ashamed at the lack of response. So, I want to remind everyone of this opportunity again. We are looking to fill two Sunday School teacher positions along with two Sunday School teacher assistant positions. If you would like to be invited into this opportunity, please contact Melanie Harris. If you feel like it would be a dread or obligation, than don’t even bother. We want people who realize the amazing potential our children have and are to be disciples of Jesus and if I weren’t a senior pastor already pastoring adults, I’d be jumping at the chance to be a part of shaping and influence young minds and lives for Christ. Sunday School teachers and/or volunteer workers of children and youth have the amazing opportunity to shape and direct a young life to Christ and impact the Kingdom of God for the rest of their lives. So pray about this if you feel that God may use you in this way.

Christmas Tree Decorating (Tonight)
There will be a lot of people here this evening for rehearsal for Christmas on Luna Lane, but we want to invite anyone else who would be interested to come and join Patty McDowell as she will be here setting up and decorating a Christmas tree or two in the lobby. If you want to join her, you can come at 5:00 pm.

Upcoming HCN Dates and Events

– Children’s Christmas Party – Friday Dec. 11th – 6:00 pm
– Women’s Ministries Christmas Party – Saturday Dec. 12th – 6:00 pm
– Christmas on Luna Lane – Sunday Dec. 13th – 6:00 pm
– Staff and Board Christmas Party – Friday Dec. 18th – 6:00 pm
– Men’s Ministries Breakfast – Saturday Dec. 19th – 8:00 am
– Teen Christmas Party – Sunday Dec. 20th – 6:00 pm

HCN VOLUNTEER OF THE WEEK
This week’s HCN Volunteer of the Week is Seth Campbell. Seth is a core member of our church. He and his family serve in so many ways and contribute to the life of HCN. Seth has served as a board member, men’s ministries leader, support staff member, worship team member, and sound and media tech. His gifts and abilities are amazing and each week he serves Christ with passion. Seth currently serves as a part of our worship band and assists with running the sound booth. This week, Seth spent a lot of time helping Pastor Caitlin sell some of our old sound equipment which is money we will be able to use for ministry in other ways. Thank you Seth for being a part of our church family and for using your gifts and resources to build up the Body of Christ at HCN. We love you!

THIS SUNDAY WORSHIP
As we continue to go through our season of Advent with the theme, “Let There Be Light”, last week we focused on HOPE. This week we will be focusing on the aspect of Preparation. I can’t wait to gather with you all for worship on Sunday anticipating a great day in the Lord and praying that the Holy Spirit meets with us anew!!!

May the Lord bless and keep you!!!

Love Pastor Duane

GREETINGS

I came away inspired and encouraged this past Sunday from our worship service. It was amazing to see God at work in the hearts of our people who responded to His voice in so many ways and on so many levels. The theme of the service this past Sunday was preparation. This week to follow has certainly been a week of preparation. It has been exciting to see so many children, teens, and come together over the past several weeks in preparation for Christmas on Luna Lane. We look forward to a great weekend together!

Trust me! You do not want to miss this exciting night of worship as our children, teens, adults, and worship band lead us in this Christmas concert and worship event. Remember to bring with you, friends, family, loved ones, and some canned food items and/or non-perishables to go towards our food pantry ministry.

I want to publicly thank Classical Conversations for their involvement and contribution to our partnership with Walton Ferry Elementary as we work to provide food boxes for 23 families in need. They have come alongside us and helped by donating food items and monetary gifts as well.

While we as a church strive to reach out to our community, it is also important that we take care of our own in our church family who are also part of our community. Many of you know the difficult year Holly Filler has been through. From difficult circumstances she has been given custody of 4 of her niece’s children who are also part of our church family in addition to her own daughter Lilly. As a single mom, this is a huge task and financial responsibility. As her church family we are going to help her this Christmas. We have tags on our tree in the lobby for anyone who would like to take one and purchase the items on that tag. Please return these gift items to the church by next Sunday December 20th. If you feel led to give or support Holly and the family in other ways, please feel free to as you feel led.

I want to thank our general contractor company who has been contracting all of our renovation work over the past several months. This week, Dick Wilson, Pastor Caitlin, and myself met with the owner. They informed us that they will be donating some of the work they billed us along with purchasing and installing new bathroom partitions. This work along with the partitions will total almost $20,000 which was $15,000 more than we had in our budget. This is a huge blessing and very generous contribution from them. Over the past several weeks we had been in negotiation over an invoice that we had questions and concerns over which has put our progress to finish renovations in limbo. I remember us as a staff and board praying together over this situation and God has answered that prayer by providing this tremendous blessing. I also want to thank Dick Wilson for his involvement in this process as he was our advocate for us with them during these negotiations.

I want to bring before you a very urgent and special prayer request involving a brand new couple to our church family. Pat and Kathy Ridenoure who have recently moved here from Florida attended our church a few Sundays in a row. Since then, Kathy became very sick and after going to the doctor, was diagnosed with a very serious form of cancer. She is now in the hospital at Sarah Cannon Cancer Center. She almost died, if it were not for the doctors catching it when they did. Pat and Kathy are praising God for His hand of protection on her as the doctor she has in of of the best in the world when it comes to treating this specific kind of cancer. I’ve been in communication with Pat this week multiple times, praying with him and checking in on her status. She is not feeling up to having visitors right now, but is in need of our prayers. Please lift her and Pat up during this very difficult time.

This week’s HCN Volunteer of the Week is Ellen Robison. Over the past several months Ellen has been supporting her husband Matt who leads our connections ministries. Over the past few weeks, Ellen has come into her own as she has been a crucial help to Pastor Caitlin preparing for Christmas on Luna Lane in so many ways. Ellen is tremendously gifted and is a valuable part of our church family. We love and appreciate Ellen so much for who she is and for all that she does to serve Christ!

We look forward to a great day at HCN! As we continue in our season of Advent, this Sunday’s focus in JOY!!! I anticipate a great time of worship together! We also are very excited to announce that Gary and Libbie Lide are back in town and plan to be back with us this Sunday for worship!!! We are so excited to have them back for the Christmas season!!! It will be a great day for our church family all in all as we spend Sunday evening together for Christmas on Luna Lane!!!

I look forward to seeing everyone this Sunday!

Pastor Duane