dec 2009 lamplighter newsletter, lafayette alliance church

8/8/2019 Dec 2009 Lamplighter Newsletter, LaFayette Alliance Church

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dec-2009-lamplighter-newsletter-lafayette-alliance-church 1/7

CHURCH NEWSLETTER December 2009

THE LAMPLIGHTERLAFAYETTE ALLIANCE CHURCH OF THE CHRISTIAN AND MISSIONARY ALLIANCE

6069 CHERRY VALLEY TURNPIKE, LAFAYETTE, NY 13084 (315) 677-9810

Our mission is to know Jesus Christ; exalt Him as Savior, Sanctifier,

Healer, Coming King, and complete His Great Commission.

~ From the Pastor's Desk ~

Incarnation What?Pastor Rob Gates

“Behold, the vi rgin shall conceive and bear a S on,and they s hall call H is name Imman uel” (which means, God with us). Matthew 1:23 (ESV)

If you were to ask the average Christian thequestion: “What is Christmas?” I think the majorityof an swers wo uld go s omething l ike this:

“Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ.” As far as an swers g o, t hat i s b oth T RUE a nd ACCEPTABLE. However, what the answer is NOT isCOMPLETE!

Here's what I mean: There are many people whowill c elebrate t he b irth o f Ch rist wi thout e itherrecognizing or acknowledging His true nature as

God. F or i nstance, M ormons, U nitarians, an d ahost of theological liberals who deny the Bible, willall “celebrate” the birth of Christ at Christmas. Youcan even be an at heist and celebrate the birth of Christ in the same way as you would celebrate thebirth of some person of historical importancewithout in any way acknowledging them as God(e.g. M artin L uther K ing, G eorge W ashington,Thomas Edison, and etc).

However, the Christian Faith affirms so much moreat Ch ristmas t han t he celebration o f t he birth of Christ. What i s t hat “ so much mo re”? I t i s t heINCARNATION. W ayne Grudem, in hisSystematic Theology gives this simple

definition of the Incarnation: “The act of God the Son whereby he took to himself a human nature.” (p. 1245)

Think about it! God the Eternal Son who hadalways existed with the Father and the Holy Spiritsome two-thousand years ago added to His deity ahuman nature for which He will be foreveridentified! T hat i s wh at Christians ar e u ltimately

celebrating at Christmas-time!

In the fourth century, Christians around the worldrecognized t he i mportance o f affi rming t heIncarnation o f C hrist a s we ll as t he i mplicationsthat came from that universally held biblicadoctrine. T he N icene C reed was wr itten to affirm

just such a position. The section dealing witChrist reads:

[I b elieve] i n o ne L ord J esus Ch rist, t he o nly

begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father beforeall worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God ofvery God; begotten not made, being of onesubstance with the Father, by whom all things weremade.

W ho, for us men and for our sa lva t ion, cam e

dow n f r om heaven , and w as i nca rna te by the

Ho l y Sp i r i t o f the v i r g i n Ma ry , and was m ade

m an

; and was c rucified a lso for us under PontiusPilate; He suffered and was buried; and the thirdday He rose again according to the Scriptures; and

ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the righhand of the Father; and He shall come again, withglory, t o j udge the living and t he d ead; w hosekingdom shall have no end.

To celebrate the birth of Christ is to recognize notonly the temporal events that surrounded His birthbut a joyous affirmation that for us sinners and forour salvation, the Son of God came down from



heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man. Only those whotruly believe their Bibles will celebrate the ultimatemeaning of Christmas: The Incarnation!

I thank the Lord for each of you! What a joy it isto s erve s uch a great congregation as theLaFayette Alliance Church. My prayer is that you

will have a wonderful and blessed Christmas as youcelebrate the ultimate

meaning of Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Rob

~ news from pastor brian ~

Youth and LIFE 2010

Please continue to pray for our youth and theupcoming LIFE Conference next year. The list of students who are attending (as of this date) alongwith Tina and Jeremy Culver are:

Amber Vanderwerff Patricia MartinJulia MartinNate PhippsJesse Blum

April AungierBrittany Wentworth

Nathan RobertsMaggie Titus

The i tems o n t he t able i n t he fo yer h ave b eenpopular for Christmas gifts as well as personal use.

All of the proceeds go toward LIFE for thesestudents. We are planning on a pizza drive justbefore the Superbowl and are rescheduling thespaghetti dinner for sometime next year whenthings are not as busy. Thanks to all for yourprayers and financial support.

The youth group continues to meet each Sundayevening for fellowship and Bible study (currentlygoing t hrough t he b ook o f A cts.) They w ill bestuffing the special Christmas d oor hangers onSunday evening, December 6.

Christmas Outreach

Our church has the opportunity to place doorhangers on many doors of apartments in ourcommunity on December 12 from 9-12. Each doorhanger will contain a special Christmas edition ofthe N ew T estament i n t he E nglish St andard

Version, a Christmas tract, a 30 day free access tothe ESV study Bible on line, information about ourchurch, and an invitation to our Christmas servicesPlease pray for t hese materials to be used o f Godto b ring people to H imself. Pray for our t eams aswe go out and pray for any personal visits that wemay encounter to be glorifying to the Lord.

Men's Ministry

The men have begun a new book study onevangelism using the book, Tell The Truth

. Weinvite al l me n t o j oin u s as we d iscuss what t heBible says about how to evangelize in our monthlymeeting. W e meet t he fo urth Tuesday o f everymonth at 6:30 for a brief meal and then move to aroom fo r p rayer an d discussion. T hanks t o P auLivingston fo r p roviding t he fo od an d l eading thestudies in the past. Paul will continue to provide thefood (great sub sandwich materials) as he turns theleading for our current book over to Bob DownsThanks to Carolyn Downs for providing thewonderful desserts each month. They continue tobe a hot item on the menu!

What a wo nderful Thanksgiving t ime we have hadwith family and friends. We look forward to theChristmas s eason wi th amazement an d j oy, f illedwith wonder that our Lord would come to earth tobe our savior!

In His precious name,Pastor Brian

Christmas Tree Not Pagan

Guest Article by Dr. Todd Carsten

Your t astefully d ecorated Christmas tree i s Christian symbol. It is not pagan in any sense

Yes, medieval pagans typically celebrated the Dec21st winter solstice by burning a dry evergreen treeout-of-doors at night. But in stark contrast,



Christians decorate their freshly cut evergreenindoors, an d aft erward t hey d early h ope i t won’tburn up!

Actually, the celebration of Christmas got off to arather slow start within Christendom. During thefirst three centuries the church was appropriatelycautious about celebrating Christ’s birth since its

annual observance was never prescribed inScripture. On the early church calendar, Dec. 24th was arbitrarily labeled as the Feast Day of Adamand Eve. Thus, Dec. 24th was originally acelebration of the Genesis creation rather than of the nativity. So in the first few centuries of Christendom, Christmas Day didn’t even exist.

But interestingly, the forerunner of the modernChristmas tree can be found in the church’s FeastDay of Adam and Eve, not in some pagan yule logcelebration. On the Feast Day of Adam and Eve,

church drama’s were performed fo r the benefit o f the illiterate masses to illustrate events in theGarden of Eden. Since it was wintertime in Europe,a cut evergreen symbolized Eden’s Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was decoratedwith ap ples s imulating the fo rbidden fr uit. Si ncenearly everyone is fascinated with Adam and Eveliving in paradise, the scene became popular.

Around AD 336, the Bishop of Rome officially setDec. 25 as the Feast Day of the Nativity, t hereby

creating Christmas Day. Consequently, the formerGarden of Eden dramas were gradually fazed out,but G erman ar istocrats continued t o fo ndly r ecallthem by placing a small table top paradise tree within their home. In addition to hanging thetraditional apples, they also began hanging Bread of Heaven wafers to recollect another significanttree in Eden -- the Tree of Life! Bread of Heavenwafers were based upon Christ’s words: I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. (John 6:51)

By the 1500’s, Christmas Day completelyovershadowed the former Feast Day of Adam andEve. Appropriately, Dec 24th became the Christiancelebration k nown as Weihnacht or Holy N ight. Instead of a paradise tree, some began setting upa wooden, p yramidal r ack fo r d isplaying variousnativity i tems such as a s tar, fi gurines, c andles,small foods for children, with an evergreen branch

nearby. Occasionally, both a paradise tree and anativity r ack o ccupied t he s ame r oom. T ogethethey served as a meaningful remembrance ofMessiah’s visitation as Bread of Heaven.

Eventually, t he nativity rack and the paradise t reemerged into a single display -- the Christbaum(Christ-fir). F ormer d isplay r ack i tems we re n ow

hung upon a t able top Christbaum. M artin Luthefully s anctioned Ch ristian e njoyment o f aChristbaum since it illustrated scriptural lessonsThus by the 1600’s, decorating a Christbaum onWeihnacht was an e stablished L utheran t raditionIn time, t he delightful Lutheran custom r eadilyspread into all Christian lands.

Thankfully, your tastefully decorated Christmas treeis n ot p agan -- it i s t horoughly Ch ristian

Admittedly, many secular elements have crept intoour celebration of Christmas, but decorating a

Christmas tree is not one of them. Your treebecomes a pagan symbol only if on the night of thewinter solstice, you drag a “holiday tree” out-of-doors, gleefully set a match to it and begin dancingmadly ab out i n h opes of receiving additionasunlight over the next s ix months! O f course, weall like sunlight.

Unfortunately, most Christians have drifted awayfrom hanging Bread of Heaven wafers and it’s beena mistake. For such wafers turn an ordinary

evergreen i nto a L uther s anctioned Ch ristbaumreminding y oung an d o ld al ike o f t he O ne w hoclaimed: I am the living bread that came down ouof heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will liveforever .

Church Lock Up Schedule

This is a reminder for church officers who are on

the lock-up schedule for the month of October.

December 6 Marty AndrewsDecember 13 Ralph MaloneyDecember 20 Paul LivingstonDecember 27 Clayt Estey

If you are unable to be at church on the day youare scheduled for lock up, please arrange tochange with someone on the schedule.



Fundraisers for the Youth GroupLIFE 2010

Rent-A-TeenDo you have projects around your house that you

could use some help with? Painting? Cleaning?Washing windows? Raking? Shoveling? Our youth

group is raising funds needed for LIFE 2010. Please

contact Jeremy Culver if you have a project request.

Enjoy the City coupon book s: $20

Cookbooks/ Calendars/ Cards: $7 each or 3/ $20

Magnetic Notepads: $4

Regular Notepads: $2

If you are interested in any of these items, pleasestop by the table in the church foyer or see Hans

Smid.

Quizzing News

Junior Quizzing

Our October quiz, on the 24th, was held atSyracuse Alliance. We had an extra quizzer who

joined Joel and Amanda’s team giving them an

equal number of quizzers as the rest of the teams.Their team took 1st place with Joel and Amandakeeping their present personal stat spots of 1 st and6th respectively. O ur o ther t eam, “ God’s Co lorfulCreation”, moved into 2nd with Beca keeping her 2nd place status. Chris moved into 4th and Faith stayedin 7th. Over all we had a lot of fun.

Our November quiz, on the 21st, was held hereat LaFayette Alliance. Wow! What a quiz. Joel ranaway with 1st. He memorized all the material and itshowed. H e quizzed out very early in a ll quizzes.

Amanda Negley showed how well she studied andtied Beca Lloyd for 2nd of the day bringing her into5th place in her personal stats. Beca is close behindJoel in 2nd place. With so many well versedquizzers, it is sometimes hard for newer quizzers toget a jump; but Chris was able to get at least onein every quiz. Faith is still mastering the jump butcorrectly answered her bonus question whichhelped her team.

We had two great quizzes and best of all thequizzers are learning God’s Word.

Our n ext q uiz w ill b e D ecember 1 9th atLaFayette Alliance. Please continue to keep thequizzers in prayer as they study God’s Word andthe coaches as they lead them.

Marie Murgia, Jr. coach

Senior Quizzing

Our second quiz meet was held the end of October.We had two visiting teams competing with us from

Amherst and L owville. T hey e njoyed i t s o m uchthey are coming back for our December quiz. Theysaid that the level of competition they experiencedwith us is higher than at any other quiz meetthey’ve competed in. We were very honored.

Please see the church website for statistics from alour meets.

Our third quiz was held November 21st. Our topquizzers worked hard to maintain their spots, butCaleb Benedict had a stellar day and moved up to5th place overall and took 1st place in our top 15quizzes. Nick Murgia continues to maintain 1s

place overall.

Please continue to pray for our quizzers as they

study God’s word. M any of them are memorizingall of the material from I & II Corinthians.

Our next quiz meet is December 19th at 10:00 a.mhere at our church. Visitors are welcomed.

Georgia PhippsSenior Coach

The deadline for the January

Issue of the Lamplighter is

Sunday, December 20th.

Please submit your articles

to the church office.



Our Church Library! Let’s consider the content of some of our newestbooks.

The Healing Promise: Is it Always God’s Will toHeal?

by Richard Mayhue, including a chapter withan interview of Joni Eareckson Tada consideringcurrent church attitudes toward healing. Theauthor writes about such things as faith healers;reported healings; James 5; faith, prayer anddoctors; and “when suffering arrives.” His goal is to

“develop a biblical model of healing [in order that]we can minister biblical truth and protect Christiansfrom the pain and anguish that come as a result of unbiblical teaching and practice.” [call number248.2 May]

Gospel – Powered Parenting: How the GospelShapes and Transforms Parenting by William P.Farley. While there have been about 75,000 bookspublished on parenting in the last ten years, mostof them lean on the therapeutic world and sprinklethat with a few Biblical verses. Farley writes thatthe Bible, specifically the Gospel, is sufficient toanswer all

parenting questions. He shows how theexample of the marriage ministers to the children.One reviewer calls this prescription for parenting

“joyously biblical.” [call number 249.4 Far]

The Betrayal: A Novel Based on John Calvin

Good reading!

byDouglas Bond. “Told from the perspective of asworn lifelong enemy of John Calvin, this fast-paced biographical novel is a tale of envy thatescalates to violent intrigue and shamelessbetrayal.” [call number F Bon]

~ Jean Palmer ~

Operation Christmas Child

Thank you again for participating again this year inthe Operation Christmas Child project. Childrenaround the world will receive shoebox Christmasgifts. Along with the shoebox gift, each child willreceive in their own language, the message of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Wednesday Prayer Meeting

From the Official Directory & Prayer Guide of theC&MA:

Ministry of Intercession

God has called His people to take the gospel of

Christ to our neighborhoods and to the nations(Acts 1 :8). F or t he g ospel t o b ring l ight i nto t hedarkness of t his world, Jesus desires His followersto i ntercede t hrough daily prayer. Prayer i s o udirect line of communication with God, and itreleases His power into our lives and work and intoa world desperate for hope.

We invite you to join us Wednesdays at 7 pm in theButternut Room as we pray for the church and theneeds of its members.

Prayerfully Yours,

Larry Petry

Sunday School Christmas Program

On Sunday, December 20th at 9:30 am we will meetin the Sanctuary for our annual Sunday SchooChristmas program.

The children are working hard on this p rogram tomake it a special event.

Christmas Eve Service

Join us for a c andlelight service on Ch ristmas Eveat 7:00 pm as we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Church Office Holiday HoursThe church office fo llows the Northeastern Districcalendar for holidays.

The church office will be closed December 24th &25th for Christmas and December 31st & January 1s

for New Years. It will reopen on Tuesday January2, 2010.



We’re Excited to Announce our new Newsletter Format!!

Beginning with the January 2010 issue, the Lamplighter will have a “new look”. It wilnow be in color, be more up-to-date, and better represent our church family! I t wil

feature p hotos a nd o ther e xciting a dditions! I t w ill b e a vailable i mmediately a fterpublishing on our website www.lafayettealliance.org. Just click on “Newsletter” on theright side of the homepage. You can print a own copy right from your home computer! You can even have a reminder email sent when the Lamplighter is ready for viewing!

For those in our congregation who wish to have a hard copy, as a cost effectivemeasure, we strongly encourage you to pick up a black and white copy on the table inthe foyer each month.

If you are unable to pick up a copy at church each month, simply fill in the information

below and drop it off or mail it to the office. We would be happy to send you a copymonthly.

Please mail me a black and white copy of the Lamplighter:

Name: _______________________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________________________________________

City: _________________________________ State: __________________________

Zip Code: ______________ Email: _________________________________________

Please send me an email reminder when the Lamplighter is ready for viewing:

Name: ________________________________________________________________

Email: _________________________________________________________________

http://www.lafayettealliance.org/





Christmas by Dorothea M. Dyer

Come to Bethlehem this nightFollow the star still shining bright

Illuminating the manger where He lay

The Christ Child in the bed of hayHear the echo in the air

Angels’ voice every whereCalling down the centuries longGiving back the Angels’ song

See the star up in the skyCalling every passerby

It is Christmas once againReceive the gift God gives to menWe can find Him in a lowly stall

The Savior comes for one and allWe join the shepherds gathered there

And like them we bow in prayer

Welcome the Christ Child once again As we go to Bethlehem

With the Angels, let us singPraises to the New Born King

Let our voices fill the airRejoicing as we gather there

Peace on Earth. Good will to menFor Christ is born in Bethlehem

dec 2009 lamplighter newsletter, lafayette alliance church

Documents