WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS CHRISTMAS
Women's Gift Exchange
December 3
Join us for this highly anticipated annual event. Each woman should bring an item to share for lunch, as well as 6 unwrapped gifts (all the same item, though patterns & colors can vary). We'll eat, then have shopping rounds where you get to choose 6 gifts to take home. It's a great time of fun and friendship (Last name A-J, please bring a sweet dish. Last name K-Z, please bring a savory dish).
Affordable Christmas
December 10
For many of us, Christmas is a time of fun and celebration, punctuated by the exchange of gifts. For others, facing financial hardship this Christmas season, the holidays mean stress and disappointment. Affordable Christmas is a ministry of Sojourn East where we come together as a church to alleviate the financial burden of purchasing Christmas gifts that many families within a short drive of our church will experience this year.
Christmas Service Times
December 24
This year, because Christmas falls on Sunday, we are doing things a little differently. We will have two services on Saturday, December 24, as listed below, with childcare for Infants through Pre-K.
On Christmas Day, we have decided to cancel Sunday services so that everyone - especially our band, volunteers and staff - can be at home with family on Christmas morning.
Service Times
- December 24 (Saturday): 3pm & 5pm
- December 25 (Sunday): No Services
Sojourn Kids
Children's Advent Resources
Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Advent 2022 is coming! Download this year's Sojourn Kids Advent Devotional and Countdown Chain Activity. If you would like a pre-made kit please email Maggie Tait. In the kit you will get a weekly family devotional (that goes with the weekly sermon), a countdown to Christmas activity paper chain, and a few other activity supplies!
Advent Resources
We asked our staff to recommend Advent resources that have been helpful to them over the years.
Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional
The wonder and awe of the Christmas season can easily get overshadowed by lights, tinsel, bows, and paper―not to mention last-minute trips to the mall and visits to the in-laws. In all the hustle and bustle, we often lose sight of what’s most important. This book of daily readings for the month of December by best-selling author Paul David Tripp will help you slow down, prepare your heart, and focus on what matters most: adoring our Savior, Jesus.
Heaven and Nature Sing
Heaven and Nature Sing invites you into a fresh reading of the Christmas story—one where earthy, overlooked things like snowflakes, trees, serpents, bodies, and swaddling bands reveal the glory of the Promised Son. Journeying from the first pages of Scripture to the last, you’ll experience the goodness of our Creator King and learn how the whole earth sings his praise.
So this Advent season, join Hannah Anderson as she guides you through 25 meditations on the natural elements of the Christmas story. Accompanied by Nathan Anderson’s distinctive artwork, the entries gradually move you from hope to faith to joy to peace. Find your soul renewed and your heart restored, and discover once again why heaven and nature sing.
Shadow and Light: A Journey into Advent
Though the holidays are often jam-packed with busyness, the weeks leading up to Yuletide are still a time to reflect on the miracle of Jesus’s birth. Shadow and Light is a concise and customizable guide for the Advent season to help you rediscover your childlike wonder and contemplate the sacred gift we celebrate in the Christmas season.
From bestselling author Tsh Oxenreider, Shadow and Light is a rich yet approachable experience that invites you to explore the historical meaning of Advent. Drawing from liturgical tradition, Tsh provides fresh insights for new and longtime believers alike. Each day includes Scripture, a reflection, a question, and a simple activity to engage the senses, such as lighting candles, listening to music, and viewing artwork both old and new.
Let yourself break away from the hustle and bustle of crafts, cookies, and Christmas parties, and receive your invitation to remember the quiet focus of our celebration. Shadow and Light will help you reclaim the holiday season as a time to remember Jesus’s first coming, and to long for his one-day return.
Unwrapping the Names of Jesus by Asheritah Ciuciu
“Tell us the story again, Mama!” Unwrapping the Names of Jesus for Kids begins with this enthusiastic plea. What follows is the captivating story of how the mother encountered Jesus—and His beautiful names— as a little girl. As you travel with this girl, you and your children will experience Jesus as a real person who meets our real needs. Author Asheritah Ciuciu shows readers the Bread of Life through the feeding of the five thousand, the Light of the World when the little girl is afraid of the dark, and the Resurrection and the Life through the raising of Lazarus. Foster a heart of adoration with this engaging and theologically rich story. Linger over the whimsical illustrations. And find yourself echoing the voice of the child at the beginning of this book . . . “Tell us the story again!”
Sojourn Students
Student Advent Resources
Extra! Extra! This weekly Advent devotional guide is for our students to work through each week of Advent, either alone or together with family. We pray you'll take advantage of this opportunity to go deeper in the Word to deepen your relationship with God.
