Tag Archive - Christmas

It’s On Like Donkey Kong!

December 4, 2011 in Christmas Outreach, Outward Focused Church with Comments Off

This Sunday I unpacked our plan for reaching as many people as possible on Christmas Eve. We gave you two different invite tools.  Let me talk about them one at a time.

Tool #1 … The invite card

We gave you five this week and we will give you five more each week until Christmas Eve.  Use these to invite a friend, someone pumping gas beside you, your check-out person at the mall, your mailman, your boss and on and on.  I told you that our pastors have challenged each other to make at least one personal invite each day.  We actually have a board in the office that makes us accountable to each other.  If you know your pastors, you know we want to win- so this inviting is going over the top- one guy actually invited 7 on the first day!  We are having some fun and here is the best part-our invitations will lead to lives being changed as people come and discover God’s love!  Help us make a difference.

Tool #2 … Post-it Note

This is a pretty cool idea, actually one of my favorites.  This note has a QR code and the website url.  Both lead to a video invite to Church at the Bay for Christmas Eve!  Now let’s have some fun.  We want you to post these in unusual places and snap a picture.  You see my strategic post-it at the top of this post. Once you have taken your picture, upload the picture to our Facebook Page (click here) and get your friends to “like” it.  On Saturday Night at 6pm each week we will post the name of the winner- the person with the most “likes” for their picture posted on Church at the Bay’s Facebook Wall.  So what does the winner get?

1.  The warm feeling of knowing you had the coolest invite out there…

2.  A $25 Gift Certificate to Chili’s

3.  The envy of everyone else who posted a picture of their invite.

At the end of the day- what really matters is people discovering the love of God and a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  How cool would it be if the gift you were able to give someone this Christmas was a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Remember – each week we will give you 5 invite cards and some post-it notes and a winner will be announced every Saturday night on Facebook!

Ready GO!

Bring These 2 Sunday!

November 28, 2011 in Christmas Outreach with Comments Off

For the past few weeks I have been encouraging you to make sure you attend this coming Sunday at Church at the Bay (December 4th).  I want you to hear the vision and passion of Pastor Luther Eatman.   Luther will tell his personal story and the story of his church start that Church at the Bay supports financially.  I don’t want to steal his thunder… so I will just say this: 

YOU NEED TO BRING TWO THINGS SUNDAY:

A FRIEND- Do you know someone who needs to be encouraged?  Do you know someone new to the faith?  Do you know someone who enjoys hearing stories of God showing up?  Got the idea- invite and bring your friend!  If you don’t have a friend to bring- bring an enemy.

A GIFT- We are partnering with Crossover Church of Tampa this Christmas.  This partnership means we are bringing new, unwrapped, children’s gifts to CATB for the next two Sundays.  Please place these gifts in the marked trailer by the bounce houses.  Remember gifts should be in the $5 to $10 range.  Sandy and I plan to bring several. Will you help Church at the Bay help Crossover Church reach their community?

Christmas Outreach

November 21, 2011 in Christmas Outreach with Comments Off

I remember waking up on Christmas morning, running downstairs, sitting in front of our Christmas tree and just staring until Mom and Dad got up.  I would look at the gifts and hope and pray that I got the toys I wanted and not clothes!  Finally, Mom and Dad would come downstairs and we would start unwrapping our gifts.  Do you remember that magical time?  What if you went to your tree on Christmas morning and saw nothing?  We know that Christmas is much more than gifts but to a child it all runs together.  Let’s make this Christmas different for some needy families in Tampa.

Church at the Bay is partnering with Crossover Church in Tampa to distribute Christmas gifts and food to needy families in the Crossover Church neighborhood.  Their pastor tells me they are hoping to share the love of Christ with food and gifts to about 1500 people and they need our help.  The food has already been donated.  Our task is to help them with a bunch of gifts for the children.  Here are some quick details:

  • Bring your unwrapped gifts to Church at the Bay over the next 3 Sundays.
  • Our trailer will be located on the sidewalk for you to put your gifts in
  • These gifts should have a value of between $5 and $10.  Please keep that range in mind when you are purchasing.
  • The final Sunday for collection is December 11th 
  • The food and gifts will be given to needy families in the community at Crossover Church on Saturday December 17th and we need some help to hand them out (10am to 3pm)
  • If you would be willing to go with me and a crowd from CATB please email me at Hal@churchatthebay.com and we will assist Crossover Church as they distribute food and gifts. (Crossover Church has asked that we not bring children under 10 years old to help in distribution).

Finally, we will not only help some needy families- we will also help position Crossover Church in their community to share the Love of Christ going forward.  Sandy and I plan to bring several gifts.  I hope you get your whole family involved and do the same.  Let’s make Christmas 2011 the best ever!