December is always a wonderful time of the year in the church. We light Advent candles, read familiar Scripture passages, and sing some of our favorite hymns. The season culminates with our three services on Christmas Eve: 5:00 PM Family, 7:00 PM Choir, and 9:00 PM Candles and Communion. We all look forward to hearing the “good news of great joy” of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2. We welcome both long-time members and new guests to these highly attended services. We come for the birth, but I encourage you to stay for The Story in the new year.
The Bible is the best-selling book in history, but how many people in our community are actually reading it? A Gallup survey reports the average American household has four Bibles. However, research by Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2008) found that only 16 percent of Americans read the Bible every day.
We hope to reverse this trend at St. Mark in 2020 as we journey through The Story together. I believe this is the right tool to increase Biblical literacy, help readers understand God’s story from Genesis to Revelation, and discover how our own experiences intersect with God’s plan. Consisting of 31 chapters of carefully selected scriptures sequenced in chronological order, The Story presents the word of God in an engaging format, reading like a novel.
The Story Church Campaign is a unique program providing up to 31 weeks of curriculum for children, teen, and adult classes and up to 31 weeks of corresponding sermons. When accompanied by reading through the five agerelated books (The Story, The Story: Teen Edition, The Story for Kids, The Story for Children, and The Story for Little Ones), the entire church can be literally on the same page for 31 weeks. St. Mark plans to begin the experience on Sunday, January 5, 2020.
Please contact the church office to reserve your copy of The Story. I look forward to walking with each of you through the Bible in the coming year.
In Hope and Confidence, Pastor Dave
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