Happy New Year Everyone! As we move into 2024, we hope you have a chance to reflect and remember important milestones in your life, both the good and the challenging. The constant through it all is God, our rock and our foundation. God held all things together in 2023 and will do the same in 2024 even as God draws us near to guide us into peace, reconciliation, and truth.

FAITH PROMISE WEEKEND (Jan. 27-28)

January at VCN should be renamed Missions Inspiration Month. Faith Promise happens each January. It is the time when we prayerfully consider the amount, above our tithe, we promise to give to mission efforts around the world in 2024. In 2023, our VCN family gave $90,000 to Faith Promise which in turn has helped pay missionary salaries and health care benefits AND support Jesus Film outreach, Christian schools in Haiti and Jordan, church-based community gardening in Eswatini, and refugee outreach in Armenia, to name only a few.

Saturday

To kick off new 2024 Faith Promise initiatives will be our Faith Promise Weekend with special speaker Dr. Eugene Duarte, who served as the Africa Regional Director for many years and retired as General Superintendent this past June. He is now the Vice Chancellor of the African Nazarene University in Kenya. Dr. Duarte will speak on Saturday, January 27th at 10:30 am, followed by a free Chic-fil-A lunch together, then he will be our special guest speaker Sunday morning in the 10:30 am service. Get ready for God to inspire us to make a promise to 2024 mission efforts by faith (hence the term, Faith Promise…..get it?) Start praying now to get a sense of the part God would like for us to play in missions around the world in 2024 and share hope with the world.

Sunday

Sunday Evening Jan. 7th: To get us started early in thinking about FAITH PROMISE….Claude and Sandy Sisler, retired missionaries in Costa Rica (and other places), will share their stories with us. We will gather in the fellowship hall at 6 pm, and donuts and cider will be served for a time of fellowship. Mark your calendar now.

JANUARY EVENTS YOU WILL WANT TO EXPERIENCE:

January 12 - VCN Game Night, 5:30 pm

Bring your favorite game, and rumor has it that chili is on the menu. Sign up at the welcome center and get more information.

January 20 - J.O.Y. (Just Other Youth)

Come visit to the Florida Train Museum, leaving the church at 11 am sharp. Sign up at the welcome center. All Aboard!

January 24 - Allison Speer in the 10:30 Worship Service

Allison Speer will bring inspiration through her music, story-telling, and humor. Invite someone to attend with you and introduce them to your VCN family.

VCN Sunday School Classes

If you are not attending a Sunday school class, then maybe you should resolve to do that in 2024 and start next Sunday at 9:00 am! We have world-class teachers at VCN. If you regularly attend then resolve to convince a friend or two to start making Sunday school a routine Sunday-morning thing to do. The benefits are spiritual growth, making close friends, getting prayer support, knowledge, and answers to questions you don’t even know you have. Don’t let yourself say, “It’s not for me.”

Be resolute in 2024… Sunday School is for Everyone!

Did you know?

We have a LOT going on at the church every week. Here’s a list of some of the opportunities to get involved:

Men’s Bible Study - Tuesdays at 7 pm in the Fellowship Hall and on Zoom
Manna Ministry Food Distribution - Sundays at 4:30 in the Fellowship Hall
Celebrate Recovery - Mondays at 7 pm in the Fellowship Hall
Grief Share - Saturdays at 10 am
Men’s Golf Group - Contact Jim Johnston for details
Women’s Golf Group - Contact Cindy Crabtree for details
Quilt’n Sew - Thursdays from 9 am-Noon - contact Jan Acton for details
Children’s Church - Sundays at 10:30 in the Fellowship Hall
Youth Group - Wednesdays from 6:30-8 pm in the Youth Room
Weekly Prayer Group - Wednesdays at 5:15 pm in the Sanctuary Foyer led by Pastor Kip

For all weekly church updates including service times, classes, ministry opportunities, special events, and more or to join the church mailing list, click for the VCN Weekly Update.

By Pastor Rod Green, Associate Pastor

December at VCN is always a busy, joyful, and meaningful month. The focus of the month is Advent…the season of anticipation and preparation for God to become king. Jesus was born and grew up telling us about the kingdom of God, which is mysteriously near but also here all at the same time. The celebration of Christmas is the miracle of Jesus, the Word of God present at creation, emptying himself to be born under occupation to a simple couple from a despised town distant from the holy city of Jerusalem. “The world turned upside down,” to borrow a phrase from an 18th-century British tune.

Each Sunday in December up until Christmas we will light a candle from the advent wreath. The advent readings this year were written by John Haines, a retired Nazarene missionary who served in the Eurasia Region as Theological Education Coordinator. John has incorporated two Charles Wesley hymns written around 1745 in our readings. Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus is a familiar hymn we sing together every year. The other hymn is Join, All Ye Joyful Nations, which will be used as a congregational response. In case you want to practice, here are the words to this hymn, which so vividly expresses the amazing aspects of Jesus’ birth:

Join all ye joyful nations
The acclaiming hosts of Heav’n!
This happy morn a child is born
To us a son is given.

The messenger and token
Of eternal favor,
God hath sent down to us His Son,
A universal Savior!

The wonderful Messiah,
Joy of every nation,
Jesus His name, with God the fame,
The Lord of all creation.

The counselor of sinners,
Mighty to deliver,
The Prince of Peace, whole love’s increase,
Shall reign in Man forever.

Go see the King of glory,
Seek the heavenly stranger,
So poor and mean, His court an inn,
His cradle is a manger.

Who from His father’s bosom
Now for us descended
Who built the skies, on earth He lies,
By only beasts attended.

Whom all the angels worship,
Hid in human nature;
Incarnate see the deity,
The infinite creator!

See the stupendous blessing
God to us hath given!
A child of man, in length a span,
Who fills both earth and Heaven.

Gaze on that helpless object,
Endless adoration!
Those infant hands shall burst our bands,
And work out our salvation.

Strangle the crooked serpent,
Burn his works forever,
And open set the heavenly gate
To every true believer.

Till then, Thou holy Jesus,
We bow low before Thee,
Our treasures bring, to serve our king,
And joyfully adore Thee.

To Thee we gladly render,
What Thy grace hath given,
Till Thou appear in glory here,
And take us up to Heaven

It will be interesting to see if we can recite these verses without stumbling on the words, but more importantly, I hope we can cherish the sentiment in our hearts and grow in devotion to Christ our King.

January 2024 Events