Corporate worship is a great thing.  Of course, we can worship God on our own and with our families - and we should. But there is something special about the people of God coming together for worship (Hebrews 10:24-25). Thus, we hope that corporate worship is the highlight of your week. In an effort to help you get more out of worship, we're posting a short preview of the upcoming worship service each week. Hopefully you'll find this helpful and encouraging.

This Sunday marks the beginning of the second week of Advent. We'll begin worship with the lighting of Advent candles and readings from Isaiah 9:2 and Luke 2:8-15, where we are reminded that, with Jesus, light has broken into a dark world. We'll spend time singing about the Incarnation with some traditional Christmas carols (O Come All Ye Faithful, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Savior of the Nations Come, God Rest Ye Marry Gentlemen) and one new song (God Is With Us). The music team will also be singing a new song during communion (Creator of the Stars of Night) - the words to the song are at the bottom of this post.

The sermon will be part 2 in our series from Isaiah. It's called "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" and is based on Isaiah 40:1-5. To prepare, read through this text. Consider this quote by Bible scholar Barry Webb - "The gospel of Jesus Christ is the gospel of Isaiah 40 transposed into a new, higher key."

We're also pleased to have missionaries Gabriel and Kelly Velasco from Back2Back Ministries at New City this week. They'll be sharing a bit about their orphan care ministry in Monterrey, Mexico. To learn more about Back2Back, see the video below. We also will be having a mission lunch at Izzy's after the worship service where you can hear more about Gabo and Kelly's ministry and ask them questions. We hope you'll join us.

Creator of the Stars of Night (music by Alex Meijas; words - anonymous)

Creator of the stars of night

Thy people's everlasting light

O Christ Redeemer of us all

we pray you hear us when we call

Come, oh come

Come, oh come

Come, oh come to us

When this old world drew on toward night

You came but not in splendor bright

not as a monarch but as a child

of Mary blameless mother mild

Come, oh come

Come, oh come

Come, oh come to us