Jesus Had an Awesome Birthday!

Worship at Haywood Street

Our Advent series at Sharon United Methodist Church was based on Pastor Mike Slaughter’s theme and book, Christmas is Not Your Birthday.  We challenged each other to give as much to Jesus this year at the Christmas Eve offering as we spent on all our Christmas gifts combined, with the offering to be split evenly between two ministries with the homeless: the Urban Ministry Center here in Charlotte and the Haywood Street United Methodist Church in Asheville.  Brian Combs, who grew up attending Sharon, is the pastor at Haywood Street.

A typical Christmas Eve offering at Sharon is a few thousand dollars.  This year, the offering totaled $35,181!  Well done good and faithful servants!  What joy there must be in Heaven over this!   

With the power of the Holy Spirit and the faithfulness of our congregation in living out the vision God has given us, we are an unstoppable force for God in our community and world!  Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Happy New Year



I returned to the office today after spending some time away with family for Christmas.  I received a "Happy New Year" surprise in the form of 264 sticky notes stuck to my desk, forming the number 2013 in orange!  I have decided to leave the desk as it is, one huge sticky note pad.  I'll just peel them off as I need them.

By the way, the culprit confessed.  Her identity...wait for it...Meilyn Coles, one of our artistic, creative, and daring youth from Sharon.  Well done, ma'am!  You got me good!