ADVENT GUIDE ADVENT 2021 FIRST BAPTIST GREENSBORO
PASTOR'S NOTE In Advent of last year I returned to the Sanctuary. I’d filmed, met, worshipped and worked there throughout the months of virtual church, but it was in the intimacy and beauty of our Communion and Blessing services the week of Christmas that I felt I was home again. That week, our family lost a dear friend who died from COVID complications. In fact, just hours after learning that Randy died, I arrived to the candlelit Sanctuary, put on my robe, and walked in to share a blessing with church members, George and Levonne Scott, who were first in line. Throughout the evening, I experienced the gifts of connection with dear church members, the retelling of the story, and the care of ministers and Deacons. All of it was home. All of it was Christ coming near. Throughout the hours of communion, music was provided by Doug and Baker, including one melody that moved me every time it cycled. Learning the name of the piece, “Where Shepherds Lately Knelt,” I listened to it as I drove away from the service, hearing lyrics that depicted the coming of our Lord out behind a Bethlehem barn. The refrain played, “There was room and welcome there for me.” In this season, we experience how God makes a home with us, to which we can always return. There was “no room in the inn” for the young travelers and the baby on the way, but there was plenty of room outside, beneath the expanse of the sky and amidst the wideness of God’s love. As so many travel to that scene this season, I hope you will experience the themes of home and return in the life we share as a church, from the recurrence of beloved traditions to the intimacy of God in Christ present to you through the love of this community. There is room and welcome here for you, and especially in this season when, in Christ, all people have a home.