Elves!

The church looks amazing!
One of my favorite parts of the Advent season is seeing our campus morph into a wonderland of light and decoration. God has blessed us with a beautiful campus, and it is especially stunning when it is adorned for the celebration of Christ’s birth!

In fact, here’s a little secret. This month, our staff will be hosting the next breakfast of the newly forming interfaith clergy alliance. I can’t wait to welcome my new friends into the sacred spaces that have come to mean so much to you and me during this high season.

But here’s another little secret: The place doesn’t decorate itself.

Did you know JCBC has elves?
That’s right. Elves.

While Santa and Mrs. Clause typically get all the love at the North Pole; and while Rudolf and the others (with all their intra-reindeer strife) are the much-lauded subjects of sentiment and song, it is the oft-unsung labors of the Elves who do the heavy lifting.

We have Elves at JCBC who recently spent a full week doing the heavy lifting to get our church ready for Christmas.

Throughout the hallways, foyers, rotundas, and meeting areas, Susan Holland (our elf-in-chief) along with Frank Holland, Katherine Stanford, Linda Garner, Anne Lee, and Richard Eason worked tirelessly assembling and decorating trees, stringing lights, setting nativities and hanging wreaths, ensuring every member and guest would be provoked to worship upon entering campus.

Elves like Mary Scott, Kathy Sufcak, Frank Bai, Frances Yao, Grace Yu, Leigh Anne Shields, Mark Smith and Adam Courtney worked faithfully to prepare our worship spaces in the Sanctuary and Family Life Center. (Not to mention the numerous elves who work to construct our Christmas at Johns Creek set each year!)

We are blessed every year by the beauty of our space, and the worship it provokes within us.
Today, I am especially grateful for these members—our very own team of JCBC elves, who make it happen.

Have I told you lately how grateful I am to be your pastor?
Well, I am.
Shaun.