04 Jan Christmas at Renew Communities (Berea, Ohio)

Andy Sikora (right), senior pastor, Renew Communities (Berea, Ohio)

The power of Christmas is that Jesus became one of us and moved into the neighborhood to meet our needs. This Christmas we asked, “Wat would it look like for Jesus to move into your neighborhood this year?”

Instead of doing one big Christmas project as a church, we decided to empower our people (especially Missional Communities) to identify needs in their “neighborhoods” and invite their friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to help meet those needs. The projects were very exciting, and the results were inspiring.

• The West Park MC collected $420 to give to a single mom to help her buy groceries and clothes, and to pay utilities.
• The North Ridgville MC collected food and bought gifts for families in need in their community.
• The Parma MC collected toys for 10 different families (approximately $500) who would not be able to celebrate Christmas.
• The Teen MC had a dinner and raised over $400 to buy gifts for kids in need in Parma.
• A group of people raised $3500 for victims of Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island so that 17 different families were able to celebrate Christmas. This money was raised through donations, benefit concerts, and selling over 700 cake-pops.

We shared the video above on Christmas Eve update people on all of these projects.