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Dear Friends
In my last letter I spoke about our 'COSY' programme - Caring, Outreach, Support and Youth. One of the ideas from the Outreach Group has been to produce a leaflet giving a short Christmas message and an invitation to the community to our Christmas Services. The idea is that we deliver as many of these leaflets as we possibly can to the households in both parishes of Holytown and New Stevenston. It is a huge task - we suspect it is around 5.000 homes! We know that we might not be able to get a leaflet through every door - though we will certainly give it a good try!
Even though we are very aware that not everyone will respond positively to our leaflet, we believe that giving an invitation and welcome to the community is an important thing to do. And we certainly do pray that people will notice that we are reaching out to them with open arms and a warm welcome. Our Christmas Leaflet is an important step for us to take. However, just as important, if not more important, is our own personal invitation, witness and encouragement to the people around us.
Let me give you an example. I am very conscious that when I make intimations and announcements from the pulpit on a Sunday morning asking for volunteers, the response is not usually overwhelming! The best way to get someone to volunteer for a task is to ask them personally. A positive response is much more likely if we say to someone, 'Would you be willing to give a hand with this...?'
Let me say that I would be delighted to be overwhelmed with volunteers to a request from the pulpit! However, I know that very often the personal touch is what can make the difference.
If that is true for those of us who are regularly at worship, it is even more true for those who are not. The personal touch makes a difference - and each one of you reading this letter can bring that personal touch to bear on the invitation that we extend to everyone in our community to join with us as we celebrate the Christmas message. Inviting family, friends and neighbours to special celebrations is not really a difficult thing to do, and if we all do it, there is a good chance that many more people will join us in worship. So as we approach Christmas, can we make a point of backing up the printed invitation that will be posted through many letterboxes with a personal invitation that expresses our warmth of welcome and our special invitation.
May the peace and joy and blessing of this season of the year touch our lives and the lives of many in our community.
Iain
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