As we mentioned two weeks ago, Advent is just around the corner. Advent means arrival, coming into a place, or even coming into being. We want to take a concentrated look during the Christmas season about what the arrival of Jesus meant, and still means, to all of us.
 
We want to encourage all of you to join us on Sunday, November 22^nd for a shared meal in people’s homes as we kick off our Christmas Advent Season. This will be a Thanksgiving type dinner with a time of reflection and joyful celebration.
 
The dinners we have done on past years during the month of November are called Agape meals. Agape is a Greek word for love that was used to translate a Hebrew word for love that was only ascribed to God in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we are told that we are first given love by God in order to love like God loves. Agape dinners are designed to encourage people to see that a dinner in, and surrounded by, community is not a one-time yearly event, but a symbol of Jesus in our daily lives as we are united and growing as His disciples in grace and love.
 
Just like the Agape meals encourage us to share the love of Jesus year round, so Advent does the same thing. Advent reminds us that Jesus’ incarnation was not just good news for those that lived 2000 years ago, it is also good news for us today.
 
This year we are combining the kick off of Advent and the Agape meals together in order to better understand God’s grace as we live with one another.  We will hand out Advent journey guides at these meals so we can all take this ride together. We will have several host homes throughout Santa Maria, Lompoc and Nipomo and would love for you to join in.
 
If you are not comfortable joining one of our Gospel Communities for a meal, we would still encourage you, at the start of Advent, to grab some journey guides, invite your family and/or neighbors over for a meal and spend time with them, getting to know them better.

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