Merry Christmas

As we reflect on this year, we are very thankful for the ways in which Christ connects us with each other and with God the Father.  Looking around our church on Sunday mornings we are black, white, Asian, Hispanic, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, young, old, life-time New Orleanian and newcomer. The one thing that connects us all is Christ. 
 
We are thankful for God's Word that connects us to Him and guides us through life. We are thankful for the ways in which our works of mercy and compassion have connected our church to the neighborhood and created an awareness that God is at work.  We are thankful for the gift of prayer and how it has allowed us to know that God hears us and cares for us in very specific ways this year.  We are thankful for the ways in which our faith connects us with others within our denomination, other local churches, the Church throughout the country and the invisible Church throughout the world. 
 
This Christmas season, we are thankful for the way in which God, through the life and sacrifice of Christ, made it possible to reconnect us with Him.  We are thankful that  "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
 
We are thankful for the ways in which God has connected us with each of you.  We are thankful that He has allowed for His work, through St. Roch Community Church, to continue because of your commitment to us through your resources, prayers and labors. A majority of Church plants in well-resourced communities don't last past three years.  We'll be celebrating four years in February; something we don't take lightly.  We are thankful that God has seen it fit to use our church, a diverse, broken and weak body, to bring Him glory and to proclaim His amazing grace. 
 
As the the year comes to completion, we ask that you prayerfully consider giving a much needed year-end gift to help us finish strong and give us a solid foundation to start the new year.   
 
Gifts can be given online at www.strochcc.org or via Network for Good.  Gifts can also be mailed to:
St. Roch Community Church
1738 St. Roch Ave. 
New Orleans, L A 70117
 
Again, thank you for all the ways you supports St. Roch Community Church.
 
Merry Christmas,
 
Ben McLeish
Development Director

Please Pray

On Saturday night we left our kids home with a babysitter and my wife and I went out on a date. While out, we received notice that our next door neighbors had been held-up at gun point in their house and robbed by a young black male. It is suspected that this is the same young man who burglarized and raped a young lady in her house a couple blocks away earlier in the week. Last night we heard the ambulances drive off on the block behind us. They were responding to a triple shooting. Two survived, one died.

In days like these, life in my neighborhood is scary, chaotic and hopeless. How will things ever change? Of the people I have known over the years who commit crimes, their stories are always tragic. They are often stories of severe poverty, neglect and abandonment which often leads to the drug scene and then to violent crime. Their desperation brings destruction.

But somehow, God is gracious to remind me that He’s here, that He hears our cries and that He’s still at work redeeming and restoring all things. This Sunday after church a couple of our young black men called for a meeting of the men in the congregation. This was their goal; that together we would create a “band of brothers” that would encourage each other to grow in our faith, that would provide accountability with each other and that together we would reach the young men of our neighborhood.

Often when the police release descriptions of perpetrators, it’s often a black male 18-24 with dreadlocks, the same description of these two young men who were infectiously admonishing us to pursue God. Throughout God’s redemptive history, God has used unlikely people from unlikely places to redeem and restore that which is lost and broken. Here He is doing it again.

My heart breaks over the violence that has occurred here recently but God, the hope of the world, is still at work. He hasn’t abandoned or forsaken us. His rescue plan that was revealed nearly 2000 years ago in a dirty stable, in the form of a helpless baby is still at work.

We ask that you continue to pray for us. Pray for our protection and pray that God would use us to be agents of His peace and His healing.

In Christ's Redeeming Love,

Ben McLeish
Development Director

Help a needy family this Christmas...

With Thanksgiving behind us and Christmas just around the corner, many families who find themselves “blessed” are often looking for a way to help out a needy family during the holiday season. But if you’re at all like me, my motivation in a situation like this can often be selfish. I’ve given to relieve my guilt, impress others or have a “warm fuzzy” feeling. My giving can so often be about me.

As we look to God, though, we find a different economy of giving. The Apostle Paul, describing the attitude of Christ, encourages us to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.”

If we are honest with ourselves, we are the needy ones. When sin entered the world, we were all totally effected by it, both rich and poor, black and white, young or old. Our own motivations, thoughts & actions attest to this. But thanks be to God, the Great Gift Giver, that He provides a remedy to our condition. How? By sending Christ into the world, not just leaving us a good example to follow but actually exchanging our wretchedness for Christ’s righteousness, providing the opportunity for our broken relationship with God, one another and all creation to experience redemption & restoration.

When it comes to giving, Jesus’ words cut right to the heart “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Is it ok, then, to give to those in need? YES! It’s commanded all throughout scripture. What then should our motivation be? We are givers because our Heavenly Father is a giver and we his children, the benefactors of his grace & mercy, should seek to mimic His actions.

This Christmas we invite you to give to those in need by helping provide access to affordable Christmas gifts for families in our neighborhood by donating to our annual Christmas Store. Our store will sell the donated items at rock bottom pricing, thus providing a dignified shopping experience for hard working parents. Together we can help tackle the needs of the under resourced in our neighborhood and help the neediness of our own hearts in the process.

For more details, including gift ideas, avenues to donate, and a fuller explanation of the philosophy behind the store, visit:www.strochcc.org/christmas