A Generous Christmas

One of the beautiful things about our God is that he is extremely generous. God gave us Jesus as a redeemer, savior and friend. God gives us good gifts of food, family and friends for our enjoyment. Furthermore God gives us himself as a good and loving Father who leads his people. God also gives us his Spirit to live in us to transform us, to empower us for mission and to be a down payment to us on his promise of salvation. Finally, God promises to give us the kingdom of Heaven where we will rule and reign with him forever.

As God is a generous God, we desire to be a generous community to others. This Christmas we hope and pray that these tools will help you to give joyfully to others and teach your children the value of living a generous life. It was the Lord Jesus who taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive.

How to use this Guide

During this Advent season we wanted to provide a short devotional and prayer guide to lead us in some seasonal generosity. Each week I want to encourage you to take time to work through the devotional together and pray for our various partners in ministry. As you pray for each of them we hope that God will lead your family to be involved in giving to one or more of these ministries. On Sunday December 16th we will have a special offering as a Jacob’s Well community where you can make a designated gift to one or more of our partners on behalf of your family. You may use the enclosed “Generous Christmas Gift List” to designate your gift(s).

We pray that you find joy and generosity in the mission of Jesus this Christmas

Pastor Reid

The Primacy of Church Planting November 25th – December 1st

Read ScriptureActs 16:1-15, the story of the gospel going in to Macedonia (modern day Greece).

• What were Paul and Timothy doing? Why do you think the churches were increasing in number?

• What did God do to send Paul and Timothy out on mission to Macedonia?

• What happened when they shared the word with the women? What happened next at Lydia’s house? (Hint – this was a church plant)

• In this case God uses people sharing the gospel to plant the church, the rest of Acts 16 shows God saving a girl from demonic oppression and saving a jailer through a providential action in an earthquake. Discuss how God uses the normal/everyday as well as special supernatural and providential acts to take the gospel forward.

Read to your FamilyGod has always had a community of his people who are related to him because of his promises. They are united to him because of his forgiveness, his kindness and his saving work in Jesus Christ. God extends his blessing and salvation to the world through his people called the church. People of the church share the good news of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection with others and the church shows what God’s Kingdom is like by loving people and doing good to others. Healthy churches also send out people to plant new churches, new gospel communities that preach the gospel and do good in their communities.

God’s plan to bring the gospel to the world involves his people multiplying new churches that preach the gospel in new places until the Kingdom of Heaven comes. Our church is involved with helping many new churches form in New Jersey and in the Northeastern United States.

Close by reading the descriptions of our Church Planting Partners from the Generous Christmas booklet.

Pray TogetherPray for the work of the church plants as well as for the church planter and their families. Ask your family if they sense God’s leading to help any of them in their church planting work. You may use the included Acts 29 NJ map as a visual to share with kids – our church started the A29 NJ network and was the first and only in the state in 2009.

God’s Compassion for People December 2nd – December 8th

Read ScriptureRead Proverbs 14:31 and Isaiah 58:1-12 • Why should we care about people who are needy? Why not just care

about your own family and not others in the community?• How is our community better off when more people care for

the hungry, the broken and the hurting?

Read to your FamilyGod takes care of our families by giving Mom and Dad a job and money to provide. We also have money so that we can share it with others. Many people need better education, better opportunities to provide for their families and encouragement to work hard and be responsible. At times people need help; all of us do at some point in our lives. God wants us to help others by sharing what we have. In the church if one family has needs, the others can help out. We also give to help others in our community by contributing to organizations that build up people in the gospel. Finish your time by reading the descriptions of our local partners and our “Kindness and Generosity Fund” in the Generous Christmas booklet.

Pray TogetherPray for the ministries we support that are helping people locally and for our kindness and generosity as a church. Ask your family if they sense God’s leading to help any of them in their church planting work.

All Nations Matter to God December 9th – December 15th

Read ScriptureGenesis 12:1-3, Galatians 3:16-18, Matthew 28:18-20

• Who is Abraham’s offspring? How will all the families of the earth be blessed by him?

• What country do we live in? How did the gospel of Jesus Christ get to us here? Engage your crew in dialogue about God’s grace being for the nations not simply one nation and then read Revelation 7:9-12 to your family.

• Why is it important for us as the church to obey the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20?

Read To the Family From the beginning of time God’s plan was to save a people for himself out of every tribe and nation on the earth. The church in eternity will be made up from people from every nation, from all tribes and languages (Revelation 7:9). The good news of what Jesus has done began in Jerusalem and has now spread to almost all peoples on earth. God is using his church in countries all over the world to bring his saving message to people. We have the great privilege to be partnering with Christians in Africa, India, and Japan as well as with disaster relief for churches around the world.

Finish your time by reading the descriptions of each of our global partners in the Generous Christmas booklet.

Pray TogetherPray for the gospel to continue to go forth around the world. Pray for church leaders and workers in the nations with which we currently partner. Pray about our part in God’s global mission in going, giving and prayer.

LOCAL

Youth Empowerment Services | www.youthempowerment.usYouth Empowerment Services is a faith based, non-profit organization that promotes safe-haven and life transforming programs for children and teens in the New Brunswick community. After seeing kids struggle as they grow through adolescence Barry Smith, Jeff Hayes, and Michael Shields were prompted to launch Youth Empowerment Services (Y.E.S.) in 2003 to serve the at-risk youth of New Brunswick. Y.E.S. desires to see the whole person grow in the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of life. Through the help of committed volunteers (some of which are from Jacob’s Well) they provide after school tutoring, ESL classes, summer camps, weekly events, and mentoring to help children and teens navigate the road to adulthood.

Urban Impact | www.urban-impact.orgUrban Impact is a Christ centered program that reaches out to young men and women of the inner cities. Their goal is to bring impact in the areas of: academic and athletic development, mentoring, and spiritual nurture. This is done through group mentoring, one-to-one mentoring, athletic camps, and a residential program. Founded in 2004 by Rob Cruver, Urban Impact’s hope is that as teens mature into adulthood they will grow into responsible leaders within their communities who lead lives of significance.

Young Life | www.younglife.orgYoung Life’s Mission is to introduce adolescents to Jesus Christ and to help them grow in their faith. This happens when caring adults build genuine friendships and earn the right to be heard with their young friends. The approach is respectful of who kids are and hopeful about who they can be. Young life was founded in 1941 by Jim Rayburn and has since grown into a worldwide ministry. Working with middle school, high school, and college students, Mona Patel leads Young Life in New Brunswick and at Rutgers University. Members of Jacob’s Well serve with Young Life in various ways.

Kindness and Generosity Benevolence Fund From time to time financial needs arise among the people of Jacob’s Well. The first outlet for help should come through a person’s missional community. If the financial need is too large for the missional community we have money available in what we call our Kindness and Generosity Fund. The person in need applies for this funding by filling out a form explaining their situation. This form is then reviewed by our elders and a decision is made on how to help the person or family in need.

Local and Global Partners

GLOBAL

Grace City Church - Tokyo Japanwww.gracecitychurch.jp

Tokyo is one of the largest, most expensive, and most secular cities in the world. Grace City Church Tokyo is a church plant in the heart of Tokyo. In May 2010 it began meeting for weekly worship in Ginza, a central shopping district in walking distance of Tokyo station. Besides Sunday worship services, small groups and special outreach events provide opportunities for growth, pastoral care, fellowship, teaching and evangelism. The church plant will be an incubator for young church planters to start new churches in central Tokyo in the near future. This first church is part of a larger church planting movement, since the target group consists of hundreds of thousands or even millions of unreached young professionals. Many churches will be needed to affect the city and society with the gospel. Grace City Church Tokyo envisions being a new community called to glorify God by loving and serving the city.

Eric & Charlotte Harkness Associates to India with IDEASwww.ideasworld.org

Eric and Charlotte will be working with the dalits (untouchables) of India with International Development and Educational Associates. IDEAS and its partners are part of a movement to share God’s love with the Dalits through holistic approaches. They face many challenges due to the caste system in India but already they have seen 107 new schools opened in the last 12 years providing, vocational training and micro finance are offering new opportunities to individuals trapped in cycles of poverty and inhumane work, anti-human trafficking initiatives are combating injustice and caring for victims, and 3,000 new casteless churches have been planted since 2000.

Rev Gabriel Kisanga - Democratic Republic of Congowww.dcpi.org

Gabriel Kisanga works with Dynamic Church Planting International to plant churches in central Africa. DCPI equips leaders to plant churches worldwide. In January 2011 we began investing in his labors in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rev Kisanga is engaged in pastoral/theological training and church planting throughout francophone Africa.

Churches Helping Churcheswww.churcheshelpingchurches.com

Churches Helping Churches is a global partnership of church communities who seek to rebuild other churches in the wake of a catastrophic natural disaster. Their relief efforts are largely focused on churches that would likely cease to exist without the intensive, focused international aid. CHC exists because churches can provide lasting hope and long-term relief for disaster stricken regions. While it’s imperative that the church be among the best at offering material needs to those in crisis, above all, the church offers an aspect of relief that is exclusive: salvation through Jesus Christ.

CHURCH PLANTING

Revolve Churchwww.revolvechurchnj.com

Bill and Gina Laky are planting a church that revolves around Jesus on the far south end of New Jersey in Cape May County. The county is a mixture of tourist locations and blue collar workers and is greatly in need of additional gospel churches. Gina’s family lives there so they are planting in their home town. Bill is a graduate of TCNJ and the Laky’s did missions work in Spain before setting out to plant here in the Garden State. The Laky’s love the uniqueness of Cape May County and are praying that God would use them to proclaim and demonstrate the Good News to a broken, hurting world.

Mosaic and Grace Church Bostonwww.mosaicboston.comwww.russianchurchboston.org

Pastor Jan Vesikov moved to Boston in July, 2009 with his little ladies to tell people about Jesus and gather people into a community of faith called a church. Jan was born in Estonia, but grew up in the great state of Rhode Island. He graduated with a triple major in International Relations, Business Economics, and Slavic Studies from Brown University, in Providence, RI. After working for the federal government as a Russian Analyst, Jan devoted several years to studying theology and the Scriptures. In May 2009, he graduated from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity degree, focusing in Advanced Biblical studies. Pastor Jan is planting both Mosaic Boston, an English speaking congregation, as well as Grace Church Boston (Церковь Благодать) a Russian speaking community. Grace desires to reach Russian-Americans with the Gospel of Jesus for the Glory of the Father by the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Emergence Paramus

Mike Reed moved from Northern Virginia where he was a youth pastor at a massive church. He has been doing a yearlong church planter residency in partnership with Acts 29 NJ and a church called Emergence in Totowa, NJ. Mike and Kristin are working on building their core team to plant in 2013. We have invested in Mike’s training and coaching as well as finances towards their plant. Some of you may remember Mike preaching at Jacob’s Well in our Mark series during the summer. We are praying for them as they engage North Jersey with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hurricane Sandy Relief Many of you have already given time, talent, and treasure to the relief effort from Hurricane Sandy. As you know the road to recovery has just begun and will take months and even years to restore the areas hit hard. We will continue to receive funds that will go directly to those impacted by the storm. Our major focus revolves around two Acts 29 churches: Great Bay Gospel Fellowship in Little Egg Harbor and Remedy Church in Brick. We are also involved with a distribution center in Union Beach, NJ and on Staten Island, NY. We are committed to the long term recovery of these areas and the people that call them home. You can give to the Jacob’s Well Sandy Relief Fund or directly to one of the two Acts 29 churches on the shore.