Please join us as we gather, pray and worship Jesus Christ, our Lord! Sing and praise as we kneel down before Him, Emmanuel, in the soft candlelight of the Holy Season. Invite those you love, family and friends, as we celebrate the gift of Jesus sending out light and love to the world! For more info click here or search “Prayer” on our website.
WOMEN’S CHRISTMAS PRAYER GATHERING
Tue, Dec 6, 7-8:30p, Chapel
Guest Speaker Catherine Martin
Happy Thanksgiving! I love this week and how the entire world moves towards the biblical posture of gratitude and thanksgiving. Being thankful requires intentionality, so this week it’s critical for us to pause, reflect and remember all the things we have to be thankful for and recalibrate our hearts around what matters most and why. Thanksgiving gives us the rest, perspective and peace we desperately need in our lives. Be sure and make time to write down what you are thankful for, and more importantly, express your gratitude to those around you.
I’m looking forward to seeing you at our Thanksgiving Eve service tonight! This is one of my favorite services where collectively we express our gratitude and thanks. It’s also a great opportunity for those of you looking to find thanksgiving to be encouraged by your own church family. Then, enjoy the next couple of days with your friends and loved ones, (trying not to be consumed by the Black Friday consumers:)! Be sure to invite your friends and family to join us this weekend as we aim our hearts at the love, grace and power of God together. Bianca Olthoff will be back with us inspiring and challenging us from God’s Word, and there is still the opportunity for you to turn in your Beyond pledges as we create a new front door to love and serve our community!
Looking forward to being with you all and celebrating Thanksgiving together!
Peace,
Kyle
Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope that you’re full. Not just calorically, but categorically: spiritually, emotionally, etc.
Friends of mine are entering this holiday season after losing loved ones. Other friends of mine are enjoying new marriages and new born children. Life.
Please join me for a very special post-Thanksgiving message this Sunday. Our church will help you refocus post-Thanksgiving. This Sunday will nourish your soul. Don’t miss it—8:30, 10, 11:30a & 6p.
Post-Turkey Tip: Go for a long walk.
See you Sunday!
caleb
P.S.: Listen to recent messages here.
P.P.S.: Give to Mariners HB here.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. PSALM 100:4
It was Abraham Lincoln who established Thanksgiving Day as a national holiday in October 1863. He determined our country would set aside this special day in order to give “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
This proclamation came in the midst of the Civil War. There was discord throughout the nation and a prevailing sense of division that seemed beyond resolution. Yet the directive was clear: that we should be active, intentional and faithful in giving thanks to God.
We invite you to join us tonight at 6:30 p.m. as we gather as a church family for our Thanksgiving Eve service. Come as we give praise and glory to our loving and constant God.
It was so fun to be back at church this past Sunday. We all had an amazing experience in Israel, yet at the same time, it was great coming home to our church family. I loved Cole’s message and have been writing down three things I’m thankful for each morning and three things each evening. I’m cultivating a spirit of gratitude. We all have so much to be thankful for, and it is always a great time of year to be reminded of that. Just so you know… every time I make my thankfulness list, you are on it. I am so thankful for you and our church. God has used you all in amazing ways, and I know He has great things in store for all of us.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. We are heading into my favorite season of the year, I’m glad I’m celebrating it with you.
Continued blessings to you,
Jeff
Join us for our annual Thanksgiving Eve Service to celebrate together what God has done. Hear from our community as we share how we have seen God work in our lives.
THANKSGIVING EVE SERVICE
Wed, Nov 23, 6:30p
Childcare provided for ages newborn-pre K
Join us for a time to give thanks, reflect on the year and worship God.
THANKSGIVING EVE SERVICE
Wed, Nov 23, 6:30p, Worship Center
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At Mariners, we love to celebrate. And last Friday, we had lots to celebrate as over 900 Rooted graduates, friends and loved ones gathered for our Rooted Celebration & Baptism! If you haven’t experienced this gathering first-hand, it’s powerful.
Check out some snapshots of community and life change experienced by those in our congregation.
Celebration photos here and Baptism photos here.
ROOTED CELEBRATION & BAPTISMS
“Enter His courts with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.”
– Psalm 100: 4-5
With Thanksgiving just one week away, this is a great time for us to remember God’s faithfulness and enter His courts with thanksgiving and praise! However, what if you don’t feel like it? How do you enter a time set aside for Thanksgiving when you have just lost a loved one or your job or your marriage? Surely you cannot be expected to give thanks, can you?
My husband comes from a very large family – five boys and two girls. In a blink, we had 19 nieces and nephews and our four children grew up with a lot of fun cousins to play with. Needless to say, Thanksgiving with his family is a very fun, loud event. Early on, we decided to start a “Circle of Thanksgiving” tradition where we all went around this very large family circle expressing what we were thankful for.
At first it was all about the kids as we smiled and giggled through the sweetness of the kids sharing, “I’m thankful for my mommy and daddy” or “I’m thankful for my brother.” As the kids got older, we knew that we needed to model thankfulness from our perspective as adults.
If I’m being honest, at times it was really hard to do.
We felt great hurt and pain as several brothers went through divorces. We wept together as a sister battled leukemia. We cried together as one brother lost everything and filed for bankruptcy. We mourned together as we said goodbye to their dad and our children’s grandfather.
And yet, there was something very right and pure about finding reasons to be thankful even amidst all the pain. We were thankful that we had each other. We were thankful that God promised to walk through this pain with us. We were thankful that we love and serve a God who wants us to bring our sorrow to Him. There was something so healing and freeing about sharing that pain openly and honestly with each other. Being thankful helps set our hearts and minds and souls towards the Lord. There is power in expressing this gratefulness out loud or writing it down and seeing the words on a page as evidence of God’s faithfulness.
One of my favorite traditions is attending Mariners Mission Viejo’s Thanksgiving Eve service because it provides a time for us as a church family to speak out our gratitude and aim our hearts towards thanksgiving and praise as the holiday season begins. Please join me on Wednesday, November 23 at 6:30 p.m. for this special time of keeping our eyes focused on Him, the true giver of all great things!
Susan Hulse
Children’s Ministry Pastor
This week some Mariners Pastors and I are hosting 150+ other pastors from all over the country, training them about Rooted and its impact on people and churches. God is using Mariners to influence many churches and it’s a privilege to be part of this.
I tell you that to ask you this: How do you STAY ROOTED?
Note: If you’ve yet to participate in Rooted, that’s a must for January.
More than likely, you’ve gone through Rooted. But what does it mean to STAY?
Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” (John 15).
What does that mean? It simply means staying connected. Connected to Jesus, connected to other Jesus followers, connected to your mission and purpose for life.
How do we do that? Lots of ways… Here are just a few:
– Join us on Sundays. There are no gold stars for church attendance, but just as your body needs food, your soul needs nourishment. You can get that on your own (praying, reading your Bible, walking with God in nature), but being with others who are collectively celebrating God is like a vitamin shot.
– Join us in the community. I know that you care about people and that you do good wherever you go. But scheduling it and taking family or friends with you is a really important thing, too. You get to have a shared memory. You get to reflect together on why Christmas is more than just decorations and presents. So schedule serving.
– Invite. People are more likely to come to church around Christmastime (and Easter). Their hearts are more open. There is more nostalgia and attraction to church. Even if they’ve declined ten times before, this time might be the one. By the way, the best way to experience Christmas is through the eyes of a child. Similarly, the best way to experience church at Christmas is through the eyes of someone exploring Jesus—for the first time, or with renewed hope. Invite people to church this season.
I love you and pray for you often.
See you soon…
caleb
PS: Listen to recent messages here.
PPS: Give to Mariners HB here.