Join us in person or via Live-Stream/Chat on Thursday, December 14, or Thursday, January 11, 2024 at 6pm in Classroom B. Register here.

Children’s Choir is welcoming new singers for our Christmas “sings”! We perform again on Dec. 10 and at the 4:30 Christmas Eve Service. Rehearsals are on Wednesdays from 5:45-6:15pm. Here’s our plan: The parents can get dinner at 5:45 in the Gathering Place, then pick your child up at 6:15 and get them dinner too! Then stay for the mid-week Advent service (kids can go to Advent Kids with Staci Medina). So a full evening of singing, dinner, and Church for all ages! Email me at jpeterman@lacasadecristo.com to get your singer registered!

Our Christmas Cantata is just around the corner. The theme is 'Love's Pure Light.' The music will be so beautiful, and we hope it warms your heart this Advent season. It features our Sanctuary Choir, Carillon de Cristo, Band of Believers, the La Casa de Cristo Orchestra, and the excellent talents of our audio/video team.

Invite your family and friends to La Casa de Cristo’s annual musical tradition! It is a beautiful way to prepare your hearts and minds for Christmas.

Saturday, Dec. 16 – 5:00 pm, Sunday, Dec. 17, at 8:00, 9:15 & 10:30 am. All services will be live-streamed.

Director of Music and Worship

Rick graduated with a degree in biochemistry and spent his career with global consumer and personal care companies in research and development in the US and abroad. His hobbies include skiing, golfing, hiking, and playing Bridge.

As a member of La Casa de Cristo, Rick participated on the Board of Trustees and was pleased to be a part of the sustainability project to reduce our carbon footprint through LED conversion and the installation of on-site solar power generation. His most memorable outreach initiatives have been with Orchard Africa on mission trips to South Africa.

Rick has been a member of the choir for more than 10 years. This enthusiastic 'bass' has had so much fun, to him it seems like it was just yesterday that he joined! His favorite hymn is "Silent Night," with candles and a quote from Martin Luther: "Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world." He added that his favorite thing about the choir is, "The spirit and enthusiasm of bringing together 30 or 40 voices that may start rough and disheveled, but with the Holy Spirit and direction by the masters (Jennifer and Jeremy), bring our voices together in song. In choir, the music ignites my religious experience!"

Rick, although not classically trained, learned to play chords on the piano. He and Jane have hosted several Christmas and New Year choir/bells get-togethers to celebrate and sing...and yes, he played piano!

He shared with us how the Holy Spirit has affected his life, saying, "by always being there in trying times and joyous times."

MOMS meetings will continue in 2024 with our new Director of Women's Ministry, Paula Webb. Join us for the next semester by registering here. We minister to moms with children ages 0 to 18. The mission of MOMS at La Casa de Cristo is to encourage, educate, and equip every mom in every season of motherhood, using Christian values to strengthen families and to leave NO MOM ALONE.

Breakaway Weekend 2024 is coming on January 19-21 at Little America in Flagstaff. Deadline to register is December 15! Click here.

The definition of family from dictionary.com says, “a group of related things.” Through the month of November, we have focused on our #LaCasaFamily, a group of people together who believe in our amazing, powerful God. To celebrate our church family, Ignite Kids and our volunteers sat down together for our annual Friendsgiving meal. We thanked God for all of the blessings in our lives, especially the gift of our church community where we are able to grow in our faith together.

The excitement of Christmas is on our minds now that we are in December. We want our kids to know and understand the true reason we celebrate Christmas, namely Jesus! We have been learning each part of the Christmas story in our series, Incredible Christmas. As we talked about the angels visiting the shepherds, we learned that the candy cane is shaped not only as a shepherds staff, but also a J for Jesus when you flip it upside down. The kids created a candy cane ornament to place on their tree to remember Jesus this Christmas.

December 3 was our annual Advent Wreath making. Families joined together, not only with their immediate family, but as a church community to create a fresh green wreath. Each family received a devotional book to read together to guide our hearts during the Christmas season.

As this year comes to an end, I pray that we can all be reminded of the many blessings that we have, especially our church family. I am thankful for the gifts each member of our church body brings and I look forward to an amazing year of growing in our faith ahead. Our Ignite Kids will begin a new series on January 7 about prayer called, Pirates Who Pray. We cannot wait to kick off 2024 in prayer together.

Staci Medina, Director of Children's Ministry

"For 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." John 3:16-17 NIV

Have you ever been incredibly surprised by a gift at Christmas? Now ask yourself, have you ever snooped around your house for your Christmas gifts? A couple of things happen when you snoop around to find your Christmas presents. Sure, you may figure out what the gift is, but you also probably start to feel guilty. In addition, that guilt gets even worse if the person who is giving you the gift finds out that you snooped.

All of this happened because God actually loves us, cares about us and wants to have a relationship with us. What if we wake up Christmas morning and realize Jesus is not only the best gift we can ever receive, but we feel that surprise when we first realized the extreme love God has for us and tears roll down our faces like the little boy who received a Wii?

Suzan Scudder, Director of Jr. High Ministries

A new group is forming at La Casa de Cristo in 2024. There will be workshops that you can attend monthly. The content will be different each month and will be wide in scope. We are projecting this group will meet one Tuesday per month during the day (details to be revealed in January 2024 and set to begin in February 2024). If you have expertise in an area and would be willing to share it with others (Art, Writing books, Music, Herpetology, Gardening, How to…, etc.) please contact Donna Bosley dbosley@lacasadecristo.com or 480-948-1234 so that I can see when we have an opening for you to share. This will be a fun way to grow together and see how uniquely God has gifted the members and friends of La Casa. All are welcome to attend.

November was a busy month for Health Ministry. I was pleased to have Tyler White, an elder law attorney, come to present on Estate Planning. It was well-attended and folks learned what they should have prepared to keep their estates out of probate. A little pre-planning is so much more beneficial than crisis reaction. We started our 6-week class on Diabetic Empowerment Education Program (DEEP) to learn about pre-diabetes and diabetes and how to manage a healthy lifestyle. The only Health Ministry event planned for December is the Blue Christmas service on Monday, December 11 @ 6pm in the Sanctuary. We will come together to honor those who have departed before us. It is a solemn and meaningful occasion and I do hope you can join us.

I do have some “pokers in the fire” for some presentations for the New Year 2024. Watch the newsletter for classes on “Chronic Pain Self-Management” to learn techniques to deal with symptoms of chronic pain conditions; “Mind Over Matter,” a program that helps women build the skills and confidence they need to avoid or improve symptoms of incontinence; and “A Matter of Balance,” a program to reduce the fear of falling and increase activity levels among older adults.