{"id":4816,"date":"2015-12-10T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T17:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2017-01-05T16:41:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:41:58","slug":"why-were-doing-rockin-christmas-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/why-were-doing-rockin-christmas-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Why we&#8217;re doing &#8220;Rockin&#8217; Christmas&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Rockin-Christmas_Logo.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2610\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2610\" src=\"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Rockin-Christmas_Logo-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"Rockin' Christmas\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" data-wp-pid=\"2610\" \/><\/a>\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: \u2018Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel\u2019\u201d (which means, God with us)\u201d<\/em>(Matthew 1:22-23 ESV).<\/p>\n<p>Some have been wondering why we\u2019re doing an event that has such a secular feel to it. With a\u00a0promotional title like \u201cWCC\u2019s Rockin\u2019 Christmas,\u201d a\u00a0tagline saying, \u201cA Holiday Experience That Will Rock Your World,\u201d and well, the program itself, that begins with secular Christmas music and feels so performance driven\u2026 Some are saying, \u201cThis doesn\u2019t feel at all like church!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Our answer: It\u2019s not supposed to feel like church.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not trying to reach \u201cchurch people.\u201d We\u2019re trying to invite\u00a0people who celebrate Christmas, but don\u2019t go to church. We want this event to be something that WCCers can invite their family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers to as a gift to them at Christmas. We promise that they will hear Christmas music that is both popular and familiar, all presented with excellence. We hope to entertain and inspire. But most of all, we hope to offer them the greatest gift of all\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2026 a clear presentation of the gospel within\u00a0the Christmas story.<\/p>\n<p>Which, by the way, includes the reality that God sent His Son as\u00a0Immanuel (God with us). Christ Jesus\u00a0left the\u00a0eternal worship service taking place in heaven and came to us. He revealed the Father to us by becoming one of us. He communicated the love of the Father to us in a language we could understand. So, now we\u2019re hoping to communicate the love of Christ to our community in a language that they can understand.<\/p>\n<p>Our \u201cRockin\u2019 Christmas\u201d event is our way of offering the true gift of Christmas to our community. So, when you\u2019re thinking about\u00a0who to invite,\u00a0consider\u00a0that person who celebrates Christmas, but doesn\u2019t go to church. That\u2019s who this event is really hoping to touch.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Reprinted from December 2014.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAll this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: \u2018Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel\u2019\u201d (which means, God with us)\u201d(Matthew 1:22-23 ESV). Some have been wondering why we\u2019re doing an event that has such a secular feel to it. With<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[2069,2015,2214,2095,2335,2070,2052,2179],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs","tag-christ","tag-christmas","tag-church","tag-gary-combs","tag-gift","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-wcc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/garycombsorg.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/12\/An-Orphans-Hope_HD-Logo-1000px.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4956,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4816\/revisions\/4956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4816"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}