Happy New Year // M-Note 1.4.2025

I want to thank all of you that worshiped with The Gathering throughout the Christmas season. Christmas Eve was an incredible week of worship. There were so many highlights for me, including: getting to see so many of you, meeting your friends and family, working alongside so many of you who volunteered, watching over 650 kids and families worship at our two Kids Christmas Eve services, preaching 11 times, having 55 new people or families fill out a connect card, seeing all of your pictures from worship that you posted online (I LOVE these), and worshiping with 4000 people across all of our Christmas Eve services. The Christmas Eve offering is another huge celebration, but I’ll wait to share that because it keeps climbing! It was an incredible night of worship, and I want to thank all of you that were a part of it.
 
Next weekend, January 12, we will begin our new sermon series Cancel the Noise: Take Control of the Voices You Listen To. Our lives are often shaped by the voices in our lives. And yet sometimes those voices do not lead us in a helpful or healthy direction. If you want to change your life in the new year, you may need to listen to some new voices, especially the voice of God. In this new series, I will be talking about what voices to watch out for, how to filter out the unhealthy voices, and most importantly, how to listen more closely to the voice of God in our life. This is often our largest Sunday of the year as so many of us want to get our year off to a strong spiritual start. I hope you will plan to be there, and please invite someone in your life that might be looking for something new in their own life.
 
This Sunday, I will be sharing a message about one of my favorite stories. I know that most of us are over Christmas, but Sunday is officially the 12th and last day of the Christmas season. I will be talking about 4 lessons for the new year that we can learn from the wise men!
 
Speaking of Sunday, I know that many of us in St. Louis are anticipating snow. The Gathering’s tendency is to always have in-person worship, but we will assess the weather early Sunday morning and update the congregation via email, social media, our website, and our App by 6:30am. If you are not on our email list, you can get on it here, download our App here and make sure that you like and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
 
For those who can’t make it in person, please worship with me online right here and while you are there make sure to subscribe to our YouTube page. You can find all of our old sermons as well as each week’s current message.

Finally, we need some help wrapping up our Christmas clean-up this Wednesday, January 8, at all of our sites. If you have some time that day to come and take down a few decorations, it would be much appreciated. You can let us know when you plan to come here.
 
I hope that the holiday season was great for you, that you spent time with people you love, and you did something that brings you joy.
 
Peace,
Matt
 
P.S. If you were new on Christmas Eve, or have never filled out a Connect Card, please do it here. Also, Tuesday evening, January 14, I will be hosting NEXT at Schlafly Bottleworks at 7pm. We will have food and drinks, and it is a time for you to learn a little more about The Gathering, ask questions, and learn about ways to get more connected. If you are brand new or have been around a while, please come, especially if you have never done it. It is a great NEXT step in your faith. You can learn more or sign up on the app or here.