The Gallery

Suggested Parking for Christmas Eve service

A couple notes about parking tonight for The Gallery's Christmas Eve service at 10:30.

I would suggest everyone park at the William Mitchell College of Law (Summit and Victoria) parking lot tonight.

If you have to park on the street, please note the following:

• Don't park on any street with "Night Plow Route" signs.
• Don't park on the side of a street where there are "Night Plow Route This Side of Street" signs.
• Do park on streets without signs.
• Do park on the other side of the street to "Night Plow Route This Side of Street" signs. 

Give the Gift of Good News

Merry Christmas, Gallery!

As we wrap up these final days of Christmas shopping, I’d like to encourage us to give the gift of good news. Here are 3 simple ways to share the good news of Jesus Christ with people near and far this week:

Invite a friend to Christmas Eve:
Tomorrow night at 10:30 PM at Steppingstone Theatre we will share Jesus’ good news at The Gallery’s very first Christmas Eve service. Note: Any change due to inclement weather will be communicated through email and The Gallery website.

Links to Good News:
Last Sunday night we had the opportunity to hear the the message that changed Steve Tourek’s life: “Jesus loves you, ya’ know.” Steve’s video and my interview with him are both on The Gallery website. If someone you know would benefit from Steve’s story, join me today in sending them a Christmas greeting and a link to the video.

Links to Living God’s Masterpiece videos:
Two other stories that might touch your friends this Christmas are the testimonies of Matt Atkinson and Becky Wallerick. Both are now up on The Gallery site and both are powerful testimonies of God’s transforming power.

Need a last-minute gift?
Give the gift of World Vision! Instead of buying that friend one more gift card, buy a goat, a sheep, or a chicken in honor of your friend’s and your commitment to “loving the least of these.” In just 5 minutes you can buy a World Vision child necessary resources for living, and send your friend an e-card telling them you purchased in their honor.

Important Year-end Giving News:
Here are two ways to get your Gallery offering in before the end of the year:

1. Bring your offering tomorrow night to our Christmas Eve service.
2. Drop your check, made out to Crossroads Church with “Gallery” in the memo line, to Crossroads Church, 5900 Woodbury Dr., Woodbury, MN 55129 before Dec. 31.

Beginning January 1, 2010:

• All checks should be made out to The Gallery. Our mother church Crossroads will no longer be processing our giving.
• All bank bill-pay payments should be edited so they are sent to The Gallery, PO Box 305, St Paul Park, MN 55071.
• Beginning January 1 we will have have a new online giving tool.
  

REMINDER: NO GALLERY SUNDAY NIGHT, DEC. 27TH.

Sharing God's Good News with The Gallery

Gallery,

Sharing the good news of our King is a community effort. Note below the many ways we can partner together to participate with God in the growth of His kingdom.

JESUS LOVES YOU, YA’ KNOW
Do you have one of those friends who’s always reaching for the golden ring, a friend who believes just a little more acclaim, a little more money, a little more success is all they need to find happiness? If so, bring them Sunday night to hear Steve Tourek’s story. Who’s Steve Tourek? Click here to hear/see a bit of his story.

CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE GALLERY
Gallery, one thing you can always trust is every Christmas Eve and Easter The Gallery will share God’s good news about Jesus with great creativity and care. If you have a friend who doesn’t have a church home, please invite them to join us Christmas Eve at Steppingstone Theatre at 10:30 PM.

LIVING GOD’S MASTERPIECE VIDEOS
No one can argue with the story of a changed life. This is why over the next year The Gallery website will be growing Living God's Masterpiece videos. These videos will be a great tool for you to share with your friends the power of God’s life-changing love. Simply copy and paste the link into an email and share with your friends. We have taped three so far and there are more to come!

1-10-10 @ 10:00 AM
The Gallery Grand Opening is just 3 weeks away, gang! This too will be a great way to share God’s good news with your friends.

IMPORTANT GIVING NEWS!!!
An important announcement from our Financial Secretary Ann Bernard:

• As of Dec. 31st, 2009, The Gallery will no longer be funneling funds through Crossroads Church.
• Beginning Jan.1st, 2010 all checks should be made out to The Gallery Covenant Church.
• For those of you who use your bank’s bill pay system, please change the address in the system to Gallery Covenant Church, PO Box 305, St Paul Park, MN 55071.
• A new online giving resource will be available on The Gallery website 1-1-10.
• If you need more information, you can email Ann at dcbernard2@juno.com

FREEBEERIFYOUHATECHURCH.COM
What in the world is your pastor doing now?! Click here to find out.

Coming up...

Sunday Night
At The Gallery we believe the first act of loving is listening. That's why this Sunday night we continue our Christmas Conversations with writer, spiritual director, and author John Ackerman. John is writer of the book Listening to God, and he has a passion for helping followers of Jesus become passionate listeners of Jesus.

Two Bring-a-Friend Events:

Sunday, Dec. 20th at The Gallery we will be sitting down and conversing with Steve Tourek. Steve Tourek is a man whose story of coming to faith in Christ will make even the biggest skeptics stand up and take notice. Educated at Dartmouth, Yale, and Cambridge University, Steve is a man who seemingly had it all...or did he? I hope you'll join us and bring a friend to hear the amazing transformation only Jesus can bring.

One of the easiest invitations we can offer our unchurched friends is an invitation to Christmas Eve. We hope you, your family and friends will join us as we recapture the wonder of the Christ-child on Christmas Eve at Steppingstone Theatre at 10:30 PM.

1-10-10 @ 10:00 AM
Finally, Gallery, I ask you to keep in mind we are one month away from our Grand Opening! As we walk this next month together, our enemy wants nothing better than to take us down. The scriptures tell us, though, that "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." Therefore, I ask you to join me daily @ 10:00 AM in this simple holy prayer: "Come, Holy Spirit, empower The Gallery."

It is an honor to serve the Lord Jesus and you!

Pastor Brad

Coming up at The Gallery!

Hey, Gallery, a very exciting December is upon us!

SUNDAY NIGHT--CHRISTMAS CONVERSATION WITH PASTOR GREG BOYD
Gang, this Sunday night is a great night to invite every skeptic you know to The Gallery. Our guest, Pastor Greg Boyd, knows what it means to distrust God and His word. Just look at his bio:

Greg Boyd is a former atheist who surrendered his life to Christ in 1974. After his conversion, he discovered the faith he embraced failed to address many questions and objections to Christianity. Greg’s search for a well-grounded and intellectually defensible faith led him to study philosophy at the University of Minnesota (B.A.), followed by studies in philosophical theology at Yale Divinity School (M.Div) and Princeton Theological Seminary (Ph.D). He then became a professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University and is currently the senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

He has authored or co-authored 18 books and numerous academic articles, including his best-selling and award-winning Letters From a Skeptic and his most recent books The Jesus Legend and Myth of a Christian Nation.

Greg’s ministry has been featured on the front page of The New York Times, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC and numerous other television and radio venues. His primary vision is to help the Church become the Kingdom of outrageous loving servants God called it to be, and to help non-believers discover the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

Greg and I will simply sit and dialogue about Jesus, His word and His kingdom. What's more, we want to take time for Q and A. If you have a question for Pastor Boyd, please email it to me at bradkindall@gallerycovenant.org.


THE GALLERY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENCE
Every month The Gallery seeks to find some creative way to LOVE ST. PAUL. December's opportunity is an event we are calling Christmas Presence. Christmas Presence is an opportunity to distribute holiday treats and gifts to the homeless community in downtown St. Paul.

Here's how you can help:

• Bring donations such as candy canes, cookies, candy, muffins, Christmas cards, notes of encouragement.  We also hope to have a few bags on hand that we can give to parents who have children (small toys, i.e. stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, etc).  These items can be dropped off at The Gallery on Sunday, December 6th, or the following Monday-Wednesday at the Ekklesiah House.
• Help assemble gift bags on Wed., Dec. 9th at 7:00 PM at the Ekklesiah House.
• Distribute gift bags on Saturday, Dec. 12th at 10:00 AM at Rice Park.

A sign-up sheet will be available in the Gallery lobby this Sunday night. Hope you'll join us!

CHRISTMAS EVE AT THE GALLERY
Hope you'll join The Gallery for its very first Christmas Eve service--10:30 PM at Steppingstone Theatre.

Gallery To-Do's

Today:

• Read Bible.
• Talk to God. Listen to God.
• Invite friend to Sunday night Gallery bring-a-friend service.
• Tell friend about how creative your church’s worship services are.
• Tell friend your pastor’s doing a dramatic thing to illustrate his teaching.
• Tell friend about the great community, the great music, and the Jesus who changed your life.
• Oh, and tell friend about how your church is going to take 50% of all money given to serve its local community and the world.
• Oh, and tell friend they can be a part of this group of ordinary radicals who actually believe the way of Jesus is really  the way to live.

Tomorrow:

• Read Bible.
• Talk to God. Listen to God.
• Pray for The Gallery’s Bring-a-Friend Sunday night service.
• Pray for The Gallery’s Sunday Love St. Paul event where we are packing and delivering Thanksgiving groceries to people living in poverty with HIV.
• Buy some toothpaste or shampoo to bring to The Gallery for the personal care items we’re giving away to the homeless.
• Go online and give to the mission of The Gallery.

Sunday:

• Read Bible.
• Talk some more to God. Listen some more to God.
• Pray some more for The Gallery’s worship service and Love St. Paul event.
• Pick up friend and take them out do dinner before The Gallery.
• Go to The Gallery and open heart to God and His Church.
• Live in the joy that comes from knowing God is passionately in love with us.

Monday:

• Read Bible.
• Thank God for His love. Listen more to God.
• Note on calendar the Christmas Conversations series at The Gallery:
• Dec. 6th  Writer, pastor, former atheist-turned-major-Bible-Smart-Guy Greg Boyd
• Dec. 13th Writer, pastor, spiritual director John Ackerman
• Dec. 20th Super-over-achiever-dude who was lost until he found Jesus Steve Tourek
• Dec. 24th Gallery Christmas Eve Service (10:30 PM)

THE GALLERY'S THANKS-giving

On Sunday, November 22, The Gallery will be partnering with a St. Paul organization called Bill's Pantry.  Bill's Pantry provides groceries to people living in poverty with HIV/AIDS.  We have the privilge of bringing Thanksgiving groceries to Bill's Pantry people so they can make Thanksgiving dinner for their families.  Here's where you come in! We need 10 to 20 people to help serve on the 22nd---three or four separate drivers who would be willing to go pick up the majority of the food and the rest to help sort and bag the food.  Drivers will need to be available around 3:00 and food baggers will start at 4:00.

For those not able to participate on the 22nd, you can still help out! Most of the food has been donated by another church but we still need to collect some donations to fill up the bags.  There are two types of items we need:
1) Personal Care Items 

travel-sized hygiene items

• toothpaste and brush
• razor and shaving cream
• shampoo & conditioner
• face cloth & soap
• deodorant
• foot powder
• skin lotion
• lip balm
• wet-wipes
• Kleenex packs
• adhesive bandages

2) Commercial (non home-made) dessert boxes (brownie mixes, lemon bar mixes, etc.)

We will be serving 65 families so we need everyone in The Gallery to participate in bringing the above.  A list of the personal care items will be available in the lobby.  We will be collecting these items at church on Sunday nights. If you have any questions, feel free to email Pastor Brad: bradkindall@gallerycovenant.org.

The Gallery's place in God's Story

Last Sunday night we gathered around Jesus' healing of the blind man in John 9. The blind man's story is really our story. The Son of God has come, opened our eyes so we might see.  Many of you answered the call to write down a name of someone who needs the healing touch of Jesus in their lives.This past Wednesday Pastor Jane, Rita, and I prayed for each of those names. If you haven't already done so, I would again like to gently encourage you to share your story with the person you wrote down. God's touch upon our lives is a story that must be told. [Let me also send a special thanks to Ryan Daniel for using his gifts to lead us in our first reggae/hip-hop worship night!]

This Sunday night we will follow Jesus into the life of a man chained and bound to darkness. Like Jesus' disciples in the first century, we too are called to bring Light into Darkness. I hope you'll make Sunday night a priority in your weekend.

And then in just over a week (Oct. 25), we will celebrate our second BRING-A-FRIEND night at The Gallery. The theme for this special evening will be LISTENING. As a community of Jesus-followers, we are called to listen first to those Jesus has called us to love and serve. Please be in prayer now about whom you might like to invite to this very creative, multi-sensory worship service.

Also, a special thank you to all those who participated in this month's LOVE ST. PAUL event. The Gallery was well represented in this year's Crop Walk to Fight Hunger!

And mark your calendars! Next month The Gallery will love St. Paul by joining Bill's Pantry in providing Thanksgiving groceries to people living in poverty. This special event will happen on Saturday, Nov. 21st.

Finally, if you haven't had a chance to give to The Gallery lately, click here to be taken to our giving page. Remember: every dollar you give to The Gallery goes toward helping people find a right-relationship with God, find their identity in Christ for the benefit of others and all creation. Your giving makes a difference.

It is a blessing to be your pastor!
Brad

The Unique Voice of The Gallery

Dear Gallery community and friends,

I believe every worshiping community has a voice and every worshiper has a voice. Yes, all of us our made in God's image, but each of those images reflect God differently. For example, notice how different Pastor Ryan Daniel is from me (Pastor Brad). Ryan's from Trinidad. I'm from Phoenix. Ryan's black. I'm white. Ryan's a reggae-hip-hop artist. I'm an actor. And then look at you and your friends at The Gallery. Each of us is so different. What does a church do with such diversity? Celebrate it!!!

So this Sunday night Ryan's going to bring in some of his friends to lead us in a very cool reggae-hip-hop worship experience and my teaching will be molded around my gifts as an actor and story-teller. If we add you and all your friends to the mix, we will together create an evening of worship unlike any we've experienced. What's more, we will participate in giving voice to the great diversity of God's kingdom. Hope to see you Sunday!

Oh, one more thing...
We have just a couple more days to register for the Meal Group Lauch on Monday night at Bethel Christian Fellowship at 6:30 PM. Dinner is $5.00 per person. You can register online here.

Shalom!
Pastor Brad

Announcements - Week of Sept. 27

SUNDAYS AT 6:30PM
Worship Service every Sunday at 6:30pm at SteppingStone Theatre in St. Paul

NEW BIBLE READINGS
The 'October Bible Readings' list is now available.

FALL MEAL GROUPS
Looking to grow closer to God and The Gallery community? Meal Groups are the place! Meal Groups are 8-12 people gathering weekly or bi-weekly to share a meal, God’s word, prayer, and life together. Sign-up for Meal Groups. Meal Groups will launch with a special dinner on Monday, October 12 at 6:30 PM. The Launch will be held at Bethel Christian Fellowship, located at 1466 Portland Avenue in St. Paul.  Registration will start at 6:30pm and dinner will be served at 7:00pm. Dinner will be catered - cost is $5/meal.

SERVANT'S HEART?  SEEKING VOLUNTEERS
Seeking volunteers to assist the Worship Team with setup, tear-down, and tech (audio & visual).  If you are available, please contact John Scherer.  Have you been gifted with musical or other artistic abilities and want to serve God with your gifts?  Please contact The Gallery Worship Pastor, Ryan Daniel, to explore all the possibilities!

Interested learning how you can get more involved in other ministries at The Gallery?  Please contact Rita Lindstedt, our Ministry Director, to hear about all the exciting things our ministry teams are doing.

SHARE YOUR STORY
Do you have a story that you'd like to share? People are able to relate better and more quickly when they are able to identify a common link. Our stories all connect us. We have similar struggles and experience similar joys. We would like to invite you to share your story of how you came to know Jesus and developed a personal relationship with Him.  For more information, please email us.

CROP WALK TO FIGHT HUNGER
On Sunday afternoon Oct. 11th, The Gallery will join hundreds of other Minnesota churches for the annual CROP WALK to fight hunger. Walkers may walk 2.5 to 5 miles. Pledges are not connected to miles. Please mark your calendars!

YOUR GIVING MAKES A DIFFERENCE 
A huge thank you to all who have been investing their tithes and offerings in God’s work through The Gallery. This fall is a crucial time for us as we build the foundation for future ministry in St. Paul. Whether it’s $5.00 or $5000.00, every dollar makes a difference. Click here for different ways to invest in The Gallery. 

PRAYER REQUESTS
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" James 5:16 (NIV).  We believe in the power of prayer and would like to pray for you. Please send us your prayer requests or submit your requests online.

LIVE GOD'S MASTERPIECE