Clear Creek partners with local organizations to make a difference in our community. Opportunities are available for individuals, families, and small groups. If you would like to serve with one of our local partners, contact the corresponding Go Advocate on our Go Local Partner List. You can also check out other valuable GO resources that will help you plan. 

During the holiday season, you will likely find yourself in a social situation making small talk with friends, family, or new acquaintances. Don’t sweat it! Here are some questions  to help you to have an intentional and enriching conversation. 

All around you, God has placed people you can know, love, and serve. At Clear Creek, we think of our relationship like circles we’re a part of. We call these our “spheres of influence.” Take time personally or as a family to identify your spheres of influence. Take note of the non-believers with whom you can build intentional relationships. Get to know them, pray for them, serve them, and find opportunities to share your grace story and the gospel. 

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he gathered with his disciples for a final meal before going to the cross. He instituted the Lord’s Supper as an enduring reminder for all followers of Jesus of his sacrifice for their salvation. The bread and cup that we eat together respectively symbolize the body and blood of Jesus. Gather the elements and take the Lord’s Supper with your family, some friends, or your small group.   

Look for a way to do something nice for someone without expecting anything in return. Here are some ideas:

• Make eye contact and say thank you to cashiers and grocery sackers.
• Bring your neighbor’s trash can up to their house.
• Unload the dishwasher or do some other household chore without being asked.
• Bake something delicious and share it with a neighbor; maybe include a note card with your name, address and phone number saying something like, ‘I hope to get to know you better in the coming year’.
• Drop off a treat to your local volunteer fire station with a note of thanks for giving their time and talents to keep our neighborhood safe.

• Thank them for the impact they’ve had in your life.
• Express your appreciation for something specific that they taught you this past year.
• Let them know of a character trait that you see in them that you hope to imitate.

Let your family members know the good they see in each other.

• Ask each member of the family to send you an adjective that describes each of the others in the family.
• Make a list for each person who will receive the affirmation. (It’s okay to have duplicates)
• Arrange a time to celebrate together each of the family traits. Be as creative as you want to be in your presentation – but do it together if possible. You might simply print out the lists. Then go around and read each one aloud.

A letter to yourself is something that you write now and read later. It can remind you of how you felt at a specific time in your life and brings with it helpful comparisons that allow you to see how growth and change have impacted your beliefs, feelings, and actions. Write a letter that you’ll open at the end of 2023. Tell your future self about:

• In what areas of your life do you desire growth?
• What are your thoughts about God; where would you like to gain understanding or see growth?
• Who is in your closest circle of influence – how can you help them grown in their relationship with Jesus?
• How are you doing spiritually, physically, financially, relationally? Taken an honest assessment and set some goals
• What are you are grateful for?
  What are your fears and anxieties about the future?
• The most important people in your life, and why?

Put the letter in a sealed envelope, mark a date on it and put it somewhere that you will remember where you put it (or give it to someone for safe keeping), then set a reminder on your calendar to read it. Or for a more digital approach, write an email to yourself and set a future send date.  

Gather your family or your friends around a table for dinner and discuss the highs and lows of 2022 and your hopes for 2023. Here are some questions you can ask one another:

• What do you hope God does in your life next year?
• If you could change one thing about your heart, what would you ask God to do?
• What is one way you think God can use you for Jesus where you are—on your team? In your class? At your work? With your friends? At dance? In your club? Where has God placed you where you can spread his love in 2023? 

Who is that person who you have met, but don’t really know yet? Who has God put in your life that you want to know more? Or someone who you just feel God is convicting you to reach out to? Invite them over for dinner. It doesn’t need to be fancy or perfect, it just needs to be you offering your time and life to someone else. Show God’s generosity to someone else and pray that God is present with you and begins a work in this person and in you.  

Take a chance and invite that person who God has placed on your heart to church in the new year. It can be a simple part of your conversation with a neighbor or a quick text to friends or family. Think through what God has given you in church, how it has blessed you and changed you, and then invite them to experience church for themselves. It is okay if they say no or even don’t respond; inviting others into God’s family and mission is always a loving and faithful act.  

Find 15 minutes alone, with a friend, or with your spouse—without distractions—and answer these questions:

• How has God blessed you in ways that were surprising in 2022?
• What friend has stood by you and brought you joy this year?
• What was a hard thing that you overcame and who helped you to overcome?

Take some time pray, thanking God for his good gifts, and consider sending a handwritten note or a text message to someone who has blessed you this year.

Think of someone who you are harboring resentment and frustration about in your life and ask God to help you truly forgive.

• First, thank God for his forgiveness of every sin and mistake in your life—past, present, and future—through Jesus.
• Ask God to transform your heart to forgive this person in your life just as you have been forgiven.
• Write a letter, that you might never show anyone, being honest about the harm done and then offering full and free forgiveness for the harm.
• Rejoice in the freedom God offers you in forgiveness and in the act of forgiving others.  

A great way to be generous is to simply invite people over. This year, have a NYE party for your family or friends! Gather together in celebration of the great gifts, experiences, and lessons of the past year and anticipate together what is to come in 2023! Ask God to place on your heart people to invite and before your party, pray to be a gospel presence to all of your guests.

Choose one of these books to read in 2023 recommended from Clear Creek Community Church. Consider reading a book with a friend and pray that God would transform your hearts and your minds through reading and contemplating the wisdom this book offers.  

“Your Kingdom come, your will be done in my neighborhood as it is in Heaven.” By yourself or with your family, take a walk around your neighborhood or apartment complex and as you come to each house or unit simply pray a prayer over each family. These prayers can be as simple as, “Lord, save them” or can be more complex if you know the needs of the people who live around you. Direct each prayer to inviting Jesus to bring his Kingdom and will into the lives of the people who live where you live, and you just might find your heart growing in compassion for them! 

Go to the Clear Creek YouTube channel for a playlist for you and your family to worship into the new year! Put it on in your home and let the songs and truths of the gospel ring through the rooms of your household. 

Prayer is the root of spiritual growth. Try creating a daily rhythm of meeting with God and allowing him to transform your life through his presence. Sit down and write out what you would like your prayer life to look like in the new year, and then make a plan to follow through. Maybe invite a friend to join you as well! Here are some prayer resources to help you.

Invite a friend to coffee or lunch. Talk to them about where you are with the Lord. Express your struggles and sins and ask them to pray for you in areas in which you want to see God do a new work. 

Get out the flour and sugar and bake up a tasty treat for a neighbor. Here’s a great recipe from Greg Poore.