There’s something special about this time of year.  Our culture embraces the holidays as a time of warmth, of joy and of peace.  But for many of us, it’s also a pretty stressful time.  A lot of that stress comes from difficult conversations we know we’re going to have with our families.  “Home for the Holidays” is a three week series from The Gathering dealing with the three most difficult conversations we have with our families.

Here’s what we’re going to be talking about:

Week 1:  “No, I Don’t Know Yet…”  This week we’re talking about the questions that come about our future.  Do you know what you’re doing this summer?  Are you dating any one?  Have you picked a major?  What are you doing after graduation?  How are you going to pay back your loans?  Great questions.  But what do you do when you don’t know the answer to any of them?

Week 2: “No, I Am Not Crazy…” What do you do when everyone at home thinks you’re crazy for taking your faith so seriously?  Maybe they think it’s crazy that you follow Christ at all.  Maybe your friends just think you’re weird for not doing some of the stuff you used to do.  People are going to challenge your faith.  How do you respond?

Week 3: “So, my break was pretty rough…”  This isn’t a conversation we have over the break.  It’s the one we have when we get back to campus in January, reconnect with our Christian friends and deal with the spiritual mess that was break.  It’s so easy to fall away from God while we’re away from campus.  How do you prevent that?

I’m really excited to start this series tonight at AU and next week at Mason and UMD.    Wanted you to have the graphic now so you can start tossing it around Facebook, Twitter and any place else you would like!