Have a Missional Christmas Eve "Service" - Missional Thought of the Day

[James Nored]

I must confess--Christmas is my favorite holiday. I went and did a bit of shopping today with Becki, and there I saw the Christmas items already out.

I used to get irritated when people would skip Thanksgiving and start Christmas early. But, as I have grown to love Christmas more and more, I think, why not? I stood enchanted in front of a Christmas CD booth in Target today, listening to various Christmas CD clips.

Christmas time is a great time to reach out, as many people are in a "good mood" and are hearing about Christ and seeing nativity scenes everywhere. Yes, it is commercialized, and I saw today figurines of Santa holding baby Jesus at his birth! Still, people think about Christ, and that is a wonderful thing.

Christmas Eve is a time that many churches hold a special service. We will do this too. And we may get some unchurched to come. My experience with this, however, is that it is mainly the church folks that come.

Today I ran across an article that shared a great idea for reaching out on Christmas Eve. Have your members go out and hand out boxes of donuts and a church card to all of those who have to work on Christmas Eve - firefighters, hospital workers, police officers, etc. You might call this a "missional" Christmas Eve service--not a "worship service,'' but a service of sharing love to those that have to work on this most family of nights.

So whether or not your church has a Christmas Eve worship service, you can have a Christmas Eve service, going out and serving someone on Christmas Eve. We did this type of going out to firefighters, etc. at Liberty, taking our life group out and giving these workers a care basket from the church. Later, our small group said that it was the most memorable thing that we did all year. Why not have your family or small group or your church go out and serve this Christmas Eve?

What ideas do you have on how the church could reach out and serve on Christmas Eve?

[James Nored]

Danny, I like to go Christmas caroling too. I'm sure that these members were very glad to see you. It may be that having members in say, a nursing home, would give a great inroad to sing for the entire nursing home.

[Danny Bratcher]

When I was growing up at the Joelton C of C in TN, we would get a group together, and go Christmas caroling! We would visit members of the church who were either shut-ins or sick and could not get out! I know that this sounds a little old fashion, but the smiles and appreciation for thinking of them far outweighed anything else we could have done or given! Besides, they were still a part of our church family, and we do not forget family members on Christmas Eve!