Most of us will be coming towards the end of our Christmas special events. I wonder how things have gone. Some of you just be feeling super encouraged. You will have had a fantastic time with lots of visitors coming. Maybe you have even seen people put faith in Jesus. You may have at least had opportunities for good conversations. Others among us may be feeling discouraged. Perhaps the numbers expected did not come. Indeed,even if your church had lots of visitors, the specific people you invited,whether personal friends or the streets you delivered leaflets to didn’t come. And then some of you may be wondering what the point is if people came because you suspect you won’t see them again until next year. Perhaps you have not even done anything outward focused for the last few years because it felt like a lot of effort for little fruit
At our church, we have had three main events this year. We’ve consistently put on a family Carol service with nativity for several years now and this is a popular event with quite a few families coming along, especially friends of church family. Then we had an evening Carol’s by Candlelight for the second year running. In many ways this is more designed to be tailored to our immediate community. We have had a few visitors to this both years, though it hasn’t taken off yet. We’ve set the expectations for this as something it is likely to take a few years to get into the local conscience. The third event is a little more low key, we don’t have our own building so doing something on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is harder still but we are trying a Christmas Eve family Carols (kind of crib serviced type thing) again for the second year running. We host this out our home and it is more for church family. However we are encouraging people to invite friends and we have invited neighbours.
I wanted to talk in this article about the opportunities in such events that go beyond the obvious ones of seeing people from outside the church turn up, as important as that is. I hope this will be particularly encouraging for those of you feeling a little down and maybe something to feed into your post Christmas reviews. It may help your planning for next Christmas and for Easter too.
First, there is an opportunity in that you get to be known as a church that does stuff at Christmas and that people are invited. These events send out a message that you are part of the community and want to celebrate with them. People know that you are there, they are welcome and the kinds of values that you have as a church, you are there for them. That’s been communicated to all the people who received invites whether or not they came. They now have links to your website, social media and contact details. That might just come in handy at a later date.
Secondly, some people may have been prompted to try church this Christmas even if they didn’t end up at yours. Christians from other churches will have been encouraged by your outreach
Thirdly, it sends a message to people who have been trying out your church. Just as it is rare to see families come to your church through toddlers and kids groups in the week you may not get new people directly through the carol service. I suspect though, that having those groups help people coming along through other means to settle. And in.general, if you want to be a normal church then being one that has stuff for kids and celebrates Christmas seems like a good generally good idea.
Fourth, don’t underestimate what God might be doing in the lives of people who have been coming to your church week in week out. These events offer a slightly different context. As a result, the carol service may help someone who has been coming along each week move further towards faith in Jesus. It could be the think that helps a young believer decide to get baptized. It might be where you discover that someone has a hidden gift.
So, I’d encourage you to preserve and not to miss out on being encouraged by the less obvious things that God is doing.
Faithroots 