Over the past four months I have challenged you to take bite-sized steps towards inviting someone to a Christmas Eve service. This month is our final challenge: invite someone to a Christmas Eve service. Better yet, invite several people. Christmas Eve and Easter are the two times each year that people are most interested in attending a worship service, so go ahead and invite everyone to join us in celebrating the birth of our savior. As I write this article it is barely November (sorry for the late posting on my end from the web guy) and I will be leaving in a few short hours for the Holy Land. I will see where Jesus was born and the field where shepherds were first told the good news of Jesus’ birth. I will look to the stars at night and wonder at the star that led the Wise Men such a great distance to see a newborn king. What would have happened if no one had told the good news of Jesus’ birth? What if a star had not pointed the way? What if angels had not come to the shepherds or the shepherds had not gone and told Mary all the angels said? What if no one proclaims the good news for the world to hear? Throughout Advent we anxiously await the arrival of the greatest gift ever: the savior of the world. While the world is focused on Santa and extravagant Christmas spending, a newborn king enters the world in the most humble of ways. While the world hangs lights inside and out and dons their fanciest clothes, the true light of the world enters to vanquish darkness. While the season says to be happy and jolly, God’s son comes to give comfort and peace to those who feel alone, anxious, or depressed. The world needs Jesus just as much today as it did some 2000 years ago. So, go and tell that Jesus Christ is born. Go and invite them to hear the good news on Christmas Eve.
CHALLENGE 5
“Would you like to join me at church this Christmas Eve?” Invite someone you know to come to worship with you. This seems to be the most frightening invitation for many to make. Remember, the basis of our identity as people of God is our new life given to us in Jesus Christ. When we quit pushing that on others and simply be that through caring relationships, we reveal the love of God. And who knows? The neighbor you invited to church might just reveal something about God that you didn’t know before.
Pastor Jen Beil
