Christmas Tradition

OK. I admit it. I love Christmas traditions. I stopped at Starbucks last week and picked up the Charlie Brown Christmas CD. The Vince Gauraldi Trio immediately took me back to childhood days, watching ACharlie Brown Christmas on TV and realizing that the Christmas season was in full swing. I especially loved the portion of the program where Linus stands center stage and recites the Christmas story.

You know, I'm not really necessarily a "tradition" kind of person. I love change and growth. But there's something special about Christmas traditions.

For years while we were serving as pastors, I would try to come up with something new for Christmas. Then one year I realized that the most meaningful thing we did during the season was our Christmas Eve service. We sang traditional Christmas songs. We had solos, duets, etc. We asked the band to provide instrumental Christmas songs. We lit candles and sang "Joy To The World." We read the Christmas story. We even read children's Christmas stories and projected the pictures of the pages so that the adults could follow along. It was my favorite service of the year. Almost magical. And the place was packed for both services.

We would always include an opportunity during the communion time, for people to respond to the gospel message. We discovered that Christmas traditions provided a wonderful opportunity to help people connect with Jesus. I guess that's really the purpose of God sending His Son, isn't it?

So, Pastor, if you're a little overwhelmed with trying to find a new perspective on the Christmas story, perhaps you should try going back to the traditional. (Don't expect me to say that very often!) I'm praying that your Christmas services will be blessed and that lives will be changed through everything that you do!