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by | 20 December, 2009 | 0 comments

 

by Jennifer Taylor

In this article, churches around the country share the unique ways they plan to “get their hands dirty” and serve their communities this Christmas.

Last year our team discussed the huge amount of work we put into Christmas programs and decided to invest the energy in helping one of the missions our church supports. We wrote a drama about a local ministry that helps pregnant women choose life instead of abortion. It was not hard to make the connection between a young, unmarried college couple dealing with an unexpected pregnancy and the Joseph/Mary scenario.

The local paper ran a front-page ad, people donated baby “stuff,” and we collected a $2,000 offering for the ministry.

This year we”re helping another local mission that helps the families of men and women who have lost jobs. A member of our drama team has written a terrific script based on a true story. The choir is rehearsing, a drum line from a local high school is performing, and a choir from another school is joining us, as well.

The community we live in has a large poverty base and a fairly large wealthy group with not many people in between. I think it”s important for our church to spend less time singing about the baby Jesus who came to serve and more time serving our own city.

“”Michael Plank, worship and arts minister, Spring Road Christian Church, Lanett, Alabama

 

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Our congregation has discovered we need to focus to have the most impact. Dozens of organizations do great work and need help, but we pick a few and concentrate our support.

For the last eight years we have asked our local rescue mission for information on 100 families who need help at Christmas. We ask small groups and families in the church to adopt an entire family and provide Christmas gifts for each person in that household. We also encourage singles, who may not be able to adopt a family, to donate $25 Wal-Mart gift cards; this allows our outreach team to buy extra gifts for families needing help right before the holiday.

The mission gives us the information, and we promote it to the church. Our members anticipate this each year and line up to adopt families.

When we started this project, we invited the families to our building to receive their gifts. We had good intentions, but we”ve learned it works better to remain more anonymous. The rescue mission distributes the gifts in Jesus” name; we take our name and our pride off it and just try to bless people.

“”Eric Cummings, connections pastor, Crossroads Christian Church, Newburgh, Indiana

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This Christmas, His Place, an urban ministry in Pittsburgh, will reach out to the homeless community for the second year. On Christmas Eve, volunteers will distribute hot chocolate and Christmas stockings filled with basic necessities to the homeless men and women in the city. On Christmas Day, in a special event called “A Home for the Holiday,” volunteers will spend the day at our building with our homeless friends. Our van shuttles the men and women to the center where they enjoy a holiday brunch, watch Christmas movies, and hear a reading of the Christmas story.

“”Jamie Weiss, associate director, His Place Contact Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

 

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We average just 60 in worship each Sunday, but every Christmas these members fill the foyer of our 174-year-old church with piles of food, cards, and gifts for distribution to needy members of our rural community. Church members distribute the gifts the Sunday before Christmas.

“”Keith Gray, member and choir director, Alaska Christian Church, Cloverdale, Indiana

 

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As we”ve done the last several Christmas seasons, we are planning to perform a Broadway-style musical. We typically attract people from western New York and western Pennsylvania.

We promote the event at our free Harvest Banquet before Thanksgiving, and we offer beautifully designed print materials to make it easy for our members to invite others.

The most unique aspect of our performances, though, is that several of our performers are deaf. Our director, who

has close ties to the deaf community, invited a sister deaf church to join us in the production a few years ago. They jumped in with great enthusiasm, and the experience was a joy for both congregations.

The following year we put on a deaf/hearing musical again, and our friendships deepened. Happily, the friendships forged in this joint effort eventually led the people of the deaf church to merge with our congregation. We were thrilled.

That”s why, today, we don”t just have deaf/hearing musicals””we are a deaf/hearing church, with hearing and deaf people in all areas of ministry, including leadership. And it all began with Christmas!

“”Chris Bacus, senior minister, Anchor Christian Church, Rochester, New York

 

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We partnered with the 11 elementary schools in our township and asked the deans to provide us with the names, ages, and genders of 10 of the neediest students in each school. They have given us 130 names, and we are asking everyone in the church to purchase gifts for these children. We have set a goal of at least five gifts for each child, and have invited these children and their families to join us on December 12 for a nice dinner.

We are excited about the relationship this has created, not just with these families, but with our schools as well. We are calling this outreach “The Gift””” it is our gift to the community as Christ is the gift to the world.

“”Jamie Lankford, administrative minister, Post Road Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

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Last Christmas, we began a ministry called “Clothe Charlotte” with a vision of collecting a winter coat for every homeless person in Charlotte, North Carolina (about 5,000 people). It was great to see the community come together for this project.

This year, when we called local shelters, we consistently heard of an overwhelming need for sleeping bags. So this year we want to collect 5,000 sleeping bags! We”ll donate the bags to local shelters for distribution.

“”David Milam, lead minister, Kinetic Church, Charlotte, North Carolina

 

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This Christmas Southland will be “digging deeper” within our current ministry areas. We provide backpacks of food for needy children at two local schools, and at Christmas we”ll provide special meal boxes (about $60 of food to serve a family of five) to 275 of these families. We”ll distribute the boxes at parties at each school. At the party we”ll also have refreshments, free Christmas family portraits, storytime, and an opportunity for the families and our volunteers to serve together by writing Christmas cards to people in nursing homes.

We”ll provide the same boxes to 20 patients and families from our Refuge Medical Clinics, along with a special practical gift for each family (such as a space heater, shoes, etc.). Volunteers who already have relationships with the patients will deliver the gifts.

Our “Bruised Reed” ministry to exotic dancers will provide Christmas baskets to 120 dancers, staff, bouncers, and bartenders at five local clubs. We”re asking the congregation to help by providing $20 gas cards and $50 grocery cards.

Finally, we partner with Food for the Hungry to serve three villages in Mozambique. Throughout the Christmas season we will have at least 1,000 packets available for members to sponsor a child for $32 a month.

“”Karen Bowman, local outreach coordinator, Southland Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky

 

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This year at Christmas it is all about helping the forgotten in a couple different ways. One is feeding the hungry. We”ll raise funds and food to feed some 700 of the 4,000 homeless children in Las Vegas, as well as the adult homeless population. We are also planning to start Central church campuses in local prisons across Nevada. Our focus will be on aftercare as well as bringing hope to the prisoners and their families. These campuses will be launching out of the Christmas season where we will give above and beyond to make them a reality.

“”Jud Wilhite, senior pastor, Central Christian Church, Henderson, Nevada

 

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A new outdoor mall with a huge pavilion was built in our community a few years ago. The mall holds a Christmas tree lighting

each year and we asked to present a family show telling the story of Christmas. It started small and has become a 50-minute production with plasma TVs, video, and custom-built staging. Dozens of our kids dance and sing, characters from our weekend kids” program make an appearance, and thousands of people attend.

We also partner with some of the merchants for giveaways, offer free photos for every family who attends, and distribute cardboard picture frames with Christmas greetings and our church Web address.

The event has become so popular the mall now holds two tree lightings, and we present the show before each one.

“”Todd Wilson, lead pastor,  Discovery Church, Simi Valley, California

 

 

  

Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

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