Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve Services: Don

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services Dont miss this Strategic Day for
Evangelism!

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• With the holidays just in front of us I want to
  challenge you to not let the next six weeks
  between Thanksgiving and Christmas to come and go
  without preparing for this key strategic
  opportunity to touch the un-churched,
  de-churched, and non-churched individual who
  during this time of the year seeks a touch from
  the Incarnational One. Beginning with the days
  following thanksgiving and leading up to the
  pivotal Christmas Eve services, there will be
  many of the unreached who will decide to attend a
  Christmas eve service somewhere!

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• This one day (Christmas Eve) is becoming the
  most strategic opportunity to touch the lives of
  individuals of all ages. There is a sense that
  this one service is politically correct for them
  to get a glimpse of or touch form the holy one in
  your church.
• Let me suggest that we learn how to Rock
  Around the Clock During our Christmas Eve
  Services! Plan early and advertise ahead of time
  in various ways that is available in your area,
  what you are offering the community during this
  Key Day of Outreach.

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• Why do I call it a Key Day of Outreach?
• To begin with far too many churches settle for
  the mundane and dreary instead of the charged and
  cheery format for Christmas Eve.
• Many churches feel like they have to do
  something for the older folks so they throw
  together a service, bring out last years sermon
  and dust it off for a rerun. The result is
  planned boredom and manufactured spirituality
  that lacks any reflection of the miraculous and
  the Incarnational.
• Christmas Eve is a night when many who very
  rarely come to worship will be in attendance.
  There may be as many as two to four times the
  normal amount of people you generally have when
  the church gathers for weekly worship. What does
  that mean for both preparation and your churchs
  sense of balance? Think carefully about how God's
  Spirit may be prompting your regular worshipers
  to show kindness to all.

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
• Read further
• It is Christmas Eve. The doors are opening at
  your church and the celebratory crowds begin to
  rush into the worship center. What are you going
  to do?

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• May I offer you a suggestion that this day could
  be a great day of outreach for you and your staff
  (hope you got your Christmas shopping done
  early)?
• Instead of checking out early for the holiday,
  making this a day of impacting ones community is
  more strategic!
• How about offering a menu of Christmas Eve
  Services that are planned for drawing the
  community and less for your weekly constituents?
  Even a small church plant could offer at least
  two different times or styles for the day.

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• Larger churches could offer various venues
  (styles) or even perhaps mold a Christmas Eve
  service that offers three or four forms that
  seamlessly flows from late afternoon to early
  evening. The only thing that changes would be
  those who come and those who go in attendance.
  The flow would have built into its form, times
  for reflection and times for departing while a
  new group of searchers enter to sense the
  incarnate.

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• As we get ready for the holidays I wanted to
  give you some ideas for future Christmas Eve
  services
• Christmas Eve is the number one time in the year
  for the un-churched, de-churched and un-reached
  individual to come to church.
• One of the reasons they are searching for a
  worship experience could be due to brokenness
  issues, isolation issues, or even loneliness
  issues.
• They are searching for that Incarnational touch
  of the Holy One. There is a desire and need for
  an experience of Gods real presence.

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• As we get ready for the holidays I wanted to
  give you some ideas for future Christmas Eve
  services
• Christmas Eve is rapidly becoming the most
  popular holiday in the postmodern world. It is a
  time where young and old alike desire a
  connection with the Holy God of all creation.
• It is a day and place where groups of people can
  connect to God, even if it is just a onetime
  deal, not to be repeated again until the
  following year.
• Each time they connect with you and your church,
  if you have prayerfully sought to honor God in
  this experience, you get another opportunity to
  impact their lives for Jesus sake!

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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services

• As we get ready for the holidays I wanted to
  give you some ideas for future Christmas Eve
  services
• Your Christmas Eve Services are a great time to
  touch the heart strings of those who are
  genuinely search for God and feel more
  comfortable attending this service than any
  other offerings you provide the remainder of the
  year.
• It is also an excellent time to reach them by
  providing a challenging time for their individual
  reflection and soul searching.

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Some Ideas that could be used in Christmas Eve
services!
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Some Ideas that could be used in Your Christmas
Eve services

• Lighting you worship area in ways that is not
  reflective of the usual forms of weekly worship
  is a creative way to send the message that we are
  here for something different on this day! One
  service we had in my church was lit only in the
  middle of the worship center and everything took
  place in the midst of the people.
• Utilizing soloist and praise team members to
  participate in forms that utilize the senses of
  the audience towardthe performance of the praise
  team is helpful. This could be done by having
  progressional singing from the back of the
  worship area, to a singer behind stage, or a
  soloist kneeling in reverence.

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Some Ideas that could be used in your Christmas
Eve services

• Short dramas could play a big part as well. About
  four years ago, we had a worship time that was
  led in a continuous song that lasted the first
  half of the service. It had singers telling the
  story of Christ and Christmas in an Elizabethan
  format, that the worshipers loved. It was wrapped
  as a Christmas Tale.
• Worship in the round. This is a wonderful
  experience for a Christmas eve service! Almost
  everyone is right up front with the worship
  leaders. It is close and intimate. By using
  minimal lighting this is a great experiential
  feeling as worshipers are drawn close to God.

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Some Ideas that could be used in your Christmas
Eve services

• Thrust staging is another way to bring the
  worshippers closer to those leading worship. It
  allows larger groups of leaders to be thrust out
  into the middle of those worshipping by
  positioning them in the middle of the attendees.
• One church in New Jersey uses luminaries and a
  live Nativity on Christmas Eve to create a
  wonderful experience. They model an old fashion
  Christmas feeling. This attracts the older
  individual and draws those who have their
  children in as well. A sense of family traditions
  emerge.
• Stories of victory and hope are also a great aid
  in these services. Using those who are
  experiencing Gods incarnation transformation
  helps others whom are attending, to sense His
  invitation as well.

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Some Ideas that could be used in your Christmas
Eve services

• Christmas Eve is an excellent time for
  testimonies from individuals on the growing
  strength of their faith. By using the Laity in
  these moments of witnessing, it eliminates the
  professionalfeel that sometimes comes from the
  clergy performing the same service. When a lay
  person shares what God is doing in their
  Christmas, it is a moment of extreme transparency
  which draws others to the testimony.

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Christmas Eve Services Ideas for the generations!
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Christmas Eve Services Ideas for the generations

• Teens Twenty Something's idea As older teens
  and young twenty something's move from receiving
  to making a strong mission connection at
  Christmas, it is a great way to emphasize self
  sacrifice with missions services. Twenty
  Somethings are attracted to this type of
  service.
• Adults and Seniors Traditions and informality
  are a great Christmas Eve motif. For this age
  group, you might want to consider using the
  lighting of the Advent Candles as a tie in to
  Christmas Eve.
• Church Plants For younger churches this is a
  great launch service! More non-churched are
  coming to this service than as any other time. It
  is politically correct (for the unchurched) to
  want a touch from God during the Christmas
  Season.

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What is the best time to have a Christmas eve
service?
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What is the best time to have a Christmas eve
service?

• Choose
• 400 PM ____
• 530 PM ____
• 600 PM ____
• 705 PM ____
• What are some other options?

• Perhaps
• 1230 PM ____
• 930 AM ____
• 1130 AM ____
• 1205 AM ____

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What is the best time to have a Christmas eve
service?

• Children styled worship works well at the 4 PM
  and 6 PM and then they go to grandma for dinner
  and the family Christmas Eve celebrations times.
• Some say that 4 PM is too early for those who
  have to work on Christmas Eve, so perhaps offer a
  plethora of service times.
• 705 PM or 6 PM Older congregations do the later
  early evening times and that seems to work well
  for their churches.
• 1205 AM and the late night works well for older
  teens and young adults.

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What is the best time to have a Christmas eve
service?

• Multiply the times and multiply the styles -
  liturgical to reflectional, and every thing in
  between. Perhaps link them together so they flow
  from the first to the last. Therefore,various
  groups connect and disconnect at venues they are
  comfortable with.
• Churches, both large and small, should offer many
  Christmas Eve Services.
• REMEMBER Christmas Eve is a noon to midnight
  experience for the Lord!

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Remember the Hospitality issues at Your services!
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There is no better time to display your churches
hospitality than during your Christmas Eve
Services!

• Refreshments need to be at their best during
  these time of service for first time visitors to
  sense a spirit of celebration. Do not allow it to
  be the usual even when it come to refreshments!
• There will also be a need for more people than
  usual to be deployed in these acts of service, so
  every visitor feels welcomed and part of the
  celebration.
• Remember to remind your workers that
  interpersonal relationships are a key during the
  holidays, and encourage them to make every effort
  to be a friend to these new worshippers. A good
  barometer is to add 50 more volunteers to this
  days services.
• Work on getting contacts in new ways. Floaters,
  working the guest area and worship area, are a
  great means of connecting.
• Not to sound like an auctioneer, but some sort of
  a drawing for thoughtful Gifts works well to
  gather names of potential prospects.

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There is no better time to display your churches
hospitality than during your Christmas Eve
Services!

• It is probably best to offer childcare during all
  Christmas Eve services and go to the extremes of
  over staffing all areas in childcare!
• Do things over the top so you make a positive
  statement to the community about your church.
• Make the most of these services so those
  searching can connect, receive hope, and an
  invitation to something at your church post
  Christmas. Offer hope to all who attend and make
  worship fun.

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There is no better time to display your churches
hospitality than during your Christmas Eve
Services!

• Offer a sermon series for the post holiday season
  and gear up by inviting visitors to join you for
  the series.
• Dont scale back your small groups but enhance
  them - gear up! No Christmas sabbaticals. Taking
  time off from small groups takes a large draw out
  of the offerings for your church.
• Increase your relational ministries during this
  time of the year. Look for the searchers during
  these six weeks of the Holiday season, and seek
  to connect with them in meaningful ways.
• Stop having insider parties and start focusing
  on those outside the church! Get the us parties
  off the calendar and plan for including those
  that are not part of us. Transform some of
  these parties to be ministries to the community
  and for the community.

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There is no better time to display your churches
hospitality than during your Christmas Eve
Services!

• Be out and visible in the church parking lot for
  those coming to your Christmas Eve services. It
  is dark, in some places slippery, or snowing.
  Light it up and get it cheerful. Play some
  holiday music. Offer cider on the way in to the
  building.
• Have your parking lot attendants handoff to lay
  leaders, who will help them work through getting
  into the worship area, and participating in an
  unknown place.
• Actions like parking valets, sidewalk greeters,
  and young adults to escort seniors to the door,
  all make a lasting impact.
• Also use your Deacons in the vestibule, welcoming
  and serving. It is the layering of multiple
  streams of hospitality that can send a message of
  caring to those who are not regularly part of the
  ministries.

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There is no better time to display your churches
hospitality than during your Christmas Eve
Services!

• Christmas Eve services get full. Enlist your
  ushers to help with seating and adding more
  chairs if the need arises.
• Train all of your Christmas Eve Volunteers ahead
  of time. Get ready for the influx.
• One often missing ingredient is to remember to
  raise up people who have the gift of hospitality
  and utilize them at this season. Acts of kindness
  through gifts of hospitality say a lot about your
  church.

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Tips for busy pastors during the Christmas season!
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Tips for busy pastors during the Christmas season!

• Prepare your sermons early so you do not become
  rushed or appear to be hurried during the
  holiday.
• Be more conversational during this time of the
  year with early arrivers. People what to see
  their pastor greeting them and wishing them Merry
  Christmas.
• Dont get side tracked spiritually during this
  time of year. Keeping spiritually disciplined in
  the midst of heavy schedules is essential.
• Dont pile on more than you can handle. If you
  need to say no to invitations, perhaps you could
  offer other alternatives come the first of the
  new year.

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Tips for busy pastors during the Christmas season!

• Plan for music that visitors and members of your
  congregation know and love. Dont ask the people
  to come on Christmas Eve to be spectators of a
  musical extravaganza.
• Keep the churches ministry visual and not
  anonymous. Spiritual Victory is the key.
• Empty your schedule of the things you can give
  away to others.
• This is not a night for members of the
  congregation to move over resentfully to allow
  space for the strangers who come.

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Tips for busy pastors during the Christmas season!

• Plan on a one day holiday prayer retreat where
  you can get focused again for the new year.
• Helps for a one day holiday personal prayer
  retreat
• Set one day (4-6 hours) to get alone with God.
• Go someplace you will not be interrupted (no
  blackberrys, or cell phones).
• Take a Bible, pen and writing tablet.
• Read through the Book of Acts.
• Ask God to reveal Himself in the book.
• Write down impressions, thoughts and insights.
• Keep the following question in the front of your
  mind Father, what do you want me to do in this
  coming new year?
• Act on what He tells you!

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Some Closing thoughts about Christmas eve
services!
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Some Closing thoughts about Christmas eve
services!

• Address all people as participants in the
  worshiping community. Avoid talking to or
  printing notices that communicate in terms of
  "insiders" and "outsiders." We all are the
  recipients of God's welcome of strangers to the
  manger. Any hint that someone is perceived as an
  outsider is the same as saying, "No room in the
  inn!"
• Avoid asking people to identify themselves as
  visitors. For every three people who like that
  kind of attention, there are thirty who do not.
• Don't assume that anyone knows anything! Publish
  it. Project it. Find some way to tell everyone in
  words or print where to find it.
• Be sure to keep a balance with more familiar
  carols and hymns if you use new music or songs.
  There are many lovely anthems where the choir
  sings something new as the congregation sings
  something familiar.
• Encourage church members to show hospitality
  through attentiveness and warmth to those taking
  seats near them making sure each person has a
  hymnal, a service bulletin, enough room, or a
  friendly word of guidance about where to turn in
  the hymnal. Ushers and greeters are important,
  but what will make a lasting and loving
  impression is the demonstration of grace and
  caring by the people in the pews who share the
  journey.

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Some Closing thoughts about Christmas eve
services!

• Communicate clearly that people may take part as
  completely as they wish or that they may merely
  watch.
• Love all the people just because they are there
  for this time, this holy night. Forget about
  wondering and worrying about whether or not they
  will come back.
• Do leave breadcrumbs along the path so that if
  people want to come again, they know how and when
  to return. Bulletin notices or a special insert
  with worship times, how to contact the church
  office or pastors, and information about the
  church's distinguishing ministries welcomes
  participation and sends the right signals.

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Tips for busy pastors during the Christmas season!
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Rocking Around the Clock For Your Christmas Eve
Services Dont miss this Strategic Day for
Evangelism!

• By
• Dr. Tom Cheyney