Candlelight Christmas Eve - Preparation

My office at the church is just down the hall from the office work room. Every Thursday afternoon I hear the thump-thump-thump of the risograph machine churning out Sermon Notes and Study Guides and Prayer Guides for the bulletin. This week, however, production has started for Candlelight Christmas Eve bulletins and will continue through tomorrow.

19,100 bulletins are being produced for the weekend. If predictions are accurate for attendance 1 in every 100 people in the Kansas City metro area will attend a Christmas Eve service here at Resurrection. It is things like this that remind me there are many distinct things about this place - God is at work.

Regardless of numbers in a particular congregation, Christmas Eve is one of the greatest opportunities to reach unchurched people with the good news of Jesus Christ. My prayers are that people will hear again or for the first time the story of the birth of Jesus and recognize that this story is for them. This is also my prayer for myself.

John Henry Faulk's Christmas Story

While home for Thanksgiving, John Henry Faulk’s Christmas Story was shared with my family. I want to share this beautiful Christmas story with you. This narrative touches on some of the themes of the gospel: concern for the poor, equality of all races, and making room for all at the table. From the beginning of the audio file:

In 1974, the NPR program Voices in the Wind first broadcast “The Christmas Story” written and read by John Henry Faulk. Faulk died in 1990. In 1994, we pulled the tape from our archives and put it on the air at Christmas. You loved his story and his reading of it so much that it has become an annual tradition on our show. So it is our pleasure to continue that tradition today.

I hope that listening to this narrative will become a tradition for me each Christmas. You can find the audio file and more information here. Enjoy.