A lot of people are more open to attending church around Christmas and Easter. This is important especially for those who don’t consider themselves Christ followers. This is why churches need to be deliberate in their planning for this and similar seasons. Without further ado, here are tips to get your church ready for the Christmas season.
PS: I’m going to make some assumptions based on my experience. That’s OK; you find what applies to your church or think about how the same is like in your scenario.
Capacity
Christmas and Easter tend to have more people show up at church. This means that you should prepare to have more people in your space.
Besides that it’s good for the environment and connecting with others, ask the regulars to carpool. This will free up some parking.
Do you have enough chairs? Will you need to prepare an overflow area with a live video and audio feed? Do you have the gear and resources needed?
On The Internets and Information
It is annoying not to find information you need on a church’s website or social media. Another thing churches also overlook is conflicting details. For instance where things like addresses / location / service are different. Make sure all your online platforms have accurate information.
Some of the information you might want to include is:
- Service times
- Location
- What to expect when people come to your church. Some churches include “Plan a visit” on their websites.
Check that all your information is correct.
Hospitality
Another way to get your church ready for Christmas is hospitality. I’m a fan of radical hospitality all year round. Guests must not experience have a drastically different experience when they come after our “big Sundays”.
In this case, make sure you have enough people to scale the same great hospitality you give every Sunday. Are there enough people to serve guests?
Here are more thoughts on hospitality to check out.
Signage and Guest Cards
Clear signage in both visibility and instruction is an overlooked team member. Make your building as easy to navigate as possible.
Have you thought about guest cards? Is the information there accurate and clear? Do you have enough?
The Next
Make sure you’ve made provision for nexts. Have you planned for people who might want to explore the Christian faith further? Do they sign up for Alpha? Do they know who to contact and how?
Teaching
Get your church to focus on the gravity of Jesus coming to earth. I know, Christmas isn’t actually Jesus’ birthday.
Do a series of daily reflections, which could include social media / blog posts. You could even use these 25 verses for creating content / reflections. Why not?
Consider doing a series related to God reaching out to humanity and making it personal. Why not?
Prayer
Praying is something that must never be left out. It helps us keep perspective and a sense of awe and appreciation of the work of the Holy Spirit. Prayer keeps us from believing and acting like people coming to faith all depends on us. Encourage the congregation to pray especially for guests.
Rehearse
Christmas services sometimes feature cues that aren’t part of the “usual” routines. Hence focused rehearsals. It’s one thing to discuss or say what we’ll do, it’s another to actually do it. It’s a great idea to even have full dress rehearsals so that everyone has experiential knowledge of what they ought to do.
Jeremy and Phil suggest testing some of the aspects in services prior Christmas services. Great advice.
In The End
Most of these things we should be doing all the time. Christmas and Easter should mean we make provision to accommodate and serve more people. We don’t prepare because it is Christmas per se. There are other way to prepare your church for Christmas and a checklist can be helpful.
Here’s a simple Christmas Checklist to get you started. Otherwise, do you have any other ideas for preparing for the Christmas season?
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