The Ghosts of Christmas Eve Past!

I have so many great memories of the Christmas Eves from the churches I served over the years.  Today I look back at 8 of my favorite moments!

1)  The Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at New Garden Friends Meeting was always highlighted by Marilyn Burris singing O Holy Night.  The song still gives me chills because it always makes me think of her beautiful voice, and walking outside to porch of the Meetinghouse carrying our still lit candles into the crisp Carolina night.  Chills right now...
2)  At Springfield Friends Meeting I started a tradition of setting up "bag candles" on Christmas Eve to light the walk ways into the meetinghouse.  It was my gift to the people of Springfield each year.  The Christmas Eve service always felt like a big family gathering where you got one last chance to say "Merry Christmas" and remind people how much you cared about them.
3)  In our early years at Springfield we would leave after the candlelight service and drive to my grandparents home in Asheboro for dinner and a family Christmas party.  One year we arrived back in High Point late that night to find that thieves had tried to break into our home, but Max Rees had spotted them and called the police.  Our yard was full of flashing lights when we arrived, and it was all kind of scary.  It made us very thankful for good friends and good neighbors.
4)  I don't remember how it got started, but one of the traditions at Springfield was my wife Marilyn and Karen Chester singing the Amy Grant song Heirlooms each year.  Their voices blended so beautifully, and the words are so stirring- "My precious Jesus is more than an heirloom to me."
5)  Once I arrived at First United Methodist Church-Kissimmee I discovered that Christmas Eve was as much of a marathon as it was a celebration!  We would start in the late afternoon and do four services, ending around midnight.  The services were often all different, and they were most always very crowded.  To celebrate with so many people was a real joy, and staff members like Pastor John Willis and Andrew Lewis kept it all quite festive and creative.  Other staff members (and church members) would bring food for us, so we would have small meals in the conference room after every service.  Then I would go home at midnight and eat my share of our family's traditional Christmas Eve hot dogs!
6)  While technically not a Christmas Eve event, another tradition that began while we were in Kissimmee was attending the EPCOT Christmas Candlelight Processional.  For the uninitiated, this event runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas with three "shows" each evening.  A 400 voice choir, a full orchestra and a celebrity narrator (Marilyn and Will saw Neil Patrick Harris just last weekend) who reads directly from scripture tell the story of the birth of Jesus in a most inspiring way.  It is an overtly Christian celebration at Walt Disney World!  Who knew?
7)  We had multiple service as Wesley Memorial UMC-Tampa as well, but the year I remember most was the year it rained so much parts of the building and the entire parking lot was flooded- yet the people still came!  It reminded me that those of us who follow Jesus make such small sacrifices compared to the sacrifice Jesus would make for us.
8)  My favorite Candlelight service I was ever a part of was the year in Kissimmee when we had a master plan for the family service that worked like a charm.  To copy Andrew's brilliant idea, check out my vintage post, One More Sleep 'Til Christmas.  


My prayer is that each of you will encounter Jesus is some new way during this Christmas season.

My Deliverer is Coming...