Come, and worship the Newborn King. What worship looks like for us has changed in some ways. For some of us that means staying at home and watching the services live-streamed. For some it means we feel disconnected from others as masks block seeing each other faces and as we try to keep a safe distance. For some it means that we are making decisions that we thought we would never have to make around Christmas as we try to keep the family together and healthy. COVID has added to the complexity of worship and of Christmas Eve. Yet, the reason and the purpose of Christmas Eve worship has not changed. It is still about coming together in praise of God who was willing to give us a real sign of love and grace. It is still about the awe of God entering into human form and being willing to live among us. Without Christmas there is no Easter and without Easter we are all still lost. We come together and worship the first Christmas miracle. That miracle still resonates in our soul today IF we take time to enter into the holy mystery that is Christmas Eve.
We have an amazing night of worship planned at Tom's Creek tonight. While our director of Music Ministries, Holly Phillips, can not be with us because she has both the flu and COVID, she has laid the groundwork for some amazing music. We have had to make some changes to our 5 and 7pm service because Holly was going to sing and the musicians in a song she wrote for Christmas. We reached out to Chris Botker who will join us and try to help fill the hole we have with Holly not being able to be with us. She will be joining 2 other amazing voices and an amazing group of musicians at the 5 and 7pm services. Joe Coleman stepped up a month ago to offer to help add special music to our 11pm communion service. The 11pm service will be filled with songs that we sing along with and the special music Joe Coleman is going to bless us with. The bulletins for the services are attached.
We know people and families are at different places in their COVID journey and how they are able to worship. For those that can not wear masks we invite you to join us at 5pm and/or 11pm. While we strongly encourage masking we know that we will have enough space in the sanctuary for people to maintain a good amount of distance between families and people that join us. The 7pm service is a mask required service because it is normally more full and there are people who desire a service where all are masked. The 5pm and 7pm services will be exactly the same. The only ones that will not be wearing masks are those on the altar when they are leading a song or talking. Yet, there will be a good 12-18ft between those on the altar and those in the pews. In addition, a negative COVID test has been received this week by most of the people that will be leading singing/talking. For those that cannot be with us in the sanctuary we will be live-streaming the 7pm service on both our YouTube channel and Facebook page. For those that join us via livestream you might want have a candle to light or have it light during the whole service and lift it us as we join together in Silent Night.
Let us come together and worship. Let us bring others with us, let us reach out and share the link to join us while we livestream, let invite the strangers that we meet, and let us decide that nothing is more important that time in worship. Without coming together to worship God and the Christ Child, everything else we do is essentially meaningless. It is the truth and miracle of the Christ Child that gives us hope, and gives true meaning and purpose to our lives and all we do.
Christmas blessings,
PH
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