Will this year’s Christmas plans reach people in the community or simply be for the members of your congregation?  Imagine… your church is planning an upcoming Christmas Eve Service. Instead of hosting the one usual candlelight service at 5 pm, a special Christmas Celebration is added for mid-day to invite the community kids. In other words, this year the focus of Christmas is not just on the members who come every year but the doors are open to new families with children in the area who live at local apartments too.

Planning a Christmas service that focuses more outward to the community can be one way to be even more faithful to the Great Commission. Intentionally reaching out with invitations to people who may not have a church home can be a great way to re-discover Christmas even for members.

Too often our annual holiday events go on auto pilot. We do what we’ve always done.  Instead of thinking about reaching outward, we place announcements in the bulletin, fliers in the narthex/entrance and share the invitation during Sunday morning announcements. In other words, we do Christmas like it belongs to members only. Why not plan Christmas for the community this year?

Holiday events offer a significant opportunity to reach beyond the walls of the church. Inviting young families with children may open a new door for someone in your community. As you plan to reach out this holiday, I urge you to take the time to prayerfully consider ways you can add to your holiday plans and reach out and welcome those who are yet to come.

Identify new ways to invite the community to your holiday event and then invite them back. Be sure to place press announcements on media community calendars, fliers at local apartments and email invitations to everyone in your members’ friend list. But do not stop there.  When guests arrive for your Christmas event, be ready with the next invitation. Invite them back to:

• The New Year’s Eve Service
• A Sermon Series planned for January 2010
• The Upcoming Bible Study
• Special Events Planned for Children & Youth
• A Sunday worship service

Now I must ask you: Will Christmas at your church be yours or theirs this holiday?

Lynette Hawkins is a communications specialist and coach with Awesome Insight of Beyond Marketing Group, Inc. based in Greensboro, N.C. She offers a free monthly e-newsletter for church leaders that reaches more than 1,000 Christian leaders and recently introduced, Make Room to Welcome, an interactive training DVD for members, ushers and greeters. Sign up for her free newsletter at www.awesomeinsight.com or e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it