Dear Church,
Today’s note will be a sort of “State of the Church” address as we close out the year, reflect on the Christmas play, and look forward to next year. Last Sunday night we celebrated what God did with the Christmas play. What a special service that was! Beyond the most obvious fruit of all the guests who attended, there were some other benefits that, as a pastor, did my heart good to see US develop in. Hosting is not only good for the guests, but it’s good for you, too, and I appreciated how we could come together last Sunday and thank the Lord for each other. There were plenty of details I had no idea about until the testimonies, but you saw each others’ work and shared that with others.
It was our fourth year to host A Christian Christmas Carol, and after four years, I could see some wonderful areas of growth.
EXCELLENCE. I received more comments than ever before on the quality of the production. Many guests who have attended before said that it was so smooth this year, and some people said it was among the best plays they had ever seen. Either they haven’t seen many plays or you did a great job! Either way, I’m thankful that people went away with a good impression and not, “Eh, it was just a typical church play.” God is always worthy of our best, and I hate when things are just slapped together and called “good enough” in the service of our King. “Seek that ye may EXCEL to the edifying of the church.” 1 Cor. 14:12
SERVICE. I appreciated the great amounts of time that our servants put into the play. Work days, preparations, rehearsals, setup… it was a heavy workload and all for such a good cause. Thank you for serving so faithfully. I pray we can go into every event with such a high percentage of involvement.
GOOD SPIRIT. Not only did you serve, but you served with a smile. That says so much. As the Queen of Sheba told Solomon: “Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.” 1 Kings 10:8 My wife NEVER ONCE felt pushback from anyone who was asked to serve. It was always, “Of course, I’ll be there. I’ll take care of that.” In fact, she had people asking how they could serve. What a great spirit of joy in serving the Lord.
OWNERSHIP. One area I have always appreciated about our church is that every ministry is fueled by service, not by staff. We hire for some of the ministries, but most of the weekly work that happens around here is because you have a heart to serve the Lord. I love that. It’s nota mindset of: “someone else will take care of it. That’s what they’re paid to do.” No. If you are in charge of an area, you find a way to get it done. Teachers, ministry leaders, and servants of all kinds “find the need and take the lead,” as the saying goes. I loved that during the Christmas play, we had people figuring out what to do to make their area the BEST that they could make it. No job was small—it was ALL important, and I love that mentality. It’s biblical and right.
FLEXIBLE. I was thankful to see so many people included, and a flexibility to adapt to whatever came up. New people could jump right in, and if there was a gap or a problem, people just figured it out. We stayed flexible without getting all stressed out, and that itself is a great quality to develop.
PEOPLE. Finally, I was thankful that so many PEOPLE were highlighted in our celebration service. Not every person was mentioned, and that’s not the point of these services. Just because we can’t mention everyone, that shouldn’t be a reason to mention no one. We have to be able to trust the charitable intentions of the people around us to believe that no one is intentionally leaving someone out by not mentioning their role. But if someone does get offended that “no one mentioned me,” we can’t just have a knee-jerk reaction and cut out all celebration services just so no one gets offended. No, we will choose to “Rejoice with them that do rejoice,” and if “one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” 1 Corinthians 12:26
So with that, great work. Let’s apply that same level of service, joy, and excellence to every ministry going forward in 2025. God bless you and Merry Christmas.
-Pastor Ryan