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Throughout the past 18 years, the Madison Park Church of God's annual production of "A Christmas Carol" has become a tradition in Anderson, Indiana. The musical anchors a set of holiday activities that continues to grow and introduce more people to the church and to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"This has been one of the most successful front door opportunities for us," says Kevin Majeski, Madison Park's director of communications. "Many folks, even years later, will say to us, 'The first time I came to the church was at the Christmas Carol event.'"

Many of the people who walk through that front door are unfamiliar, perhaps even ambivalent, about the real story of Jesus. Yet they still are attracted to the traditional sights and sounds of the season.

That's why the fast-approaching holiday season represents one of the single-best outreach opportunities for churches to communicate the Good News.

"The general non-church public is probably most open to attending church at Christmas because of the general cultural romance about the holiday," says Evan McBroom, creative director of Fishhook, an Indianapolis-based church communications consulting firm. "There is a general understanding of the nativity story and the Christmas story. There's a kind of nostalgic romance for it, even if you're not churched."

The challenge is to craft messages in a variety of ways that promote these events and activities—and make certain they're heard and seen by those inside and outside of your church walls.

Persuading people to experience your church, whether to participate in special holiday programming or to join community service projects, requires a strategic plan that involves communication to the congregation and the community, well in advance of the event. And it requires a harmonious use of both new technologies and traditional mass marketing techniques.

Every Christmas event publicity plan requires one essential step: mobilizing the congregation to invite their friends, neighbors, and co-workers.

"Make it the job of your foot soldiers to create the moment of invitation and follow through, all in the context of relationship," McBroom says. "If you do all the marketing stuff and don't support it with the personal commitment of people to connect with others, your chance of success is much less."

Put something in each person's hands that they can pass along. Such a piece is a key to the communication outreach used by Calvary Church of Naperville, Illinois. The church focuses on printing and distributing invitation pieces that resemble event tickets. One side of the ticket highlights a single event, while the other side lists the rest of the holiday activities.

"It really looks like a ticket. It has a professional look. We outsource the printing of these so it's high quality," says media pastor Christian Axelsen. "We try to use this to enable our congregation to evangelize and invite friends."

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