Special services give guests reason to return.
We have two aims as we plan our holiday services: (1) give visitors a high-touch worship experience that will help them celebrate the season and make them want to come back to church after January 1; and (2) make the events much like our regular weekend services so visitors will have an accurate feel for our church. We don’t want them to be shocked by an “ordinary” Sunday on a later visit.
During the holidays, we maintain our order of service, with worship and preaching and liturgy. But we also want our visitors to experience the sense of community and involvement that comes from year-round participation in the body. So we include opportunities for visitors to be blessed by being involved.
Our high-touch services start at Thanksgiving. We invite people to bring to the front of the sanctuary cards listing their blessings for the previous year. A prayer team collects the cards and offers prayers of praise and thanks during the following weeks.
On Christmas Eve, the highlight of our six services are the two “Blessing of the Family” services. Pairs of trained prayer leaders stand at points around the sanctuary, and we invite family groups to go to a prayer station, one family at a time, to be blessed in prayer. The families may share requests, then the leaders pray specifically that Jesus will make himself known in the family this season and bring harmony to their time together.
Many people leave in tears of joy and wonder.
And many times, they come back.
Carolyn Kranz, director of celebration artsHosanna! Lutheran Church,Lakeville, Minnesota
Thanksgiving prayer vigil draws families.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we ask people to come to the church to pray. We provide a printed prayer guide, requests from cards we’ve collected the weeks before, and a page from the church directory. Everyone in the church is prayed for by name. Pray-ers are encouraged to stay half an hour.
We see lots of parents and children coming together to express their gratitude for God’s blessing. For many, the vigil is an introduction to a deeper prayer life.
Leslie Oliver, prayer directorUnited Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas
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