From our archives a useful article as you do your Christmas planning:

Many churches consider the Christmas season a huge success if they have a large turn-out at Christmas events, but sadly, many of them remind me of the line from Macbeth where he describes life as "fully of sound and fury, signifying nothing." That may seem a bit harsh, but it is tragedy to celebrate the birth of the Savior without telling people about Him. Following is a true, but sad story about one such event  and how it could be different…..

Sad, but true story of a city-wide Christmas outreach

As in all the stories I tell on the Effective Church Communication website, this is a true story, but without details, location, people, or church mentioned. I also remind people who because I look at and am passed on stories about communications from churches literally from all around the world (one of our latest members and stories came from a Pastor leading a group of churches in the Australian bush), if you think the story is about you, it probably isn't.

Here is what happened: a church in a large city decided to host a Living Nativity for their community. They were given a large lot with a winding driveway leading up to it in a location near a busy shopping area. Because of generous donations by many members (it was a moderately large, well-off church) they put on an extravaganza. There was a huge turnout every night for the week it was held. And no wonder—they put on quite a show. They had live animals, a full size inn, angel choirs, and leading up the road, Roman soldiers and shepherds in the field. They had 3 shifts of actors in full costumes and make-up. They had cider and cookies for guests as they left.

What was the one thing they didn't have?

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