One of the common pitfalls creative and modern churches fall into around Christmastime is forgetting the power of tradition. It’s understandable; much of what we do in our churches is about pushing for new. But even those in our communities who are on board with the idea of new in the church still yearn for traditions at Christmastime.
So here’s an idea to help your church position itself creatively around traditions. Tap into your staff or volunteers and find out what their most beloved Christmas traditions are. This could be in the form of:
- Family Recipes
- Events or Christmas Moments
- Crafts and Decor Ideas
Find Christmas traditions?that are shareable and package them to share with your church. You could do this in numerous?ways.
- Create a recipe book to hand out.
- Have a short Christmas segment in each service leading up to Christmas.
- Create videos with how-to visuals for recipes or crafts.
- Shoot interview-style videos of staff and volunteers sharing these traditions.
- Include blurbs in the bulletin about the traditions.
- Create a mini-site with Christmas traditions.
- Make Pinterest-able infographics.
This is something you could easily position your whole Christmas creative planning around, opening it up to your congregation members to get more involved in it. Imagine the type of community that might emerge, connecting people with each other, by allowing people to share their Christmas traditions and discover others who do similar things.
You might even open it up to help break down cultural walls in your community. You could easily identify different cultures from outside of your country, between socio-economic backgrounds, and even from different parts of your city. You could celebrate the diversity of expressions that all, as different as they are, center around the celebration of God coming to earth to save all mankind.
Don’t forget about the power of tradition this Christmas. Embrace it and center your efforts around it. Help create a sense of community in your church and have fun with it.[quote]Don’t forget about the power of tradition this Christmas.[/quote]
How does your church help people share their Christmas traditions? What platforms or ideas have you developed to make this possible? Share in a comment below.
