Christmas Outreaches

Every year it is exciting to hear about the guest services put on by different churches at Christmas. From Carol Services to puppet musicals to gift wrapping on the streets, churches around the country shared the gospel this Christmas. Below are some stories from various churches around the UK.

J John in Camberley

The Beacon Church, Camberley invited the well-known evangelist J.John to speak at their Carol Concert in December. Select here to read more. They also chose the largest venue they could find - The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Churchill Hall. 930 people attended the evening with 16 responding to the gospel for the first time and 18 recommitments to Christ.

Mark Landreth-Smith, who leads the church, said of the event:
It was a brilliant evening. J.John was funny and powerful. It was great to invite other Christians in the town to bring their friends and to see the response at the end made it so worthwhile.

Xmas Factor: the Musical!

This year’s Christmas presentation from The City Church Canterbury took the form of a 30 puppet musical in which Simon Cow hosted the Nazareth heat of the Xmas Factor to search for the promised star to top all stars.

Many animals attempted to show their star quality but were all found wanting. Who’d have thought the true star was the new born baby who happened to be in that stable?!

Taking a new direction for the church’s Christmas programme, Xmas Factor: the Musical was a one hour performance aimed at 5-11 yr olds. The promise that the true star would be a wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting Father and prince of peace was explained throughout to contrast with Simon Cow’s despair at a failing search to find a new celebrity that would fit the criteria.

Holiday periods are usually a quiet time for a city with such a large student population and yet they saw the church’s largest attendance of the year with an audience of 400 people, three quarters of whom were visitors to the church! A clear example of fruit of the church’s growing influence through friendships, outreaches and children’s work.

Mosaic Church Christmas Wrapping

Following a successful free Christmas present wrapping event in the city centre, Mosaic Church hosted a contemporary carol service that attracted many friends and visitors.

One guest later said she had been trying to find a carol service for a work colleague on the web and her computer had frozen on the Mosaic church website. She decided to come to the service but changed her mind on Sunday morning.

Instead she flicked through the TV channels and ended up watching Nicky Gumbel speak on an Alpha course. She then decided to come to the afternoon service but after waiting an hour for a bus she was ready to give up. She phoned a Christian friend who prayed with her for a bus. One turned up immediately and took her to the church venue in the city centre. At the end of the service she gave her life to Jesus! Praise God!

The Crown Church, Hillingdon

The church’s traditional carol service was attended by the Local Mayor & Mayoress, the Deputy Mayor, and two local MPs, as well as over 300 people. Select here to read more. During the service they took an offering which raised money for their second carol service at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre. They took a team of 10 into the detention centre to put on a carol service for the detainees. With the money raised from their traditional carol service they bought a £5 international phone card for each of the inmates so that they could contact relatives in their home countries over Christmas.

They also put on an event at Slough Ice Arena, and took just under 500 people ice skating free of charge.

In total over 1000 attend the Christmas events, including 500 ice skating, 300 at the carol service and 225 at a family service.