On Sunday 17th December we held our annual Carol Service. We had several visitors brought by members of the church. We have also had some feedback from the 1500 Beacons we distributed in the weeks prior to the service. Though some regulars did not turn up numbers were good. Those who made the effort to be in the house of the Lord recieved a blessing.
For a variety of reasons we did not have any children invovled, which, for some reason, are normally a large part of this type of service. Many people expect children to be invovled and so I had concerns about the impact of the service. As much as we baptist like to disassociate ourselves from tradition, when we look closely, it is there. Tradition is not always a bad thing, but it has great potential to hinder the work of God in our lives and ministry.
A major focus of the evening was the message in song. Throughout the evening we had plenty of opportunities for everyone to sing the old carols!
One of the young couples in the church sang "The Greatest Gift" for us. It is a modern carol with a powerful message concerning Christ as the Greatest Gift. Later Matt Parrow, a missionary friend in the area, sang "O Holy Night". This old carol has become something of a classic because of its beautiful message and music. It is a hard song to sing but Matt did a great job of conveying its message.
John Silverson read several passages of Scripture for us and shared a few truths that God had given him.
I closed out the evening with a message focusing on looking beyond the familiarity of the nativity scene and understanding the lessons to be learned from each character represented.
Please pray that the lost who were with us would consider the message of salvation and recieve Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
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