I love the idea of Christmas and always get sucked into buying a Christmas magazine in October and making lots of lists at the same time. By November I totally can’t wait but once December arrives, and the work has to start in earnest, I just don’t feel up to the job.
This year hubB has been home from work ill, the weather has been wet and cold, any number of excuses have been found and my procastination has known no bounds. Most of my lists are not only uncompleted but lost to boot!
With only a week to go we decided to join friends at a Christmas church celebration. Now I’m not at all religious and having attended another friends baptism only last month I’ve already been more this year than I usually look to.
My friend was attending the 9.15 service and as the church in question is in our nearest city, it meant an early start. The weather was cold and frosty and at the last minute my friend texted to say her whole family were down with some horrible lurgy. We were on our own!
The first clue that the service was different came when we pulled off the main road to be met by traffic cones and attendants to control the traffic. This was no village church or small scale service, this had all the hallmarks of a full scale event.
The entrance was full of friendly smiling people greeting us with Christmas cheer. The quantity of people wouldn’t have looked out of place at a concert.
The hall was no less than an auditorium and it was full by the time the service started.
Miss C was very taken by the jokes on the main screen. HubB was impressed by the full choir and live band. The mixing booth with spot lights, countdown and full crew impressed me.
We sang our hearts out, as did everyone else there. We clapped and cheered. The sermon was more a sales pitch for Jesus than a Bible reading. The live entertainment and screen production may have been members of the congregation but they could easily have been professionals. It was like no other church service I’ve ever been to.
I may not be taking up nightly Bible reading anytime soon but I certainly feel much more christmassy and excited for the whole season now.
I’m so in the Christmas spirit I used some of my mincemeat to make a few mince pies. 6 dozen to be correct. I’m Christmas ready!
acquest13 