Prayer anchors Dec. 24 outreach effort

Southwest Texas UMs to invite
unchurched to candlelight services

By Rachel L. Toalson
Staff Writer
Nothing happens at Grace UMC, Corpus Christi, without prayer.
The congregation’s involvement this month in the Home for Christmas outreach campaign is built on prayer.
“Both our pastors believe heavily in the power of prayer,” said Kay Plummer, Home for Christmas campaign organizer for the 968-member Corpus Christi congregation. “Prayer is an important part of Grace. We say that every Sunday. We felt like we couldn’t do this (campaign) without a day of prayer.”
Grace kicked off its Home for Christmas effort Dec. 4 with a day of prayer. The sanctuary was open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and members signed up to pray in 30-minute increments, Plummer said. The remaining 12 hours of prayer was done by people at home or work.
The Home for Christmas campaign is an eight-week outreach effort across the Southwest Texas Conference. The effort promotes Dec. 24 candlelight services as special events to which church members may invite unchurched friends and neighbors.
The campaign follows a step-by-step plan of prayer, invitation and follow-up. Promotional tools, such as yard signs, news releases and advertising, support the invitation effort.
In Corpus Christi the 10 Southwest Texas Conference congregations are using radio, television and newspaper ads to promote Christmas Eve candlelight services. Individual congregations are using other direct-contact methods—mailings, invitation cards and door hangers—to invite people to worship Dec. 24.
At Grace, Plummer said, leaders asked members to provide names and addresses of three people who were not active churchgoers. The church then mailed invitation letters to those people with information about the Christmas Eve services.
Grace leaders have also asked members to invite the people whose names they provided to church personally, Plummer said.
“We figure if you ask somebody twice, they’re more apt to come,” Plummer said.
The week before Christmas, Plum-mer said, the Grace volunteers plan to put door hangers on homes near the church.
With all the publicity, Plummer said leaders are hoping to reach the unchurched.
“This is what we’re about,” she said. “We’re making disciples by offering Christ to all. We’re hoping that (visitors) will hear this message—and maybe it will be for the first time.”
First UMC, Lockhart, began its Home for Christmas campaign with a hanging of the greens Dec. 2, said the Rev. Robert Hahn, pastor of the 650-member congregation. A tala-malada dinner—a meal of tamales and chili—followed the event.
Two candlelight services are planned for Dec. 24 at 7 and 10 p.m., Hahn said. Last year the church saw about 400 people—up from an average weekly attendance of about 200.
The many visitors give church members a great opportunity, he said.
“Our hopes are to really get in touch with members of the community who don’t normally come here,” Hahn said. “We hope to create an interest for them, to get acquainted with them, and, through that process, evangelize.”
Hahn said a television commercial promoting the Christmas Eve services is to begin running Saturday on the local cable system.
Leaders at Coker UMC, San Antonio, also recorded a TV commercial and are using the church Web site to allow members to send e-mail invitations to their friends and families.
“We hope that many people will come,” said the Rev. Sharon Stewart, associate pastor of the 2,862-member congregation. “Not just the folks we know, but the folks who are looking for a place to be for Christmas time.”

Radio, TV, newspaper ads promote Dec. 24 services

The church has scheduled Christmas Eve services at 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Leaders have also planned a service called “The Longest Night” Dec. 22 for those “who are feeling down at Christmas,” Stewart said. The service is to include a labyrinth.
Coker typically draws big crowds for the candlelight services, Stewart said.
“There are just a lot of people who are willing to be a part of worship at this time of year,” she said.
The Rev. Cathe Evins, associate pastor at First UMC, McAllen, said her congregation is using bits and pieces of the Home for Christmas campaign the best way it can.
“Home for Christmas is more directed to just the Christmas Eve service,” she said. “But we want to invite the community for the whole month of Christmas so they feel like they’re a part of our church.”
Leaders have distributed a bulletin insert to members, Evins said. It lists December events.
Evins said she has asked members to “pause for a moment of silent prayer to think about someone outside the church who they could give it to.”
First UMC printed 2,000 door hangers showing all December events, Evins said. They were distributed in various neighborhoods the week of Thanksgiving.
And for the first time ever, Evins said, the 1,429-member congregation is having a Blue Christmas service. It is directed at people who have lost a loved one, are lonely, are suffering from an illness, have gotten divorced or have experienced other life-changing events that make it difficult for them to celebrate the season.
The local newspaper is to print an article about it, she added.
In Lytle, United Methodist worshipers are to receive postcards Sunday listing Christmas Eve service times. Church members are to be asked to use those postcards as invitation tools.
Carolers from St. John’s UMC, Corpus Christi, sang in neighborhoods near the church Dec. 9. The 613-member congregation sponsored Breakfast with Santa Dec. 1, and a Christmas pageant with free community dinner Dec. 2.
St. John’s is advertising its 5:30, 7 and 11 p.m. Christmas Eve services in the local newspaper and on radio and television stations. In addition the church has sent direct-mail postcards to nonmembers and put up a banner outside the building.
St. Peter’s by the Sea UMC, Corpus Christi, is using door hangers and ads in the local newspaper to publicize its 11 p.m. Christmas Eve service. The 77-member congregation has mailed personal invitations to addresses provided by people in the church. Leaders are encouraging members to invite the people whose addresses they provided.
Members of Asbury UMC, Corpus Christi, distributed information about Christmas Eve services and a January sermon series door to door Dec. 8 in neighborhoods near the church.
Now in its seventh year, Home for Christmas is the third of three conferencewide outreach campaigns. The effort coincides with the national Igniting Ministry campaign to promote awareness of the denomination as a faith community with open hearts, open minds and open doors.
Home for Christmas plans are detailed in a 146-page Igniting Ministry Campaign Workbook for the Southwest Texas Conference. The Communications and Public Witness Office prepared that book in 2002.
Home for Christmas is one way the Southwest Texas Conference tries to empower ministries in local congregations so they can offer Christ to all.