Our first service was at 7:00 p.m. Over the last twenty years we have made this a "family friendly service" We include drama, special music and always include a short homily. The hour long service moves right along and keeps even most of the young ones involved.
This year we brought the story to life by providing living snapshots of the characters in the Biblical story. As the scriptures were read, members of the congregation came forward in costume and were captured in photo like poses. Roy Bourque lent his lights and his talent to the project. On Tuesday he came down to the church and set up the light poles and spots. On Thursday night he put them to work.
The service began with the traditional lighting of the candles. About fifty years ago Gladys Johnson, the Flower Committee chair, had her husband Elmer make the poles and the candle holders which sit atop them. Each year since then we have lit the candles at the start of our Christmas Eve service. The candle lighters have varied over the years. There have been some nice traditions in this regard. For over twenty years Brent and Christ Weimer were among those called to do the job. Many other father-son teams have also had turns. This year Tim and Casey Rezendes did the honors along with Curt and Jeff Brockway. The Rezendes boys were back in town for the service and I thought it would be nice to call on them. Tim and his family live in Pennsylvania now. Casey lives in Maryland.
Two hundred and five people were in attendance as we began the service. The lights were dimmed and the men began lighting the candles and Lori Lord and Steve Contois offered a flute- guitar duet of the Christmas classic, "O Holy Night." After welcoming everyone and offering a call to worship, we sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel." Then four ladies came forward to light the candles of the advent wreath. Betsey Adams, Nancy Allen, Patricia Ohlund and Zelda Fellows read portions of the scriptures from Psalm 46, Isaiah 35, Philippians 5 and Luke 1.
Mary Brockway, Cliff Vanase and I served as narrators for the program and each of us took turns reading the scriptures as the program progressed. After an opening prayer, Mary Brockway, Adele DiBiagio and Cynthia Strouse sang "Child of Light" in three part harmony. These ladies have become a Christmas Eve tradition at First Baptist. I'll have to research how many years in a row they have sung. We call them our Christmas Triette!
The spotlight went up on Mary, played by Pam Kane, as the scripture concerning her encounter with the angel was read. The choir sang the anthem, "All is Well" and then the spotlight came up on Joseph as his story was read. Steve Contois played Joseph in our production this year. After singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" Joseph and Mary were together as we heard there was no room for them at the Inn.
As the spot light came up on the baby in the manger, Shawn Rucker sang "Sleep Little Baby." Then we were bedazzled by the angels. Helen Walker, Becky Lord and April Rezendes all bore angel wings for the snapshot. Hearing their song were Fred Green, Oliver Bray and Pete Adams who stood in as the shepherds. They were followed by the three wise men, Bob Walker, Curt Brockway and Mark Kane.
After the Magi shared their gifts, Patricia Ohlund sang "The Birthday of a King." Afterwards we all got into the act of giving by making our own offering. My message was titled, Unwrapping the Gift of Love" and I encouraged people to see Christmas for what it really was. It's not a nice story about a baby, shepherds, angels and wise men. It is a tale about the depth of God's love for us and what he was willing to do on our behalf. I encouraged everyone to unwrap this gift of love and carry it with them all year long.
We closed out the service by singing "Silent Night," accompanied by the Praise Team. As we sang we lit our candles and were told to share the light of God's love with everyone we met. With that, another Family service was in the books.
Here is a slide show with shots of the event.
We came back at 11:30 p.m. for our second service. This service is nice because it starts on Christmas eve and then breaks into the Christmas morn. We have been hosting this service just about every year since 1986. We usually get about 40 -50 people in attendance. This year we had 45 people on hand. We use a traditional service of scriptures and carols and it hasn't changed much over the years. We filter in one or two pieces of special music and add a short homily.
This year Rachel, Sarah and Lori Lord sang a beautiful trio. Lori and Steve Contois also gave us a reprise of their flute guitar duet of "O Holy Night." We finished up by lighting our candles and we were out the door and heading home on a beautiful Christmas morning at 12:15 a.m.
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