Over 700 Volunteers Poised for Christmas Eve Services

We have guests coming tonight through Christmas Eve — upwards to 20,000 depending on the weather.  It is so exciting to see folks come together to pull this off.  The above gifts represent a huge commitment taken on by numerous volunteers and staff to wrapping all these little presents .  We wrapped some 20,000 of them to be handed out as people arrive and used as an illustration during the sermon.  It is going to be wonderful.

And I am so grateful for the over 700 volunteers who will greet, make coffee, direct traffic, usher people around, sing, hang out with Children, rock babies….  They are awesome!!!

Yes, we have guest coming and we want them to feel comfortable and welcome as they hear and experience the love of God wrapped in this baby who became the Saviour of the world.

Christmas Eve at Hope Revisited

It was a magical night at Hope. Jack, who did an awesome job with all the creative printed materials during Christmas, took some pictures during some of the services. I had to share them!

The lighting in the new space is awesome. Jay set this system up over many a sleepless night.

Becky Russell has blessed us with her presence many times over the years. She is a legend in Memphis for her powerful voice and her band Reba Russell and the Portables and her present group – Reba Russell Band. She has U2’s “Rattle and Hum” as one of her album credits and has opened for the likes of B. B. King, The Four Tops, Tracy Nelson and Leon Russell. One reviewer said a few years ago, “Though she can belt it out down and dirty, she also can sand off the rough edges and purr.” She certainly brought her “A-Game” to Hope, and her smokey voice was just starting to warm up when we reached the 9th service!

Yes, we had dancers!!!

Craig did a great job preaching with the same passion and power for all of the 9 services.

Pat Register, the essence of cool! He can play and he can really sing. Pat sang and played at our wedding in 2004 —- Our first dance, he sang for us “The Way You Look Tonight”. Ahh, wonderful memories!!!!

The candlelighting in the new space was breathtaking.

Here are a few words from some of the over 2000 comment cards we received:

It’s a family tradition to come for Hope’s Christmas eve service. Always a highlight of our year. Thanks.Great singing, great, friendly people, great sanctuary, a very awesome place!God is an awesome God! What a wonderful sanctuary. The hospitality is always outstanding. Thank you for your outreach to us at Mississippi Blvd. Christian Church.Thank you for the warm welcome. Your program sounded inviting and I am happy I attended. I have never experienced a worship service of this magnitude.Didn’t think I’d like it—-boy, was I wrong! Good mix of music.It’s only by God’s grace that I am here today! Two years ago I was a drug dealer and addicted to meth. This church saved my life!

Yes, there were a few negative comments thrown in, but it was an overwhelmingly positive response.Next weekend —- THE GRAND OPENING!

Christmas Eve at Hope – WOW!

Just finished our 9th Christmas Eve Service at Hope Church and what a wonderful last few days it was. I just heard that we had 18,000 people come through our doors!!!

Having the chance to share Christ with all those folks in our new sanctuary was just amazing. Everyone from Craig preaching all services to Bruce leading the worship to the hundreds of volunteers really made all these services work. I am worn out but joyful over this season and for the opportunity to minister at this incredible place.

A Very Merry Christmas

What a special Christmas present I received last week. This picture of this cute girl being baptized. What is the significance? It is Maria!!! We sponsor Maria through a “Compassion International” type program in Ecuador. Talking about a thrill —- The tears of joy started welling up in my eyes when I downloaded this pic. To see our little girl making her profession of faith in Jesus Christ was awesome.

Over the last few years THE highlight for me has been seeing Maria and the other children that we sponsor when we lead a team to Ecuador during the summer. Let me encourage you to consider sponsorship if you do not already do it. It is a way to correspond with a child from another culture and really make a lasting impact. If you are able to go and visit your child, all the better, but even if you cannot do that, you can be involved in touching a young life with compassion and Christ. Our sponsorship is through Amor y Esperanza Foundatio in Ecuador. Hope also recommends Compassion International.

Oh, and to make it even richer, the next picture I downloaded was this one — Maria and her Mom. God also worked in the heart of Maria’s Mom so that she also professed her faith in Christ.

FedEx Delivers Christmas

Thanks to one of our dear friends , Lisa, who works for FedEx, Laurie’s Multi-National Ministry kids will have a very fun Christmas.  Laurie received a check for $2100 from this Memphis based company.  FedEx made this check out  to Target so she could go and buy Christmas presents for the refuge and immigrant children with whom she works. 

I had the wonderful privilege of going with her to purchase the gifts.  What a blast it was!!!!  As you can see, we filled up three shopping carts full of presents, and we did not even spend the whole wad!!  Target was gracious enough to put the balance on a gift card so that we can strategize and then come back tomorrow to finish our gift buying. 

I could not believe all the toy choices.  I was completely out of touch with all the options out there and somewhat overwhelmed.  We had fun, but we found ourselves being very self conscious of what it looked like for us to be stuffing carts with all these toys.  While standing in line with our overflowing carts, I heard someone say, “Their kids must have been very good this year.”  Well, they have.  Laurie has had a great year with these Children, but life is usually pretty lean for these families.  They struggle to pay the bills much less give many gifts at this holiday season. 

For more about Multi-National Ministries click here. 

Giving Christmas Away

Christmas will be here before you know it. Our communications folks at Hope have been in “Christmas Mode” since the middle of Summer. The Christmas Eve services are a huge outreach for us, and it is even bigger since we will have these services in our new sanctuary. What a blast that will be!! I’ll write more about that as the time gets closer.

What brought Christmas to mind was a post I saw at a cool site called The Work of the People – Films for Sacred Spaces. Here is what I read about a movement called Advent Conspiracy:

“Advent Conspiracy is an international movement restoring the scandal of Christmas by substituting compassion for consumption. Christ tends to get overlooked at Christmas. Let’s be honest. December comes and you think, “Ok, this is the year.” This time you’ll swear you’ll slow down and take it all in. Make the most with family. Help the needy. Zero in on what it really means to be a Christ follower during this holy season. What if you could inspire your church, your family and yourself to avoid being consumed by commercialism this Christmas?”

What a great concept. Look at the video below and contemplate your Christmas this year.

Check out their web site —- Advent Conspiracy