We like celebrating birthdays at church, and since Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’s birthday, we were happy to give out party bags to everyone who attended last night’s carol service. The bags contained a cracker, a bow for presents, a straw, a Christmas card and an answer sheet and pencil, along with a chocolate.

Someone had fun with the bows!

We also had a variety of prizes for all the games, just like at any birthday party! (Most were chocolates, in keeping with the theme of the Nativity play, but there was also a star candle and some star-shaped baubles to win.)

Here are some more jumper photos (or T-shirts or ties…)

Rapt attention on the jumper catwalk:

Mark welcomes Linda from the Great Houghton Methodist Church to the service:

After the service, we enjoyed mince pies and other refreshments, though not everyone was pleased to see Stacey with her camera!

Some people, however, couldn’t get enough of posing for photos!

The pudding and the reindeer:

A few special mentions and thanks must also be made. Special mentions go to Pat whose amazing singing hat kept us all amused; to Diane for her ease and style on the catwalk (an alternative career in modelling is clearly beckoning!); and to Garry, whose sheer stubbornness in sewing 200 LED Christmas lights (not to mention a dozen baubles) on to an old jumper defeated his thrift in refusing to buy a new jumper.

Thanks go to Gemma who wrote the majority of the Nativity play and whose creative energy fuelled the party bags and celebratory theme; to Stephen B., whose idea for the Christmas jumper competition added a lot of fun to proceedings; to Stephen T. for singing while dressed as a Christmas pudding (surely a first for that song!); to Stacey, for her willingness to be the church photographer and to all who participated in the Nativity play and music. Thanks too to everyone who attended and whose spontaneity and willingness to have fun made the evening so very special.

The Michael Card song ‘We Will Find Him’ looks at the search for Jesus by the wise men. I love his ability to capture truth in lyrics, often using paradox (‘a wordless one who is the word’, ‘in the silence of the stable there was wisdom finally heard’) and contrasting the lowliness of the stable with the the authority and splendour of Christ’s ultimate reign.

‘On a day like any other
In our search to find the truth
We turned so many musty pages
In our hope to find some clue
Then the words leapt from the parchment
From Jacob shines a star
That a wordless one who is the word
Will be worth a journey far

We have found Him
We have found Him
We have seen the true Light
What was darkness
What was shadow
In His presence is delight
This One born so lowly the heavens declare
Will someday reign without a rival there.’ (‘We Will Find Him’, Michael Card)
‘We Will Find Him’, Michael Card

The retailer Marks and Spencer have run a Christmas advertisement starting with the phrase ‘Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without…’ Last night, Stephen explored this theme:

Some people might end this sentence by supplying a variety of foods (… mince pies…. sprouts); others might end it with other items (… a jumper from Granny, presents.) More worryingly, some people could only, in all honesty, answer the phrase with indications of stress and anxiety (… endless rows… ongoing debt…) The advert suggested that what makes Christmas is what you put into it, but there was no mention of God anywhere.

Christmas is often abbreviated to ‘Xmas’ and some people think there is some kind of ‘X factor’ which makes Christmas special. The ‘X factor’ is not unknown, however, for the Bible tells us that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son so that we can be saved. (John 3:16 TNIV) God has given us the most amazing gift of all, His Son and our Saviour. (Luke 2:11 TNIV)

What is Christmas to you? What do you celebrate? All the things Marks and Spencer deem important might be included in your Christmas, but don’t forget that it’s all about Christ and all that God has done for each one of us. It’s good news indeed!

We did a Christmas Nativity full of chocolate references, with people gaining prizes for naming the most number of chocolates. One winner left before she could claim her prize, so Samantha Linskey needs to contact us to claim her prize for identifying the most chocolates named in the nativity! Other prize winners were the ‘A’ team:

Karen collecting the team’s prize:

Jeannette winning a prize:

At various points in the service, games were played, such as pinning the star on the Christmas tree (whilst blindfolded!):

Everyone had goody bags and Debbie drew the short straw!

… whilst this person won the lucky numbered bow:

Stephen sang the Michael Card song ‘We Will Find Him’:

… whilst these wise men were definitely looking for the star:

Tonight’s carol service started with a Christmas jumper competition. Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun by dressing up in Christmas attire:

A stylish pastor with front and rear views:

An equally stylish Garry:

These are costume-coordinated:

We had some great family shots:

People were very creative:

These were our celebrated winners:

Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning in Genesis 37, looking at how Joseph continued to hold on to the dream even in a strange place. The ‘worst day of his life’ was when he was sold into slavery by his own brothers, but actually, as we saw last time, this was the start of the fulfilment of his dream – not that it must have looked like that to Joseph. Instead, he was in that strange in-between place between the old and the new, having left the security of home but not yet seeing the fulfilment of his dream, for at this point in his life, he was actually the slave having to bow down to others.

Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh; at this stage in his life, he was just a commodity to other people. How could this be part of God’s plan? Yet Joseph, although in a strange and scary place, was actually in the right place at the right time. Sometimes we go through strange times and places before we can see the fulfilment of God’s plan in our lives.

During this ‘in-between stage’, we often feel uncomfortable. We find it hard to keep our minds fixed on God because we cannot see how good will come of it. We might even feel as though the devil is winning the round in our lives at that time, but we need to learn the secret of singing the songs of the Lord even whilst in a foreign land. (Ps 137:1-4 TNIV) We are called to praise God in all circumstances.

When we are in these strange places, we may long for better times in the past (‘If only…’) or panic or cry or even forget the dream. Nonetheless, we need to hold on to the dream. We may feel like a house perched precariously on the edge of cliff, but actually, we are more like a tree which grows around a boulder.

Change can be very strange, but for our dreams to be fulfilled, we have to go through these strange times, secure in the fact that God is with us and is still working through every situation.