Christmas Eve

Actually convinced my mother to attend Christmas Eve worship at her church. She hasn't attended in over a year and was resistant at first. This church was also my church when I was a child and is in my hometown. I've been gone for over forty years, but there are still some people I remember who remember me.

Walking in, the greeter was a woman who was ahead of me in high school but we were in marching band together. She greeted me by name and I actually immediately recalled her name, a bonus for me!

The acolytes came in to light the candles. There were the altar candles and the chancel candelabra that were fine. The extra candelabra at the front of the rail must not have been checked. Both inside candles did not light and another candle on the left did not light. The head usher came forward to try to get them to light but couldn't. In that moment, I truly appreciated my last altar guild member.

The special Christmas music vocalist was running late so that piece was dropped from the early service that we attended. Two young people provided other special music, but it was not particularly Christmas music. We heard "Hallelujah" on trumpet. "Hallelujah" other than the chorus is not appropriate for Christmas. The second piece was a very nice piano piece that was not Christmas at all.

The service was formulated as a regular service. We sang a hymn, we had special music, there was a pastoral prayer and an offering. There was a children's message and a sermon. The sermon wasn't so much about Christmas and the birth of Christ. In fact, at the writing of this post, I couldn't tell you what the message was about.

During greeting time (yep, that was a thing), I said hello to a classmate who I only had one class (gym) so we didn't really know one another. I didn't recognize anyone else in the congregation. Later, as we were leaving one of the choir members who I know but was never really friends with came up to make sure she had talked to my mother. She didn't even offer a hello to me and stood at a distance from where I was standing so that it felt awkward to butt into the conversation. I was a little upset that she didn't even offer a hello.

The service did end with communion and candle lit "Silent Night". It was a little awkward which the pastor attributed to this being his first Christmas in this congregational setting.

All and all, it was a nice Christmas Eve service to attend after participating in/leading as pastor the last fourteen Christmas. My mother even said she might attend church again at some point. She liked this pastor. She did not like the previous pastor and wasn't really taken with the one before that. Hopefully, she will attend again.