Christmas Eve Recap ... at The Creek

I grew up in a wonderful, healthy environment in the Upstate of South Carolina. I attended a mill village church where we looked forward to celebrating the holidays. I always remember "Christmas Sunday" because the church gave out bags of fruit and candy to the children and elderly. It was a big day. We had our own traditions, but there is one thing that we just never did and that is, celebrate the holidays with a Christmas Eve Service. In fact, I have never attended a Christmas Eve service before we initiated them at Stevens Creek.  

In the mid 1990s, I followed the inspiration of Willow Creek Church in Chicago and introduced the Christmas Eve service at our church. It began with a single service reaching a little over 100 people. We discovered early on that there is something very, very special about joining together and celebrating Christmas Eve.  


Through the years, this service has grown into a much anticipated service. There are more un-churched people in this service than in any other service during the year. They are there to hear the message of the nativity. Along with that message, many of them are there to hear April Sturgell sing "O Holy Night". For the last fourteen years, April has concluded the service with the singing of this traditional carol. There is no one that compares to April on this song. This service is filled with heart-felt programming produced by Todd Sturgell and his team. It's amazing ...year after year.  


As you may know, this service has grown from the original single service a multiple service format. At Christmas Eve 2009, we had four services (three at Stevens Creek Road and one at Grovetown High School). Our combined attendance for these services this year was [b]2,136[/b]. People were everywhere. The miracle is that our auditorium seats 500 people. We had people in chairs and offered a video venue that was filled in two of the services. It was an amazing time. The Christmas Eve service ushers in Christmas for me.  

Patty and I were talking about this service on our drive to Cleveland, TN on Christmas day. We could not ever imagine not attending a service on Christmas Eve. In neither of our family traditions did our churches offer Christmas Eve services, but now having experienced it, we don't want to go back.  


On a side note, people are very generous on Christmas Eve. We collect an offering at this service. We ask people several weeks in advance to consider giving a gift at Christmas to Christ and His Church. People responded and are still responding to this special offering. This year's offering is in the neighborhood of $120,000. That set a Christmas Eve offering record. Honestly, it came the right time.  

This year has been a good year, but like most churches, Stevens Creek has been affected by the economy. We launched Grovetown and expanded the staff to accomplish this missionary endeavor and we ended the year needing an infusion of cash. We thank the generous people at Stevens Creek for their continued support.  


If you are reading this post and your church does not celebrate the holidays with a Christmas Eve Service, let me be one to encourage you to do so.

Proud of my Alma Mater on NBC's Sing Off ... Lee University

This past week our family has anxiously watched each round of NBC's Sing Off. When the Voices of Lee made it to the Top Three, our hearts swelled with pride.  Now the nation knows what we have known for many, many years ... that God has raised up a small Church of God University to make the world a better place through music. The director of Voices of Lee, Danny Murray, has helped shaped young voices for over thirty years. I can remember as a freshman on campus being a member of one of his choirs.  Danny has the ability to take people with little talent and make them sound good and as NBC has discovered, Danny has the ability to take people with good talent and make them great.


When you look at the landscape of Stevens Creek you will see Lee Alumni throughout our church.... Todd, April, Kevin, Melissa, Ann, Sharon and the list goes on and on. We have three students presently at Lee, my daughter, Sarah, is a senior at Lee this year, along with Wes Lutes and Paige Lutes. 


Back to the Voices of Lee, what you may not know is that Stevens Creek's, John Tyler Black, traveled with Voices for four years while in school and just left the group last December to join the team here at The Creek.    Here's one more thought ... you know how people own shares in a business... did you know that Stevens Creek is a share-holder in Lee University.  Seriously.  So, when you see Voices of Lee on NBC, you can say "that's my group."


If you are reading this before midnight on Sunday, December 20th, then take time to vote for Voices of Lee on NBC's Sing Off. You can call or text your vote in right now...1-877-674-6403 or text 3 to number 33088.

Trauma ...

This week has given me a new understanding of the word traumatic.  I just left the Medical College of Georgia Shock Trauma Unit where I was with two separate Stevens Creek families who have had accidents this week that have resulted in spinal injuries.  What are the odds that one congregation would have two students in accidents in the same week that would result in these sort of injuries? 


The first accident happened on Stevens Creek Road on Tuesday night.  It was raining very hard when twenty-two year old MCG student, Courtney Claxton was involved in the single car accident. It's a miracle that Courtney survived.  She underwent surgery on Thursday to stabilize her broken neck.  She will have a second  surgery on Monday to finish the procedure.  Courtney needs your prayers.  After she recovers from this, Courtney will be transferred to the Shepherd Spine Center in Atlanta for rehabilitation.  Please pray for Courtney  and her parents, Charles and Gail Claxton.


Last night, one of our high school students, Austin Robinson, was warming up for a motocross race when his bike accelerated and he landed on his back. His spine was injured and he had surgery this morning at 7:30 AM.  Austin came through the surgery and should make a full recovery.  Please keep him and his parents, Billy and Robin Kelley in your prayers.


Both families have strong faith and are believing that God is going to bring them through this. Let's join in prayer with them.

God@Work

In the midst of a tough economy, God is doing a work that is truly more than we imagined. On November 18th, we baptized 82 people at our Stevens Creek Road campus and then the following Sunday, we baptized 6 at our Grovetown Campus. This brings the total water baptisms for this year to just over 150 people. We are humbled by the grace that has been extended in our community. This year's baptism doubled the number of baptisms that have taken place in any calendar year in the past 22 years.

I believe that this move of God is a result of an expanding heart for lost people. We started last January by asking people to come forward and write the name of their lost friends on the glass walls in our auditorium. Today there are hundreds and hundreds of names there that we pray over. In a few weeks from now, we will clean off all of the names and start 2010 praying new prayers for those who are headed to a Christ-less eternity.

As you move forward into the coming months, strategically consider ways to expand your congregation's heart for the lost. These are trying times and we have a message of hope. It's time to reach out.

~ Marty
martybaker@stevenscreekchurch.com