{ Our Purpose
What is a Christmas Gathering?
Christmas Gatherings are holiday parties. They feature seasonal goodies, sharing of Christmas traditions and a brief, non-threatening talk on the meaning of Christmas. They provide a time for people to invite their neighbors or other groups into their home to hear about the love of Jesus Christ.
What are the Benefits?
These are just a few of the benefits of a Christmas Gathering that have encouraged so many:
- An opportunity to reach out to others and build loving relationships
- Learning to share the Gospel clearly and with relevance
- Modeling the simplicity of prayer – talking to God about the desires of our heart.
- Providing your home as a safe environment to not only hear about Jesus Christ, but also to learn about Him in His Word.
- Counteracts the trend of isolation. Many people are never invited into someone’s home and they are honored to be included.
- Requires only two people to initiate – host and speaker.
- The privilege of experiencing the joy of trusting God.
How Does It Work?
Through many years of experience, certain distinctives have evolved that make a Christmas Gathering authentic and successful.
These are:
An invitation that includes the phrase: “a friend will share some inspiring thoughts about Christmas.”
A ten to fifteen minute presentation by someone other than the host that includes the following:
- A Christmas theme
- A clear non-threatening presentation of the Gospel
- An opportunity to receive Jesus Christ
- An opportunity to respond to the host and speaker
- An opportunity to attend a Bible Study
The best part is that this is a simple idea that anyone can do! After reading the manual or attending a training session, people say they feel prepared to share Christ in their home or workplace.
Our prayer is that God would create in each of us a heart that loves and cares enough about the people around us that we are compelled to lift Jesus up and share Him in a way that brings Him glory and moves people toward God.
The essence of the ministry of Christmas Gatherings is found in I Thessalonians 2:8:
“We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the Gospel of God, but our lives as well”