I know it might seem too early to think about Christmas, but 'tis actually the season for churches to start thinking about Christmas outreach efforts.Crossway has put together a helpful program for churches, called Share the Good News of Christmas.
The basic idea is that your neighbor can receive a door-hanger bag that contains a New Testament, a customized invitation to the Christmas service at your church, a Christmas tract by Max Lucao, and access to the Online ESVSB for 30 days. There's also a customizable bulletin insert for use in your church.
For $50 per kit, you get the following:
- 50 door-hanger bags
- 50 ESV Outreach New Testament Christmas Editions
- 50 customizable invitations to attend a Christmas service at your church
- 50 copies of "The Good News of Christmas" tract by Max Lucado
- 50 cards announcing a free opportunity to explore the ESV Online Study Bible free for 30 days
- 1 instruction card
- 1 reproducible church bulletin insert (you can edit the PDF to customize it for your church)
They've also set up a Facebook group so you can share ideas, stories, and pictures.
There are some endorsements written for the kit, but I thought Chris Brauns's word was timely:
It's far too easy to wake up on January 2 having done nothing more for our neighbors at Christmas time than give them a plate of "sentimental cookies." Now, Crossway is giving us a tangible way to proclaim the Word to our community and invite them our local churches. At the time of the year when we remember that "the Word became flesh," could anything be more appropriate than giving our community the Word? Crossway’s Share the Good News of Christmas is a tremendous value and I look forward to encouraging our church to participate.
