LIFESTYLES
WEEKEND, DECEMBER 2-3, 2017
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Madison Thompson, 13, right, hangs flags on a banner with Kaitlin Gustafson during a Christmas decorating party Monday at the Boardman Baptist Church.
BUSY SEASON
Churches kick into high gear for Christmas holiday
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Keeping a church running is a
year-round proposition for pastors
and volunteers, but Christmas is
prime time.
There are advent candles to light,
church halls to decorate, pageants
to put on, nativity scenes to design,
carols to practice, extra sermons
to write, families to help and lots
and lots of Christmas cookies to be
baked.
At the root of it all is a belief that
there are also hearts to be touched.
“Apathy sets in with familiarity,”
said Bill Griggs, pastor at First
Baptist Church in Boardman. “I think
Christmas kind of snaps us out of that
and people say, ‘Let’s think about
Jesus. Let’s talk about church.’”
On Monday evening Griggs,
clad in a black cowboy hat and
boots, pitched in with parishioners
who showed up to deck the church
in lights, pine boughs and a large
Christmas tree. They were still a little
tired from putting on a community
Thanksgiving meal for more than
400 people, but that hadn’t stopped
them from lighting the first advent
candle Sunday as a narrator read the
Biblical prophecies of Jesus’ birth.
“I think that helps us shift gears
and gets us in the mood,” Griggs
said of the advent tradition counting
down to Christmas.
He said Christmas is an “exhila-
rating” time for him, as he remembers
his first Christmas as a Christian and
works hard to help members of his
flock have the same feelings of joy.
In the sanctuary Monday, Rebecca
Moore was helping sort through
pieces of the artificial Christmas
tree as her one-year-old son helped
by pulling off old pieces of tape and
sticking them together.
Moore had already been at
the church for a while that night,
wrangling about 10 children through
a rehearsal for the congregation’s
annual children’s Christmas pageant.
This year between songs, each
child will help explain the Christian
symbolism behind various Christmas
decorations, such as the star on top
of many Christmas trees that gives
nod to the star the New Testament
describes as a guide to wise men
seeking the baby Jesus.
“They seem really excited,”
Moore said. “They have a lot of
energy. I have to rein them in at
times, but they love the costumes,
and they all want solos.”
Moore said she likely got volun-
teered for the job of putting on the
pageant because she used to be a
music teacher. That’s how things
usually go in small congregations
— everyone is asked to play to their
strengths to help pull off Christmas
activities for the congregation and
community.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Zibah Sowa, 4, helps Tami Ramsey decorate a chest with fake
flowers during a Christmas decorating party Monday at the
Boardman Baptist Church.
Becky Hunt knows a thing or two
about that. She’s the “head volun-
teer” for Hermiston First United
Methodist Church’s living nativity,
which runs this year on December
9-10.
“This is our 25th year,” she said.
“I didn’t start it, but I kind of helped
out and the next thing I knew I was
doing more and more.”
On Wednesday morning she was
heading out to pick up a truckload of
donated straw bales — one of many
parts of the puzzle that will bring
together a live nativity scene where
people can sit and contemplate the
original Christmas story and pet the
donkey, chicken and the two fluffy
sheep affectionately known as the
“church ladies.”
Inside, cookies and live music
will be available for people as they
warm up, and eight to 10 Christmas
trees will each be decorated to repre-
sent a different charitable mission the
church is involved in.
Hunt and other volunteers sew
costumes, set up and take down the
set, act, publicize, prepare fellow-
ship meals for the actors and serve
Christmas cookies to guests. One
person even spends the night in a
trailer on the church property to keep
an eye on the borrowed animals and
set between the Saturday and Sunday
performances.
Reverend James Pierce said the
congregation gets “pretty excited
about Christmas stuff” and this year
they have the capacity to do even
more since they have started sharing
their building with Grace and Mercy
Lutheran Church.
“They have been worshiping in
our building for about a year now,
so the Christmas preparation at the
church has really gotten into high
gear as we now have more volun-
teers and are increasing our season
worship opportunities,” he wrote
in an email. That includes multiple
services on Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day.
For most churches, Christmas and
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A small Nativity scene sits on top of a piano in the worship hall
Monday at the Boardman Baptist Church.
Easter services are the biggest of the
year, as some families have guests
visiting from out of town and others
only attend on those two religious
holidays.
Pastor Mark Adams from
Bethlehem Lutheran Church in
Hermiston said the pressure is on to
come up with the perfect Christmas
sermon each year.
“You’re telling the same timeless
story, in a way that gets people to see
it in a new light,” he said.
Bethlehem Lutheran also lights
a candle on the advent wreath each
Emmitt
Skeen wraps
a tree with
a string of
lights during
a Christmas
decorating
party Mon-
day at the
Boardman
Baptist
Church.
Staff photo
by E.J. Harris
Sunday leading up to Christmas.
On Saturday, the congregation will
help decorate the building, and this
Sunday the children in the congre-
gation will be asked to help find the
baby Jesus hidden somewhere in the
church to complete the nativity scene
near the pulpit.
Children play an important part
of Christmastime worship at the
church, from the preschool’s annual
Christmas concert to child-created
decorations on the walls. Youth,
meanwhile, pitch in by performing
solos and duets of carols during
worship services, while adults help
out by making sure families in need
get the food, presents and service
needed to have a good Christmas.
Those volunteers with special
skills are often extra busy.
“Our organists get to play a lot of
songs, a lot of hymns, a lot of carols,”
Adams said.
For Adams himself, December
is also his busiest month, with extra
sermons around Christmas weekend
and the addition of midweek advent
services starting next week. But
despite all the hustle and bustle of the
holiday season, he hopes everyone
in the congregation takes some quiet
time to meditate on the beliefs behind
the celebration.
“That should give us all pause for
reflection,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.