Why You Should Serve This Christmas

Unless you’ve been hiding out under a rock for the last few weeks, you know that our church is presenting Christmas at DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center) on December 23-24. It’ll be five big services that will serve as one big gift to our city, proclaiming the big news of a baby who was born to die.

Like any Summit event, this one is going to take volunteers. Lots of volunteers. An army of volunteers that rival the North Pole scene in Polar Express where there are more elves than you can shake a stick at. Or – if you’re not into fine cinematic children’s classics – the scene from Indiana Jones and the Stupidest Fourth Movie to Ever Be Produced where those bajillions of ants swarm out of a hive and try to get out of the camera shot before they’re listed as extras, thereby ruining their future credibility as actors.

We need hundreds of volunteers to serve in two areas: Summit Kids and First Impressions. We’re challenging everyone at the Summit to consider attending one service and serving one service. Or, if you want extra goodies in your Christmas stocking, you can attend one and serve four. Boom.

So why serve at the most wonderful busiest time of the year, when you have a thousand different obligations pulling you in all directions? Three reasons:

1. This is our gift to our city. It would have been far more convenient to pay DPAC to provide their own staff to open doors, point out seating, and welcome people to the venue. And while they’ll have a few of their folks helping us with some of those tasks, this is an event that we own. And as owners of the event, we want to own the experience. Not doing so would be like inviting someone to your house for dinner, and then paying a neighbor to host them for the evening.
   
2. Your personal gifting demands it. Many of you reading this have gifts for serving kids or being hospitable to guests. You need to exercise those gifts. Do we need you to serve? Yes we do. But more than that, you need to serve. It’s how you’ve been wired.
3. The gospel still starts in the parking lot…even when it’s not our parking lot. Every weekend we challenge people to share the gospel in the way that they serve. Just because we’re offsite doesn’t mean that challenge stops. With hundreds (perhaps thousands!) of first time guests expected, we have the opportunity to introduce people to Jesus by the simple act of serving them well and serving their kids.

So here we go, Summit. Step up. Serve generously. Sign up today. We’ll see you at the DPAC!