Post Christmas Eve - Part 1

I've had a few days to decompress. Christmas Day, my wife and I took the kids up north to hang out together. We had a great time and it was a very memorable Christmas.

I didn't want to let Christmas Eve get too far away before I shared a few reflections.

First of all, it was an amazing experience! At The Orchard this year, we hosted 4 candlelight services at 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm. At last count we had more than 1200 people show up to take part in the celebration. Yet another memorable experience!

The whole service was centered on the 'Colors of a Savior'. The idea was that the world was without color before Jesus came into the world. We told the Christmas story of the birth of Christ and then shared about how Jesus' story continues today in the lives of others. It's a story of hope when there seems to be none. A story of redemption. The story of peace, freedom, grace and mercy. A story that is alive in each of us.

God has done amazing things in the lives of this church community and that life change is incredible to see.

Here’s the music setlist from that evening:

• Wizards in Winter - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
  
• Salvation is Here - Hillsong United
• Angels We Have Heard on High - 722
• O Holy Night - Point of Grace
  
• What Child is This - MercyMe
  
• Beautiful Jesus - Kristian Stanfill
  
• Silent Night - Traditional (candlelight)
  
• Glorious One - Steve Fee
  

Pictures and more on the way.

Peace.

This Is It!

This is the week where we put together everything we've been planning for our Christmas Eve celebrations at The Orchard! We've spent a significant amount of time praying, planning, dreaming, and preparing for this event.

This Christmas Eve will be the biggest we've ever seen here at The Orchard.

We planned three services, and had to add a fourth because 2 of our services had 'sold out'. We used a ticketing system (free tickets) to help determine capacity at each service and allow us to be able to accommodate as many people as possible. We have a finite number of parking spaces and seating available.

As of yesterday we had nearly 1200 tickets out! Four services, 1200 people, 8 songs and 6 video segments - wow! We're also working on spectacular lighting using some of our new lights along with some additional lights from K B Productions. It's going to be good.

We have a great team of people putting this together and I love seeing all of them putting so much into this opportunity. That's what this is... one of our biggest opportunities to lead people to Jesus. This is one of those times when people will check out the local church when they may not visit any other time. We are ready to make it the best experience we can for them while celebrating the birth of Christ.

You won't want to miss this! By The way, if you don't already have a ticket, stop by anyway. We have saved some room for you!

Peace.

Found, Etc.

I've been pretty quiet on the blog lately, and a lot has happened this last couple of weeks - a very full couple of weeks.

For one, Kylee was able to recover the missing slipper for her mom. This has been a good thing and was found near the end of Kristen's stint of being sick. I fear I take too much that Kristen does for granted, which was very apparent during her illness.

Myself and a few of the musicians on my team played a party for one of our long time teammates. A lot involved with this but it was totally worth it... the whole thing had been organized as a complete surprise for his 50th birthday! Always proud to have my team rock the house!

Preparing for Christmas at The Orchard. Lots of prep and a lot of things that need to take place over the last week or so before the 24th. It's going to be amazing!

More later.
Peace.