Don't Let the COVID Grinch Steal Christmas

Insights from the Evangelism Committee

Christmas is one of the best times of the year to proclaim the gospel. Many of our neighbors and co-workers are open to hearing about the real meaning of Christmas. Those born overseas, for example, international students, are especially interested in learning about our holidays. Their interest provides a wide-open door for the gospel.

But will COVID steal Christmas this year? Certainly, it makes people more reluctant to attend an in-person event. But there are also more people who are feeling lonely and depressed due to isolation and fear of the ongoing pandemic. A loving act done in Christ’s name can open hearts to a gospel-centered conversation.

LETTING NEIGHBORS KNOW YOU CARE

We are encouraging everyone at College Church to make at least one phone call to a non-Christian friend or coworker to wish them a Merry Christmas and ask how you can pray for them. This simple act of reaching out will resonate more with many of our neighbors today than at former times.

Reaching out to a neighbor may sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be. It can be as simple as saying, “I’m just calling to wish you a Merry Christmas,” or “We can’t invite friends over for parties this year, so I wanted to call and wish you a Merry Christmas.” Then, kindly ask how you can pray for them this Christmas season. After you are done with the call, make sure you do that step. Pray for their needs during your daily devotional time or with your family around a meal. After Christmas, call again to let them know you have been praying and ask them how they are doing. Following up is an important step that shows you listened and have been thinking about them.

This may open the door for a spiritual conversation now, or it may open the door to invite them to church with you at a later date. In the meantime, invite them to stay in touch with you and continue to pray for them.

BRINGING THE HOPE OF CHRISTMAS

There are many other ways to bring the hope of Christmas to your neighbors. Consider one of the following:

• Send Christmas cards to people in your neighborhood with a hand-written note telling them you are thinking of them.

• Deliver a store-bought treat to your neighbors and include a gospel tract or a postcard advertising our livestream Christmas services. You can pick up both of these at the church office.

• As a family, go Christmas caroling in your neighborhood (with masks on). Be sure to stay at least six feet from the front door.

• Prayer-walk through your neighborhood. Ask God to open your neighbors’ hearts to the hope of Christmas.

• Offer to help with any physical needs you know of such as getting groceries or shoveling snow. The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated needs for many in our community.

Just as COVID didn’t steal our joy at Easter, it cannot steal our Christmas. However, many people around us will feel the negative effects of social isolation much more strongly this season and this year in particular. Don’t let COVID steal their Christmas. Through your simple act of making a phone call and offering a prayer, you can bring the hope of Christmas to your friends, neighbors and coworkers.

Lana’s Tears

“The doctors said my dad is healthy!” Lana enthusiastically reported with tears of joy in her eyes. At the end of a virtual ESL class the week before, this young mother had also been in tears as she told me that she was afraid her father had cancer. I offered to pray for her and her dad, and we had a long discussion about why Christians pray, to whom we pray and how God gives us peace in the midst of life’s darkest moments. Since that time, Lana has been participating weekly in Bible study and has told the ESL class that she thinks she will be a Christian one day. I have seen God answer prayer dramatically for those in need. Sometimes, as with Lana, it opens hearts, sometimes, hearts remain cold. Whether it results in deeper spiritual conversations or not, people have almost always responded positively when I have offered to pray for them.

–Robert Nordstrom