Follow the Light

"Just follow the Light that shines through the darkest night. Just follow the Hope that brings vision to our sight. Just follow the dream that leads to the Prince of Peace. Wherever you are, look to the star and follow the Light." That says it all folks! A simple enough task right? If I know one thing with absolute certainty, it is that we as humans make "simple tasks," VERY DIFFICULT!
I've been listening over and over to the Christmas musical and so many things stick out to me each and every time, but one of the insistent ones at this time is, "just follow the Light." This makes so much sense, but yet we get so confused and allow ourselves to get, "Lost in Translation." We've been brainstorming and discussing in many meetings, "how do we help reach people?" "What do we do to reach the people that are here?" "What do we do to reach the un-churched?" And I think we get so caught up in pleasing everyone sometimes that we forget to do that simple thing, "just follow the Light!" Follow the Light! Follow our Lord, look at His life, see how He reached people? He spoke in parables often, He met with people that were, unseemly, or considered bad, lowly, unclean, etc. He communicated in many ways, he would draw pictures to help the disciples and others understand. He made things, "Come to Life!" They believed what He was saying because He made it believable!

As I've been explaining to people why we are doing the Christmas Musical/Cantata on Christmas Eve at 10 pm and for the community on Dec 18, I realized I kept using the phrase, "Make the story come to life." I was reading Mark Need's blog, and he was saying something that I had been thinking as well. I want to share it with you. (If I get a few words wrong I apologize Mark, I couldn't get it to "copy" into my blog. (I'm still learning, hehe!)

Words of Mark Need:
"As I continue to try to improve my preaching, I ran across a thought that struck me. The idea goes something like this: If you generalize about something you make it seem far away, but if you are very specific it seems close...We speak of God and Heaven and Salvation...Yet, they seem so far away. We speak of a God that did amazing things...years ago. We preach about a Heaven...in the skies. We accept a salvation...for the future. My aim is to narrow the gap. What is God doing, RIGHT NOW! Where is Heaven, RIGHT HERE! What does salvation mean for our lives, RIGHT HERE AND NOW!..For teachers and pastors, our aim continues to be that of offering a better glimpse of God at work in the people's lives...Not just long ago...Not in others' lives...Not in the future...but God at work and play, RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!" (I didn't include everything in the post so I encourage you to look at the rest of his post and his blog. It will make you think! You can click on his link from my page.)

YES!!!!!!!!! That's it! We need to bring things to the HERE, the NOW! And make them come ALIVE!! I feel that it is our job to help come along with the pastor's and help "bring Heaven down to earth, " to use a Granger phrase. We are all a team, and we have all been, "called" to help make disciples. So, here is my question.
How do we continue to make our services, traditional and contemporary, bring Heaven down to earth, and make the gospel come ALIVE?
I would love to hear all of your ideas and see us get a good discussion going so that we can start acting. To close with another phrase from the Granger conference, so that we can, "Stop Talking... and Start Doing!"
God Bless You All, I look forward to hearing from you1
Heidi:)