The purpose of Hallelujah Camp was simple and focused: to practice and prepare a children’s Christmas presentation for worship the very next day. It was a four-hour, bring-your-own-lunch camp on Saturday from 10am–2pm, all leading to a four-minute+ presentation in Sunday worship.

The idea was inspired by a children’s shadow presentation I had seen online last year and hoped to replicate. Hosting the camp the day before nearly guaranteed student participation, and parents clearly understood the expectation when they registered for any children ages kindergarten through fifth grade.

We had just celebrated our Live Nativity the previous Sunday, so costumes were already on hand. We added only a few simple props—two trumpets, a star, shepherd staffs, a plush baby, and a camel cutout easily prepared by their creative Bible study teacher.

The Wednesday evening before camp, the director and I met with our worship, music, and tech leaders to coordinate shared space, lighting, sound, spotlight placement, and the screen needed for a true shadow effect. On this particular Sunday we were also enjoying the seasonal choir with their community program that Sunday night, Confirmation, baptism, and membership on top of all the other Sunday morning worship goodness. Logistics were a premium consideration in that shared space. These servant leaders were gracious, helpful, and wonderfully resourceful. A follow-up email outlining our plan—along with a link to the original shadow play for visual reference—helped ensure everyone was aligned.

Camp day flowed like this:

• 10:00am – Students arrival with lunch and water bottles
• 10:15am – Watch the original shadow play; assign parts; group students into “actor teams”
• 11:00am – Nativity sticker craft in another room (a creative break for kids and planning space for leaders)
• 11:15am – Stage students with props to learn shapes and body positioning
• 11:45am – Lunch break while the director reviewed staging
• 12:00pm – Costumes on; props in hand; dress rehearsal with floor marking
• 1:00pm – Outdoor break for fresh air walking around the buildings
• 1:15pm – Two full dress rehearsals with adjustments inbetween
• 1:45pm – Return to children’s spaces; label costumes; choose ornaments and receive plush baby Jesus keepsakes

One of the best conversations happened with our tech lead as we decided how to present the shadow play for livestreaming. We chose to capture the image on the monitors instead of the shadow screen—and it turned out beautifully. That choice allowed the segment to be easily shared on its own. Our incredible communications leader made it shine for sharing later in the week online.

Perhaps the most joyful discovery of all was this: the children didn’t see the shadow play as a performance. They worked together as a cast, telling a story. No stage bow and they simply returned to their seats with their parents. Even more beautifully, our creative director expanded the ending to include the full story of Jesus—His death on the cross, burial in the tomb, Mary kneeling in grief, and His resurrection. The Gospel was shared in its fullness through song and image.

Because of this success, we’re planning another shadow play with music for Lent. With a major worship center renovation ahead and limited live-staging options, we’ll host another Hallelujah Camp on a Saturday during Lent and record the presentation at the conclusion of camp. The worship team will then choose the best moment to share the recording during next year’s Palm Sunday or Easter Sunday services.

Want to see it for yourself? Check it out here.

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.” Matthew 1:22

There is nothing quite like watching families pet sheep, listening to angels giggle in wings too big, and hearing “Joy to the World” under December stars. A Live Nativity is holy, joyful chaos—and completely worth it! Here are 12 things we’ve learned that make it wonderful.

1. Book the animals early—really early.

Animals make the magic! Alpacas, goats, sheep, chickens—adorable, friendly, and budget-friendly. Book your petting zoo a year in advance. I’ve used Darlene Hicks from Barnyard Friends for three churches—she’s fantastic. Camels and donkeys are cool but expensive (and feisty). Sheep, goats, and a couple of alpacas work beautifully. This is a great meeting place for all ages and stages so give them a huge part of the grassy lot.

2. Get it on the church calendar and make it an all-skate.

We host on the first Sunday of December, 5–7pm. Teams arrive at 3pm for setup so we’re ready to welcome the community by 4:45pm.

3. Choose your space and theme.

Every church is different!
• Circular drive? → Drive-thru nativity with character stops
• Field? → Bethlehem village
• Bright lot with grass? → Multiple photo-ops and markets
This year we created a Bethlehem Marketplace with five themed booths, lights, power access, cookies, cocoa, and cider for guests. Last year we used Christmas In The Four Gospel Homes as inspiration for 4 booths representing Matthew/Family Photos, Mark/woodworking & made crosses, Luke were the live animals and craft station, John were the candles and various light lanterns to make.

4. Start sign-ups three months out.

Invite life/study groups to “own” a market, plan costumes (layered—it’s cold!), and pull in every age group. I confess to making multiple stops at the Bread Market for chunks of fresh bread.
Adults dressed in Bethlehem costumes with costume fun:
• Angels: 5th grade & younger
• Shepherds: 6th grade +
• Holy Family & Roman Soldiers & Lead Angel: Youth students
Two acting teams = four reenactments without exhaustion!

5. Bring in community music.

Between reenactments, invite choirs, duos, or school groups. This year we had:
• Church seasonal choir
• A guitar/singing duo we love
• Elementary school chorus (secular + Christmas movie favorites!)

6. Add a Family Photo Station.

A huge hit! Bright lights + balloon arch + backdrop + two Bluetooth printers = lines all night. Black photo frames made every picture keepsake-worthy. These pics fill social media for weeks!

7. Parking, safety, and hospitality matter.

Orange cones, right-turn-only entrance/exit, a deputy at the entrance, volunteers parking in the back—be a good neighbor. Luminaries with LED candles and ziploc bags of sand from my backporch sand box set along the curbs set a warm welcome and can be reused on Christmas Eve.

8. Multiple opportunities for student-led Agent projects.

High schoolers run attendance counters, sound booth with a coach, play the Luke 2 roles, set up hay bales, carry tables, assemble market frames, and light luminaries. They arrive early ready to serve—and they shine.

9. Visual unity makes everything look polished.

Wooden entrance frames for each market create a cohesive look. A skilled church member built ours, and a team workday set everything in place the Saturday before. But what goes on inside the shop is totally up to the life group with the understanding they are to have an interactive project, some teaching, and make space for a new friend in conversations.

10. Reenact Luke 2 every 30 minutes.

Middle school shepherds kneel; little angels race to the manger shouting “Glory!”; families sing “Joy to the World!” at the end. We rehearse for just 30 minutes after church that day—and it works.

11. Take LOTS of photos.

Capture animals, laughter, families, interactions across generations. Quick turnaround = fresh posts and future promo material.

12. Don’t just be friendly—be interested.

People come hoping to connect. Train teams to start lingering conversations:
• “What are you most excited for this Christmas?”
• “What do you think Bethlehem felt like 2,000 years ago?”
• “Where do you find hope this season?”
Listen well. Love well. Relationships start and go deeper in those moments.

Budget for animals, hay (65–70 bales), light towers, security, photo paper, cocoa, cider—and joy.
The next day, celebrate what God did. Send thank-yous, texts, calls. Ask your team: “Who did you meet?”

Listen to their stories, collect photos, save everything for next year, and praise the Lord for His faithfulness!

A Live Nativity is holy work wrapped in hay and giggly angels shouting, “Glory! Glory! Glory!” and completely worth it.

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go!” Luke 2:15

Confirmation is a special season—one filled with learning, growing, and practicing faith together in an intergenerational setting. For our 7th–8th grade students, it’s a time to explore what it means to follow Jesus personally, not just because their family does. We welcome students in two grade levels each year, knowing that everyone matures at different times, and sometimes life just happens. It’s an intentional season from August through mid-December.

Our Confirmation Cohort is a journey toward baptism (or remembering your baptism) or confirmation and becoming a professing member of our local Global Methodist Church. Students learn what it means to make a public profession of faith in Jesus, to be saved by grace, and to live out their commitment in community through the life of the Church.

We walk through the program in the fall. Why fall? Because it’s busy—and learning to put faith first during busy seasons is a lifelong skill. And when the cohort ends, Advent begins—a perfect time to step into service, worship, and holy rhythms as a new year approaches. Parents aren’t required to attend, but they are always welcome to join us. Students in 9th grade and older participate in the adult membership classes.

Our text is The Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way by Phil Tallon and Justus Hunter. Each student receives a book and completes readings before class so our conversations can be rich and meaningful. Each class is led by various servant-leaders in our church and directed through youth ministry.

Students participate through a point system which includes classes, serving at Family Ministry events, retreats, and ministry involvement. Confirmation isn’t just about attending one thing; it’s about a balanced experience—learning, serving, worshiping, and building relationships with one another and with Christ. We even retreat with other churches so our students can meet the wider Body of Christ beyond their own youth group as we model a connectional approach.

I have the joy of teaching the final Sunday before Confirmation Sunday. Many of these students I’ve known since preschool, so connecting what they learned in children’s ministry—The Ten Commandments, Apostle’s Creed, Lord’s Prayer—with what they’re learning now is a gift. We finish the last chapters of The Absolute Basics of the Wesleyan Way together.

Our lesson centers around “What time is it?”
From the Lord’s Prayer: Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
It’s time to live out God’s Kingdom—right now.

What can Christians do to bring God’s Kingdom on earth?

• Prioritizing gathering together in Christian community (Hebrews 10:25)
• Praying and being a thankful people (1 Thessalonians 5:16–17)
• Loving God first followed by loving our neighbors by our personal work and holy habits (Mark 12:30–31)
• Believing in Jesus and living as givers—of our time, gifts, and resources (John 3:16)
• Reading and studying Scripture because we are people of the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16–17)

“How do Wesleyans bring God’s Kingdom to earth?”
In our faith tradition, as Wesleyan Methodists, we practice the sacraments:

• Baptism—remembering our identity in Christ, repenting, confessing, belonging to God’s family with all its accountabilities and privileges (Matthew 28:18–20)
• Holy Communion—remembering Jesus, gathering in community at the table as friends with all its accountabilities and privileges (1 Corinthians 11:26)

We follow a path of scriptural holiness—becoming more like the Jesus of the Bible through holy habits, friendship, accountability, grace, and love as we invite the Holy Spirit to His work through His people.

This Advent our church is being guided through Seedbed’s Brought To The Light by Anna Grace Legband. Just this week she wrote about the regular practices of waiting well as we wait for God’s best and hope in God Himself: remember, prayer, worship. May we decide and purpose in our minds and hearts to see the goodness and love of God for His people as Wesleyan Methodists through these practices.

I wrap it up with the stories and differences of faith formation practices of Rev. George Whitefield (saved with no follow-up/discipleship) and John Wesley (saved, classes, bands, and continuing in holiness). Living a sanctified life will be inconvenient and different from those around us, yet with Jesus as our King, can we do anything less?

Next Sunday, we present our students who have met the expectations for Confirmation and membership. They will profess Christ as Lord and step into life as active disciples taking personal responsibility for their faith within the Christian community. Works don’t save us, but they reveal the fruit of the Spirit alive in us. We look to Jesus, to John and Charles Wesley, and even to Susanna Wesley as examples of faith lived out loud.

Confirmation may not appear by name in Scripture, but the journey reflects our call to grow in faith, participate in Christian community, and walk in sanctification. It is a faith milestone—one filled with joy, surrendered commitment, heritage, and hope.

And what a joy it is to see our students take their place in the life of the Church!

What does Confirmation look like in your local church?

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

Autumn is typically heavy with CONNECT events where multigenerational folks gather for fun, food, and fellowship. We call them CONNECT events because the desired outcomes include connecting with our community to begin and/or build relationships with one another on campus which we hope will grow into a saving knowledge of Christ through faith formation.

The CONNECT event fall schedule looks like this:
August – Tailgate Party
September – Fall Life Groups in full swing
October – RoundUp
November – Friendsgiving
December – Live Nativity

Friendsgiving has become one of our most anticipated annual gatherings. Held the Wednesday before Thanksgiving week from 6–8pm, it all begins with small groups of servants—Ambassadors, staff, the décor team, Confirmation Class, and the kitchen crew—arriving in waves starting at 3pm to stage the space. Everything on campus is cancelled to yield to this CONNECT event. It’s a giant potluck, and we provide the turkey, dressing, and gravy for 200 prepared and delivered by a local chef so the whole event is a generous, free gift to our community.

Tables were covered in long sheets of brown paper, inviting all ages of the staging team to write Scripture, doodle place settings, and get creative while a Thanksgiving playlist played in the background. It was slow and peaceful—simple beauty in motion.

This year we also cut the food line time in half since we:

1. Set up two self-serving lines on opposite sides of the room using thin tables lined up to serve down both sides, with food arranged one-row deep, so the line could keep moving.
2. Used 10-inch plates so folks could easily come back for seconds.
3. Placed desserts in their own room with spoons and dessert paper plates.
4. Offered iced water at a dedicated station near the kitchen with various sized cups.

Live acoustic guitar music welcomed guests and filled the room while people visited and waited in line for food. We ate with background, Bluetooth speaker music, then another live song to transition to Thanksgiving Bingo joyfully led by our 4th–5th grade Ambassadors, complete with Kroger gift cards as prizes. The Bingo cards came from Teachers Pay Teachers, and each player received Honey Nut Cheerios as playing pieces—sorted ahead of time by the Ambassadors themselves in 3oz paper cups on a cart.

We played three rounds: the classic straight line of 5-in-a-row, the four corners, and finally a cross. As the Ambassadors learned to speak confidently into the microphone, the room shifted between bursts of laughter and attentive silence waiting for the next item to be called. It was delightful.

If kids eat quickly, we had a station for putting together the throws for the upcoming local Christmas parade. Many hands make for light work as we prepared 1500 throws with candy and notices to promote the Live Nativity & Christmas Eve service. This is an intern-led project.

Our people—and our community—came ready to talk, connect, and share the evening together. The table-life was rich.

And every one of our desired outcomes came to life:

1. Personal connection—the tables were wonderfully long and full, starting and growing relationships with one another.
2. Shared generosity—the abundance of food, desserts, and supplies overflowed.
3. Servant-hearted skill-building—children and youth led, decorated, staged, spoke, and served.
4. Shared cultural traditions—our Spanish-speaking church family on campus brought food and joined wholeheartedly in every moment.
5. Active invitation—19% of attendees came through personal invites from our church family.

I truly believe the Lord loves a good party. The seven Old Testament feasts show us that God delights in His people gathering—on purpose, with purpose, around meaningful food and holy remembrance. There’s something sacred about sharing life around a table filled with delicious food, remembering our spiritual heritage, nurturing meaningful relationships, and glad hearts.

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:46–47