Thank You for Giving to the Lord

Wow! That doesn't even begin to express the feelings that I have for how hard everyone worked and for the dedication it took for you to be a part of this year's musical. I woke early this morning just overwhelmed by how incredibly helpful everyone was throughout this process this year.

I wanted to thank each of you in person, but with very little voice to speak, I could not do that. You each made a difference in many lives because of your willingness to allow God to use you. Approximately 30 people gave their lives to Jesus and nearly 100 people rededicated their lives to Christ. That is more than 16 decisions per performance, or about 3% of the approximately 5000 in attendance. And these are only the decisions that we know about. God really used this musical to reach people in our community.

Let me share a couple quick stories. One individual invited 6 adults knowing that all 6 are lost. One of these had only been to church maybe twice in his life, but after seeing the musical he has told her he needs to talk to her about some questions he has. Another person shared about a sister that has had great animosity toward God and the church, but after watching the musical she has softened greatly because of the work that our church put into this musical as a gift for the community. Another individual shared that after watching our musical he realized that Oak Grove is the church he needs to attend because God has been telling him to find a church that loves its community. And I am certain that there are many more stories just like these.

The program require so many people that I have even lost track of everyone that has helped. Even as I write this we have people preparing to come out to the church to help tear down the set and store it away in our prop room. We still have many costumes that need to be returned and put away. We have props that belong to various church members that need to be returned to them. We have weeks of organization that will need to go into the props and costume rooms. And our leadership teams will have a follow-up evaluation at some point. All of this while work has already begun behind the scenes for next year's Christmas Spectacular.

From the onset to our new musical tradition, it was our team's desire to find someway to reach the people in our community that would not typically attend a church service. We agreed that doing something at Christmas just for the sake of doing something was not acceptable. We wanted to reach the lost world with the message of Jesus Christ. And while some church members may not like the use of what they consider light-hearted entertainment and secular music, those were the very things that helped to attract more non-church attending people to our program.

Word has spread through our community about the musicals at Oak Grove. As I handed out the business card invitations this year I met many people who said that they had heard about our program from last year and they were hoping to find out how to get tickets to this year's musical. People have said that they have heard how professional our program last year was and they did not want to miss this year's program. The excitement is growing. Just two years ago we had less than 1500 people attend our first musical.

Some people have expressed to me their disappointment that the crowds are not as large as when we had the Living Christmas Tree. The Living Christmas Tree had a 25 year history that attracted people just because they had heard others talk about it. But statistically we also could tell from the comment cards that the Living Christmas Tree was basically attracting people who attended other churches. The Living Christmas Tree had exciting Christmas music with a beautiful light display, but it was not reaching out into a lost community and bringing those people in to hear the Gospel.

One area that we track with our comment cards are people who are not members of any church. This year we had about 50 people check that box. Think about that: these people had to know that by checking the box indicating they are not members of any church that Oak Grove would be contacting them trying to persuade them to attend our church. Basic statistics tell is that only a small percentage of those who actually do not attend church would admit that. This should mean that we had many more unchurched individuals attending our performances this year than in the past. I appreciate a team that is willing to try new things in order to reach more lost people.

Thank you for serving God and being a part of telling His story to so many in our community. It was great to see the excitement on each of your faces and watch the fun that many had even backstage each night. We did attempt to record the musical several nights, so hopefully one of these will be available around the first of the year for you to obtain. God bless and Merry Christmas.