Christmas Pageant

Tonight Peggy and I went to Sycamore to a little Assembly of God Church, Bethel Assembly of God to their Christmas Program.  I was invited by my Doctor.  Her Kids were in it.

I am not usually blown away by such things, more endure than enjoy; but this one blew me fully away:

There were about 30 kids or so in the pageant.  There were 10 songs to learn and lots of lines.  These were kids from 7-12.  The program ran most of an hour.  Only one little miss  by one little girl on her lines.  There were multitudes of bible verses.  I forgot about the discipline AG kids have in memorizing scripture.  Bible Quiz Contest.  These kids knocked it out with aplomb.

This is a church of 120 people.  Many Pentecostal congregations have mostly older people (like me) in them.  Not this little church. It's full of kids and youth.

The music was upbeat and some were traditional Christmas songs set to different words.  There was lots of choreography.  I couldn't figure out how much time it took to put all this together.  I was told by one of the parents that memorization and discipline was just part of the procedure.  They didn't seem to have a difficult time with it all.

What impressed me most of all was the clarity of the message of the saving grace of Christ.  Jesus was the epicenter of everything that happened in the pageant.  I think we get too "Cool" in the church and try to be so in touch with our inner rapper in the church that we forget the ability to touch the heart of a person with a simple straightforward gospel message.  I actually teared up a couple times.  Little Children leading.

John Armstrong is doing the Christmas Pageant routine.  He is not having as good a time as I did tonight.  Tomorrow night we will attend another.  I'm looking forward to it.  Read what John has to say, the Christmas Pageant has become Broadway Production Church.  I'll let him tell you all about it.

It really felt warm and homey to be in that little AG church, they actually have an organ and HYMNALS.   Yikes!  I'm guessing they have a band too.  But, it seems to be working.  The Holy Ghost makes a huge difference when it comes to preparation.  Those kids really believe what they were doing matters. 

I happen to know that one of the 9 year old kids saved $29 and change simply to give to a children's AG missions program.  That's the heart of these kids.  His parents didn't give it to him.  This is money he could have used for his own purposes but he earned and gave gladly with the understanding that it would go to reach people on the other side of the earth.  If I were the missionary that got that money I would be very careful with it.