Creating Christmas DeLights

“Our mission at Grace is to connect people to God, connect people to People, connect to our Community,” says Cari Serafino of Grace Church in Osceloa, Ind. (Greg Serafino, lead pastor). “The goal of the Christmas DeLights project is to accomplish all three of our connects.”

Christmas DeLights is a drive through Christmas lights display. The lights are programmed to an audio track of the biblical story of Christmas.

“There is no one else in our area doing a light display telling about the birth of Christ,” says Cari.

A family within the church proposed the idea to Pastor Greg Serafino this fall and they committed to invest in providing the lights and creativity for the project. Following the proposal, a small group of volunteers met to explore the possibilities of the experience.

A volunteer named Jackie presented a poem, Love Came Down on Christmas Day, about the birth of Christ to the other volunteers. The others loved the poem and Christmas DeLights was born.

“We were simply in awe,” says Cari, “We all knew God had done something through Jackie!”

The donor family began working alongside the creative team and started purchasing the elements needed to make the poem come alive. A crew of retired men from the church began setting up the elements as they arrived as well as outlined the entire building in lights.

The poem was sent to a local ministry, which the church supports, Sonset Solutions. The ministry volunteered the time of a technician to record the narration and edit in all the music.

Volunteers stand by the entrance of the church to greet guests and ask them to tune their radios to the appropriate station. They also hand out candy canes and an envelope which contains a tract and an invitation to spend Christmas at the church.

The church has seen 150 cars come through during the first four nights of being open. The display runs every evening through the month of December and concludes on December 31.

[Connect] Send Greg Serafino an encouraging note here. You can listen to the audio for Christmas DeLights on the church’s Facebook page here.

[Your Turn]

[Watch:] Kim Cooke of Grace Church in Marysville, Ohio (Clancy Cruise, lead pastor) was a guest speaker at a women's brunch at Grace Powell Church (Jeff Stimpson, lead pastor). She shares the story of how through trials and suffering, Jesus has been the enduring relationship throughout her life. She challenges women to trust Him because He is "Absolutely and Completely Christ." Watch the video here.

[Read:] “Don’t miss it,” Craig Groeschel said. “Don’t miss out on the special thing you’ve got going on here (in Warsaw/Winona Lake). Groeschel took time out of his busy schedule to speak to students at Grace College last week. Read the full story here.

[Register:] The Southwest Focus Retreat is coming up from January 27-29 at Camp Lawrence Daley at Mt. Crags. Watch Phil Sparling's personal invitation video here. Register for the retreat here.

Events in the Charis Fellowship

January 26 – Southern California Celebration (CEN)
January 27-29 – Southwest Focus Retreat (CF)
February 5 – Pastorpedia Live, Winona Lake, Ind. (CEN)
February 28 - March 10 – Spring Break (GCS)

CEN – CE National (cenational.org)
CF – Charis Fellowship (access2019.us)
GCS – Grace College & Seminary (grace.edu)

Send events for the calendar to smcmahon@graceconnect.us.

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