FORTVILLE — She paused in the frigid cold, several yards away from the band on the sidewalk, and held out her phone.
“I’m going to try to get my family on FaceTime,” she said.
In any other year, the people of Fortville Christian Church would have delivered wrapped gifts to families they hoped to help through the church’s annual Be the Gift outreach. If that were not possible, their second choice might be to gather the people at the church to pick up the gifts and share Christmas fellowship over cookies.
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That option wasn’t available either this year. But they made the most of the option available to them: an outdoor event, with Christmas songs ringing out into the cold night from under the overhang at the church’s main entrance. They were songs a woman wanted to share with her family over the phone.
It’s a paradox for local churches at Christmas: Celebrate the Incarnation — how “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” in the words of the disciple John — but do it in a world that calls for being socially distant. Yet local churches continue to reach outward in this season, even if they sometimes have to rework traditional plans.
At Fortville Christian, Be the Gift organizers traditionally gather donations to Christmas gifts for families in need. This year, instead of gathering volunteers for a shopping morning to buy the gifts, and a session the next day to wrap them, they bought gift cards to give to the families.
To make it a little more personal, they planned “An Evening of Amazing Grace” the evening of Dec. 6.
“A lot of places have canceled things because of COVID,” said Kelly Griffey, a member of Fortville Christian. But “we wanted to be careful, too.”
They lined the church parking lot with luminaries and staged a live Nativity that included real goats. When families pulled into the lot, they received a card with a QR code on it to scan with their phones and listen to the story of Jesus’ birth from the Bible. Masked, gloved volunteers handed out packaged bakery cookies and hot chocolate to go.
The last stop on the motor route was receiving the gift cards and rolls of wrapping paper. After receiving those handed through the car window, some families pulled over in the parking lot to linger, listening from their cars while a church worship team sang Christmas songs on the sidewalk.
Be the Gift helped 27 families in the Mt. Vernon school district. Other facets of Be the Gift this year included hygiene bags for clients of the Tuesday drive-thru food pantry; making blankets to deliver to shut-ins of the congregation; and notes of encouragement for Mt. Vernon teachers, with a gift card to a local business enclosed.
In Greenfield, Brandywine Community Church planned to help some students and families in need at J.B. Stephens Elementary, the church’s neighbor to the south on Blue Road. It also planned to show appreciation to the teachers there.
Brandywine’s annual “Giving to Christ at Christmas” offering is designed for worshipers to celebrate Jesus’ birth by giving him a gift. This year’s gifts will benefit Talitha Koum Women’s Recovery House; J.B. Stephens Elementary teachers and families; and a “strategic investment … to the ongoing needs of our campus as we continue to grow and fulfill Christ’s mission to the world,” senior pastor Mark Wright said in a video posted on the church’s website.
Wright said Wednesday that the offering, given Sunday, exceeded $30,000.
Calvary Baptist Church in Greenfield has also sought to help meet needs in this season. Cans of chicken noodle soup and white potatoes filled flat boxes stacked along a hallway at the church, representing a friendly competition between Sunday School classes to see which could bring in the most cans. The church’s goal was to gather 800 cans of each.
The food will be part of Christmas dinner baskets {span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}Metro Baptist Center in Indianapolis is delivering to families in need.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}While congregations seek to continue to meet needs with donations of money and items, one church choir found a way to continue to give the gift of song.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}Justin Wells, director of worship arts at Fortville Church of the Nazarene, said he realized over the summer that it wouldn’t be feasible to do the traditional choir Christmas program this year. The coronavirus is thought to be spread through droplets as people speak, sing or cough, and it’s believed particles travel farther when people sing.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}In a typical year, the choir would have gathered about twice a week from August until the December program. People who gather that often feel invested in each other’s lives, Wells said, but this year, he went months without seeing them.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}Wells sought to make the Christmas program happen in a different way. He brought singers in section by section, about six at a time, and spread them out in the church’s sanctuary, where they sang their parts with headphones on. With all those videos recorded, he embarked on the many hours it would take to bring those voices back together as a cohesive singing unit.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}”It was very technically laborious to do it,” he said, “but it did something to me … to hear them together again.”{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}It’s the choir program not even the choir saw until it was presented in church on Dec. 6. “The Song Goes On” can be viewed online at https://fortvillenazarene.org/media/series/v4zksdy/christmas-2020 (along with the church’s also-adapted Generations program, “The Story of the First Christmas”).{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}The choir program wasn’t presented in the usual way, but Wells hopes its availability online will let choir family members and others around the country watch it and be encouraged. It encouraged him.{/span}{/span}
{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}{span class=”d2edcug0 hpfvmrgz qv66sw1b c1et5uql rrkovp55 a8c37x1j keod5gw0 nxhoafnm aigsh9s9 d3f4x2em fe6kdd0r mau55g9w c8b282yb iv3no6db jq4qci2q a3bd9o3v knj5qynh oo9gr5id hzawbc8m” dir=”auto”}”{/span}{/span}Even in a year that’s been so crazy and so difficult,” he said, “the song is still inside their hearts.”
