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What’s Up
Your Christmas Eve service is the one service a year when people who rarely think about church actually show up. But goodwill and candlelight won’t cut it anymore … not if you’re hoping to see them again.
So What
Your neighbors arrive carrying stress, doubt, and exhaustion. They’re not looking for a holiday show … they’re looking for something real. If the service feels nostalgic instead of necessary, they won’t return. But if you speak to their actual lives, their actual struggles, and their actual hopes, you open the door to trust, connection, and transformation. A forgettable service is a missed opportunity. A compelling service becomes the bridge they’ll cross when they come back.
The Point Is:
Make It About Them, Not Your Traditions
Most churches accidentally build Christmas Eve for insiders. That’s why guests feel like they’ve been dropped into someone else’s family gathering. Instead, design the night with your unchurched neighbor in mind. Speak to their pressures, their longings, and their worries. Keep the language simple. Keep the tone warm. Keep the focus on them.
Tell the Story Like It Matters Today
The nativity isn’t sentimental. It’s disruptive. It’s God stepping into chaos at the worst possible time for the most unlikely people. Preach it like that. Your neighbors aren’t looking for a sweet story about a baby. They’re looking for the God who refuses to leave people in the dark.
Create Meaningful Moments They’ll Feel
Guests won’t remember your Greek translation … but they will remember a moment of quiet reflection, a powerful story, or a single question that hits home. Craft moments of awe, gratitude, and honesty. Make space for them to breathe. You’re not performing. You’re creating an encounter.
Make the Next Step Obvious and Helpful
If you don’t offer a simple, compelling, real-life next step, you’ve wasted your biggest platform of the year. January should launch a series that speaks to their felt needs … money, marriage, parenting, purpose. People don’t return for tradition. But the will return for help.
And … ?
Do you get it? Christmas Eve is outreach, not discipleship. This isn’t the night for your theological lecture or your ten-minute announcement marathon. Everything should point toward hope, relevance, and value. Cut the clutter. Cut the insider cues. Cut anything that makes a guest feel like they’re crashing a private event. Give them something to take home that will actually move the needle in relieving their biggest struggle. (Note: They’re not struggling with Jesus as the reason for the season. Their struggles are much more personal.)
And since we’re getting serious, let’s talk about the one thing almost every church avoids on Christmas Eve: collecting contact information. Pastors tell me, “It disrupts the flow.” Perhaps. But what it really disrupts is the church’s mission by letting the largest crowd of the year walk out anonymously.
If you don’t get their contact information, you cannot follow up. If you cannot follow up, you cannot build a relationship. And if you cannot build a relationship, the odds of them returning hover near zero. Which means if they didn’t truly hear the gospel the first time … they may never hear it again in a meaningful, cumulative, or life-altering way.
The most important part of every service is the moment you create the relational bridge. Christmas Eve isn’t an exception … it’s the night that matters most. Make it natural. Make it simple. Make it brief. A one-minute welcome card moment, a QR code on the screen, and a short text-in option. Frame it as a gift to them, not a data grab: “We’d love to send you our January series that will help you win at life.” They’ll respond because it’s useful.
Your neighbors aren’t coming for Silent Night. They’re coming because life is heavy and they’re looking for something, anything, that might lift the weight for a moment. Behind every plastic holiday smile is a real story: a strained marriage, a parent at the end of their rope, someone grieving an empty chair, someone terrified about the new year. If the gospel doesn’t speak to that, then what exactly are we offering?
But when you speak to their reality … when you tell the truth about the darkness they feel and the light God offers … they’ll sit up. They’ll listen. Some will cry. Some will breathe a little easier for the first time in months. And some will think, “This church gets me.” That is the moment that changes everything.
Here’s the part pastors miss: Christmas Eve is not the win. It’s the setup. The real win is what happens in January. Your follow-up series is where you build the bridge between their halting return to church and their first step toward discipleship. So design your January with precision. Make it hyper-relevant to your target audience. Make it practical. Make it something they’ll genuinely want to come back for.
Money stress? Preach on it. People are drowning.
Marriage strain? Offer hope and tools.
Parenting overwhelm? Speak directly into it.
Identity, purpose, direction? You’ve got their attention.
Your mission is too important to phone in Christmas Eve. This is the moment your community is paying attention. Make it count. Create a service that feels honest, grounded, and hopeful. Skip the pageantry. Skip the sentimental clichés. Show them the God who steps into real life with real power.
If you can do that, you won’t just host a service. You’ll spark a conversation they’ll want to continue.
Action! Register for this week’s Catalytic Conversation webinar to get the full breakdown and insights on creating a Christmas Eve service that will more and more visitors every year … starting with this on. Register for free here.
