It sounds like quite a show. The Christmas production at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, is not your ordinary church Christmas program. The megachurch’s website describes it as such: “The Gift of Christmas” is a Prestonwood tradition and has become one of the highlights of the Christmas season, with thousands of guests attending each year. This visually stunning multimedia event is complete with special effects, a nearly 1,000-member cast and choir, live orchestra, flying angels and much more!”
Yep, it sounds like quite the Christmas production. Your ticket for $20, at the back of the auditorium, and up to $70, for up front, gets you all that, plus the much more, which includes camels, other animals, and some laser effects. It’s quite the contrast from a couple of Christmas programs I was a part of from my past. My early memories were of a simple play of the Christmas story back at my home church at Clement.
All of us kids would play the parts. Of course, I was cast as one of the shepherds. Back then, we young boys would put on an old housecoat for a robe and wrap a towel around our head. We would use a tobacco stick (Many of you are saying, “What’s that?”) for the shepherd’s staff. All the adults thought it was so nice and sweet. To be honest, all we kids were mainly thinking about the little bag of candy and fruit we would get afterward. But looking back, I can see that it was also planting seeds for my future belief in that Christ child.
A few years later, I would again be a part of a Christmas program. But this one would be different. I was just out of high school, in college at ECU, and back home for Christmas. But I was also a part of a youth choir back home. The One Way Singers were a youth choir who sang together back in the early 1970s. I believe the choir started just to sing at a youth rally, and then just kept on performing for a couple of years.
The One Way Singers were not your basic singing group. Headed up by W.C. and Edna Glynn Martin, the choir was not sponsored by any one church, and several churches and denominations were represented by members. There were times when there were over 40 young people singing in the choir, and probably at least 60-70 teenagers sang in the choir at one time or another. I know of at least three members who became ministers, although there was one who ended up becoming a dreaded tax collector. (Yep, that was me.)
Back in the early ’70s, there wasn’t much to do for teenagers in north Sampson County. So when the opportunity came to hang out with other young people, go places and do stuff, we did it. It seemed like every weekend we were going someplace and singing, whether it was at a local church or as far away as Wilmington or Charlotte. And it was a blast doing it with a bunch of other kids our age.
During that time, the group decided to do a Christmas Nativity program. But we wanted it to be different, and it was. With a helping hand from adults, we did it outside, in front of what is now, Midway Elementary School. We rounded up a couple of sheep for the shepherds. (Of course, I was once again a shepherd.) We ran a pulley line so the star would move to guide the wise men to the manger. The girls, who were dressed like angels, were placed on a platform on the back of a flat-bed trailer. By using a spotlight at night, it did make it appear as if they were up in the sky. And, of course, there was baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the manger, and Christmas carols.
It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. There was good attendance each night, and the people attending seemed to really enjoy it. More importantly, we shared the message and purpose of Jesus’ birth. And, for me, the fellowship during that time with other young Christians helped lay the foundation for my new found faith.
You may attend some sort of Christmas program this season. It may be big and fancy, with flying angels and camels. Or it may be simple and plain, with housecoats and tobacco sticks. But, either way, the message of the birth of the Messiah will be there, if you are open to it.