Unsexy Church
Unsexy Church
Season 2 Episode 46: On Christmas Eve Services
Pastor Bob and Trent discuss Christmas Eve worship services. Join us as we rank our favorite holiday classics, from the mischievous antics of "Home Alone" to the heartwarming nostalgia of "It's a Wonderful Life."
Well, good morning Pastor Bob, Good morning Trent. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you Good? It's a Wednesday morning and we are exactly one week away from Christmas morning. We are, yeah Wild, yeah, it's crazy. It doesn't feel like Christmas.
Speaker 2:Well, for a guy who's from a cold winter or cold weather kind of place, yeah, it is supposed to be up to 83 today, If I saw correctly.
Speaker 1:I think it was 83.
Speaker 2:Is that right I didn't see today. I think it's 83.
Speaker 1:I think today is supposed to be the warmest day, and then it's supposed to cool down.
Speaker 2:It is supposed to cool off between now and Christmas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we went to Knoxville for Thanksgiving and it was fairly cold. We went up to the mountains and it was really cold, and then we came back here and it's getting closer to Christmas but it's only getting warmer and warmer. So, yeah, it does not feel like.
Speaker 2:Christmas, but we've had a fairly mild start to the winter so far here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is just so. So Florida, specifically the panhandle, was where our family vacationed. We didn't do a lot of vacationing, but that's where we vacation. I can remember three or four times growing up we would make the drive We'd go to I don't know Pensacola or Destin. I don't think we ever went to Panama City Beach. We went to Destin, but I think we did it in the summer and so it was just really, really hot. It's just so crazy to me to think that you can be at the beach on Christmas Day and most likely it won't be too cold.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, that's a Florida thing. Wild, welcome to Florida.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you're leaving. We're in like kind of South Florida. Yeah, no, kind of South Florida, we're in Central West Florida. Well, University of South Florida is in our neighborhood. Yes, but they're directionally challenged. Apparently that's kind of like the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. It's not really that Southern. You're right In Louisville, it's like Northern Kentucky.
Speaker 2:You're right, geography.
Speaker 1:Well, and two, there's not much more south of us, at least in Florida, at least on the Gulf Coast. I mean, you've got like the Everglades but you have Miami, but it's more on the west coast. I just flipped that around On the east coast the coast of the.
Speaker 2:Atlantic, you've just offended everybody who lives in Bradenton and Sarasota, Naples.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's almost our area. Cape Coral is farther, but you don't have a ton south of us, right? I mean you don't Do they have major reports? No, right, do they have beautiful beaches?
Speaker 2:They might as well not be there Do they have beautiful beaches.
Speaker 1:Yes, are they beautiful people? Fort Myers, sure, okay, south of Fort Myers, what is there? Nothing, right? I don't think there's anything. I think that's basically. That's Alligator Alley, right?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a little more, yeah, but that's okay.
Speaker 1:Like what it says. Alligators there and people hanging out with them, right. So I mean I say that to say I mean we're only what? An hour and a half from Fort Myers. Yeah, give or take, yeah, so we're in. If that's the southern part of the Gulf Coast, we're in that area. Yeah, I think three hours or more we're not have you ever been to the Keys?
Speaker 1:Yes, is it worth before we move, because we will come back down to Tampa. But we won't come back down to Tampa for an extended period of time. Is it worth, in the next five months, going down to the Keys?
Speaker 2:What do you want to accomplish?
Speaker 1:To say we went to the Keys, I mean Just to go, I mean I don't know. Another time we're going to go.
Speaker 2:So it's a four and a half hour drive to Miami. Yeah, Then you can get down to like what is it to miami.
Speaker 1:Yeah, then you can get down to like what is it key?
Speaker 2:largo which isn't all that exciting, and then the keys are like a three-hour drive on bridges a long drive, yeah, yeah. Yeah, key west is kind of neat, but it's not like any other beach town that you have here on the in pinellas county.
Speaker 1:So if we did so. I think it's in sarasota or bradenton. There's a ferry, yes, and it's almost set up like a plane. You sit front to back side by side with people and I don't think it's that long of a trip. It's not. Wouldn't that be worth it Just to go down there?
Speaker 2:If you want to just do it with your wife, it'd be kind of fun to do it with you and Jess. I've had other friends that have taken that ferry.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, I've had other friends that have taken that ferry. Okay, yeah, I wouldn't probably take a day to do it, but the thing is I'm terrified of boats and that's fairly open water fairly.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, yeah, so it's it's like the old days it's just the two of us in the studio today. Yeah, it's been a while. Not that I don't appreciate kara or whoever else sits in with us, but it's been a while since it's just been the two of us doing the podcast.
Speaker 1:We are sans Kara and sans Jordan. Jordan has his off day and Kara is on her honeymoon, so we don't normally record on Wednesdays.
Speaker 2:This is unusual.
Speaker 1:And it's a quiet Wednesday, it's a very quiet Wednesday. These weeks around Christmas time are just super quiet right. There are people that may have specific needs that come in and out, but most people are seeing family, they're getting off of school, they're going on trips. What have you we're?
Speaker 2:not complaining. No, we like the slower pace for a little while. A little bit of reading is nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was just reading a book that I got from Mr Nathan Schneider, the giver of free books. The giver of free books he works for the Florida Vitals Convention. I assume he just gets free books all the time from Crossway or B&H or Holman or whoever to give to pastors, to give to them, and so occasionally get a free book from him. And so he gave a book to me this past week. It's daily, devotional, something I don't know, but it's almost like a systematic theology, but it's only like four paragraphs on a topic and it's devotional. It's really kind of cool. That's kind of neat. It's 365 of them, so you read one one day and you read the next day.
Speaker 2:That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was really kind of cool. So it's written helpfully, devotionally, theologically and briefly.
Speaker 2:All those things are good.
Speaker 1:Daily something. Daily doctrines, doctrine, daily devotion, devotion doctrines, something. I think it's two Ds, all right, so hey, here's the fact of the day, it's.
Speaker 2:Christmas time.
Speaker 1:Did you know that in Japan, apparently, it is tradition for people to enjoy a Kentucky fried chicken meal?
Speaker 2:Yummy. You know, that I did not. It doesn't really surprise me, because KFC is pretty popular in foreign countries. Why, I don't know, but it is South Africa all over the place.
Speaker 1:Is it a so people?
Speaker 2:say Brazil.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've seen them in Brazil. Yeah, People say in other parts of the world some of our fast food restaurants are nicer restaurants. They're not, I mean sit-down restaurants necessarily, but would you say it's probably a sit-down restaurant, a nicer restaurant.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I'd call it a sit-down restaurant, but you can recognize it as, whatever the establishment is, mcdonald's KFC, but they are kind of a little more upscale-y than what we have.
Speaker 1:When we were in Krakow, poland, it was funny. In the old city which has all these old buildings from the 1300s and 1400s, there was a McDonald's on one of the corners, which is really kind of an odd place for it to be. It's right next to a huge Catholic church and people were like, okay, there's different kinds of food here this is much nicer than we have, and I'm thinking, I mean maybe a little bit um, not a ton nicer, no, it's not yeah yeah, yeah, so kfc is not my favorite chicken.
Speaker 2:No, not at all.
Speaker 1:No in fact they're known for chicken. Obviously it's kentucky fried chicken.
Speaker 2:I think they have one of the worst chickens I'm not sure it's the same standard that it used to be. The quality is low.
Speaker 1:It's low.
Speaker 2:I can't remember the last time I had KFC though?
Speaker 1:Do you have a favorite chicken place? Have you had Raising Cane's?
Speaker 2:I've had Raising Cane's. It's pretty good. Guthrie's Guthrie's is okay.
Speaker 1:I'd only had Guthrie's a few months ago for the first time in Tallahassee, didn't realize we had one down kind of close to where you live.
Speaker 2:Yes, near us. It's okay, Chick-fil-A obviously Popeye's Chick-fil-A has changed its chicken.
Speaker 1:Did you know that?
Speaker 2:No, in the last year. I'm not really that up on the chicken franchises.
Speaker 1:Yeah, someone told me that, and then I can notice it. Eating the chicken, really, I can taste the difference. Yeah, for the better or for the worse, it doesn't taste as real. Hmm, I say that. So if you had McDonald's chicken, it's like—.
Speaker 2:Be careful. You're bordering on blasphemy with the Baptist bird. Oh, I still love it. So be careful, be very careful.
Speaker 1:I still love it when I say it doesn't taste as real there might be. It's not necessarily as good, but it's still really really good. You know, like McDonald's chicken is almost like ground chicken put into a nugget. You know it does not taste like that, but it is much more consistent and soft than kind of the pulling of the meat that it used to have Genuinely.
Speaker 2:I mean Okay.
Speaker 1:You can bite into one and you'll taste it. Yeah, okay, yeah. So do you have a favorite? Is it Chick-fil-A?
Speaker 2:I don't really have a favorite. Zaxby's is not bad.
Speaker 1:Zaxby's is good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, zaxby's is good, I don't.
Speaker 1:Chicken's chicken, get the fries and you get whatever else where would?
Speaker 2:you go?
Speaker 1:I don't know, because I would rarely go and get like a three piece chicken meal, for anything, I just yeah, I think I'd go to raisin canes, yeah, I think. So they're chickens, they're chickens, so I like their sauce the best, I think. Now I like Brahms, which is in the Oklahoma, missouri area. Yeah, I'm not familiar with them, but all right. Well, hey, it's time to rank Christmas movies.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did songs last time. Right, it's songs last time. Today's movies.
Speaker 1:I've got. Do we want to do eight of them or do we want to do ten of them? Two?
Speaker 2:I don't care. Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Here's the 10 movies we're gonna rank, uh, in no particular order. White christmas never seen it. It's a wonderful life. I've never seen that elf. I've definitely seen that national lampoon's christmas vacation. I've seen that home alone. The santa claus, that's the tim allen, the santa claus, the first one, not the second, third and whatever else they made. It's not good, uh, miracle on 34th street. Uh I, whatever else they made, it's not good. Miracle on 34th Street. I assume that they made two versions of those.
Speaker 2:At least two. Yeah, you talking about the original or the one? Pick your favorite and we'll vote on your favorite no, the original is much better than the remake I haven't seen either. How are you ranking movies you've never seen? You haven't seen half these movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm going to have to just do like a. I'll tell you what to watch Grinch, and particularly the Jim Carrey version we're not doing animated movies on this list and then Die Hard, which people love to talk about it being a Christmas movie or not. I've also not seen Die Hard, so I'm not in the vote on whether it's a good or bad movie.
Speaker 2:So this is basically me ranking half of them and you ranking the other half that you've seen yeah, I think die hards are rated r movie bob.
Speaker 1:So if that's uh anywhere lower than 10, yeah I think it is again.
Speaker 2:I've not seen the movie set in a christmas setting. That's I have. You can say I have seen.
Speaker 1:Uh, the die hard image that I have every time I think of die hard is him in like? I think it's like a, a white tank top in a like an air conditioning vent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:That's an iconic scene. Maybe he's got like a lighter to see. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the movie, okay.
Speaker 2:That's the movie.
Speaker 1:All right? Well, hey, let's rank them. So let's start with least favorite to most favorite, Least to most. Mm-hmm, what are you going to start?
Speaker 2:with Diehard's number 10. Really, yeah, I don't dislike Diehard, I just don't consider it a go-to Christmas movie. Okay, um.
Speaker 1:Grinch has to be next right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably. Grinch is nine. Grinch is fine, grinch is fine. I know Ryan really likes Grinch. He enjoys that movie.
Speaker 1:We just watched it with the kids. It was a little bit scarier than I remember for a four-year-old, just because he's loud, and Jim Carrey, it's a little bit longer than I want it to be. It felt long.
Speaker 2:In all honesty, I hardly ever will sit down and watch any of these movies start to finish.
Speaker 1:I'm watching the Untold documentaries again. Those are so good.
Speaker 2:So number nine, grinch, I would go Home Alone. 8, although I like Home Alone.
Speaker 1:I like Home Alone. I'm not dissing on Home Alone.
Speaker 2:That would put Santa Claus. I like Home.
Speaker 1:Alone. Home Alone is so good. I like Home Alone.
Speaker 2:Joe Pesci, I'm not dissing on Home Alone. Okay, that would put Santa Claus at seven, although I like this. Santa Claus, that hurts me, but because you don't know these other movies, that's correct. You can't judge because you don't know the older movies. I told you last time I'm a traditionalist, I call older stuff.
Speaker 1:So I older stuff, so I'm going to rank the older ones better.
Speaker 2:Okay, so Santa Claus was the movie we watched growing up, my parents just loved Tim Allen, and so we watched the Santa Claus.
Speaker 1:The first, two Third, I think I've seen the second one.
Speaker 2:I've seen Jack Frost is the third one. Awful that's awful.
Speaker 1:Those are money grabs. They're trying to take the money from the first, have you?
Speaker 2:seen the series that they've come out with Christmas Chronicles. No, it's the Santa Claus. No, not seen it yeah don't bother.
Speaker 1:There's the Christmas Chronicles and it's got the guy from Overboard. I forget his name Kurt Russell.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1:Kids like that one. Okay, that's good. Where am I? You just did seven the Santa Claus, so this is going to surprise you.
Speaker 2:I'm going to put A Christmas Story at six. You would think I would rank it higher. I'm happy with that. I like A Christmas Story. It's a tradition on Christmas Eve that it's kind of on in the background.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing it's not a good movie, but's not a good movie but it is a good movie.
Speaker 2:No, it's not. It it's not a good movie. It's got quotable lines.
Speaker 1:It's got quotable lines yes, yes so it's like um monty python, right? So just you know the holy grail very quotable, not as quotable, but very quotable, and people like it because of of, uh, sentimental value exactly nostalgia.
Speaker 2:it speaks to me because of the nostalgia, because it was made in the 80s but set in like the 50s, and so that time frame just kind of is cool.
Speaker 1:Can I tell you something? You're going to. The answer is going to be long, but the topic is short today and we're talking about Christmas. Fa la, la, la Yep. So one of the big things about the movie A Christmas Story is that he gets a Red Rider BB gun. I just bought Judah a Red Rider BB gun. I hope he doesn't shoot his eye out. He's getting it for Christmas, which is so exciting.
Speaker 2:I remember when we bought Ryan a BB gun. He's a little on the younger side.
Speaker 1:Judah's not even seven yet. He'll turn seven on Christmas Day, but we got him a Red Rider.
Speaker 2:With supervision, that'll be okay.
Speaker 1:We got him a Red Rider rider with supervision, that'll be okay. We got a red rider, we got in the yellow little sunglasses that came with a red rider, nice. And then, uh, I actually went on daisy's website who makes the red rider, and, uh, they have like these little clay targets that, it's like you know, explode like clay pigeons but built for bb guns, and so we're gonna stick those in the yard I'm so excited. It's gonna be fun yeah it'd be a lot of fun, cool, all All right, so you did six for.
Speaker 2:Christmas Story. Six for Christmas Story. I'm going to go National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at five, okay.
Speaker 1:I enjoy it. Now is Christmas Vacation, the one that You've not seen this one. No, no, no, there's two different vacations. Right, there's multiple vacations. Okay, christmas vacation is with uncle eddie, where, um, they, uh, they do the prayer, um, and they let grandma do the prayer and she starts in the pledge of allegiance or something, or the national anthem. Okay, yeah, hilarious, yeah, yeah, and the turkey just goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's over okay, it's just a little dry. Yeah, great baby. Uh, yeah, good stuff in that movie. Uh, so that's number five. So that puts miracle at 34th Street. The original, not the remake. The original at four, elf at three. I like Elf I enjoy Elf and then the two. It's a Wonderful Life, which is a long movie and can be very depressing.
Speaker 1:Okay, I really don't know what happens in it, but it's a good movie. I'm not kidding, it's a classic. I'm a classic guy.
Speaker 2:So it's a Wonderful Life at two, and I'm going to put White Christmas at one, which was also my number one song. And the reason for that is traditionally, when Darlene and I are decorating our main tree, we play White Christmas the movie while we're decorating our tree, so it's just a kind of a holiday tradition for us.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I feel like people aren't going to believe this. But not only have I not seen the movie, I, they're both old movies, but they're in different eras correct um was I told that they're not around the same time frame when they were made, or when they're set yes I don't know, I don't know either. They're both black and white no, they're.
Speaker 2:They're both post-World War II settings.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:They're both black and white and probably made in similar time frames. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'd have to look, but they're going to be pretty close.
Speaker 1:The song White Christmas is that from the movie.
Speaker 2:It's originally from a different movie Holiday Inn, if I remember right. Okay, and then the song was so popular that they ended up making a movie for it.
Speaker 1:Ah, okay, there you go. See, you're learning stuff, so they made the movie from the song. That was kind of part of the inspiration.
Speaker 2:Yes, you need to see these movies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, okay, maybe my wife thinks it's horrible that I haven't seen either one of those movies.
Speaker 2:She's right.
Speaker 1:She grew up on Westerns, black and white Westerns, with her dad, and then just black and white movies. You are uneducated right now. So I have to mark out Die Hard and I have to mark out White Christmas and I have to mark out it's a Wonderful Life and I have to mark out Miracle on 34th Street. Okay, so we've got to use that. So that's uh, four, so six. Grinch will be six. Um, uh, no, yeah, grinch would be six. Christmas story would be five. Um, national Lampoons will be four. Home Alone. No, let's do. Elf would be three. Home Alone would be two. Santa Claus would be three. Home Alone would be two. Santa Claus would be one. Santa Claus is my Christmas story. It just has a lot of sentimental value. I love you know.
Speaker 1:The boy stays with the dad. Mom and dad are divorced and dad doesn't know how to cook, and so you know it shows this. It zooms in on a TV. He's watching for how to make a turkey looking like it's the table he's prepared. And then it shows him and he's spraying a fire extinguisher on the turkey. It's going everywhere. And then he goes to Denny's and he says it's an American establishment. They show a bunch of Chinese people there and then Judy's their waitress and he sees another dad with two kids and he's like, did you burn a turkey? And the dad raises and he's got a cast on Hilarious, great movie.
Speaker 1:We want to talk about Christmas Eve services, okay, so in every church that I've been a part of serving and growing up they have had a Christmas Eve service tradition to gather on the night before Christmas to sing carols. I think most churches that I was a part of, if not every, had candles where we'd sing Silent Night or something similar together and it was like a family thing. You know, a lot of times families would dress up for that night and then go home and maybe open up one Christmas gift before Christmas morning. So I looked up when Christmas Eve services started Early on in church history. There were vigils. Some of those Christmas Eve services early on went to midnight midnight mass. But let's just ask the question like why do we at FBC Tampa have a Christmas Eve service? What's the significance in it? The answer might be obvious, but just from you as our pastor, why do we have Christmas Eve services? Because I like it, okay.
Speaker 1:So it's not in the Bible to have Christmas Eve service.
Speaker 2:No, it's not in the Bible to have it Okay, we've just found it to be, and ours has grown. In my 15 years here it really has grown and grown every year to where it's one of the most popular services each year.
Speaker 1:Now, is it in the Bible to have Christmas Eve service? If it's on a Sunday, what? Yes, so Sunday service, okay, so then in the Bible?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, on the first day of the week, but it's a Tuesday this year, so we're going to have one at five o'clock on a Tuesday. On a Tuesday, yeah, we've just come to find that it helps families to just kind of slow down in the midst of a very busy season and just kind of make sure we're focused in the right way. And that, and just kind of make sure we're focused in the right way, that for me it just slows my mind down. It slows my heart down and just says, okay, let's focus on what we're really celebrating here. For me it goes back to childhood. Like you, I grew up in churches that had them. My family always participated in them. We would go and then go to my grandmother's house afterwards. Then I did attend a church that did a service from 11 to midnight, and we did that for years. So for us here at First Baptist it's a church service. That is just a great time to just slow down and worship the Lord together and remember what it's all about. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Uh, since we've been here, one thing that, so I love Christmasy service as well. Um.
Speaker 1:I think, you've only missed in my family and my wife's family lives 16 hours to 20 hours away from where, uh, we now live here in Tampa, Um, but I think I've only missed one service because we've tried to arrange going back home to see family around that service, and not just because you need me here you don't need me here but because I just love that service. I think you're spot on. It is a time for us just to rest, reflect.
Speaker 1:It's almost like a Sabbath where we're taking time to contemplate and consider what God has done in the rush of getting all our packages wrapped, and it even makes some of the things we do for Christmas that are good things. It puts them in proper perspective for their importance. Yeah, the weekend before we're getting all the gifts we can, you know, uh, all the stores are full of people rushing around, and then you slow down and you remember okay, this is, this is all about Jesus.
Speaker 2:Yeah, We've been busy going to parties and meetings and everything getting ready for Christmas. You got a night where you can just slow down and then you know it's going to crank back up for a day or so with family, but you can just slow down for a little bit. And so we've had families start to rearrange their, their Christmas Eve celebrations with their family to be able to be here, and we choose to do ours at five, just so we can give those families that opportunity. So we're it's an hour long service. They can be gone at six and then go enjoy their evening together.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, it's. Uh, it's also a service that from us, from a ministerial standpoint, doesn't require a whole lot of preparation. Darren probably more than the rest of us, as he's getting the musical team and the worship team together, but even that is it's familiar songs. We go very traditional. We have families read the Christmas story, we light candles, we do the Lord's Supper together. I give a brief Christmas Eve devotional thought. So it's not a lot of prep time, it's not a lot of we do everything with excellence, but it's not a lot of effort that we have to put in on the front end to make that to go well.
Speaker 1:We're not trying to make it into something, we're trying to remember together Exactly.
Speaker 2:We're not trying to overthink it, we're not trying to be too creative with it, we're just. I think at Christmas, people want to remember what Christmas is about.
Speaker 1:They want their family.
Speaker 2:They want their family and for most people they want traditional stuff. They want songs. They know they want to sing things. They know they want songs. They know they want to sing things. They know they want to hear the story. They know. So I think we just lean into that pretty well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think that's right leaning into it because we want to appear to be the family that we are as much as possible so that families can be here and enjoy time with not only their family but a church family, Right, All right? Well, hey, so what do we do during service? You mentioned that we sing carols. You mentioned that you do a devotional Candles we do.
Speaker 2:How long is the service Usually right? At an hour. And so it alternates between some music that the congregation participates in carol singing.
Speaker 1:All I Want for Christmas. Is you those kind of things? Yes, Not it. Mariah Carey hasn't made the list yet. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But traditional, typically pretty traditional Christmas carol stuff. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Yeah that's Darren's favorite, I think.
Speaker 1:That's got to be up there. For me too, it's a great one. Joy to the World.
Speaker 2:Joy to the world.
Speaker 1:Joy to the world First Noel, first Noel you know that kind of little town of Bethlehem. Are there any Christmas songs? I'm going off subject. Are there any Christmas songs that we don't sing? Christmas hymns carols that are really good, that you know of that are just like man. This is a really good one, don't sing all that often I don't know.
Speaker 2:Joy to the world. We do, but it's not a Christmas carol, it's a Second Coming song. I've heard that. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:It's 100% a Second Coming song, but it's okay. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:So that didn't answer your question. I don't know, joy to the World.
Speaker 1:The Lord has come. He's come once he's coming again. I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2:Darren does a great job of that. So we try to intersperse those songs and then we'll have families go up and read portions of the Christmas story. You know, the Gabriel appearing to Mary, gabriel appearing to Joseph the census.
Speaker 1:Herod and the wise man, Herod and the wise, you know all of the shepherds, the whole thing, and then we'll put the songs in between it.
Speaker 2:And then we'll do a devotional, maybe a five or ten minute devotional on what the meaning is. We'll observe Lord's Supper together. We used to do that. I really love this. We used to be able to do it where families could come down and we would have about five or six different stations set up.
Speaker 1:You would do one, I would do one, dan would do one, we would just do very individual times with families.
Speaker 2:We've grown so to the point where we can't do that anymore, not not in the timeframe. So now we do a corporate Lord's supper together which is still nice. Yeah, and then we'll light candles. We'll do a candle lighting where it passes the candle around, focusing on the light of the world and that God has sent us into the world to be light. Now, uh, we'll sing silent night. So it's just a very sweet traditional reminder.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you ever had any incidents with the candles? Significant incidents?
Speaker 2:Uh, not on Christmas Eve we have. But at a musical somebody's hair got too close to a candle.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that was fun. Did it just start smelling? Did it get a little fire?
Speaker 2:Fortunately it was out in the hallway as children were getting ready to come in and sing Wow, and so nobody out in the congregation actually ever knew it happened. No children were hurt in the incident, but it was close.
Speaker 1:Was it this church or another church? Was there ever like a live animal brought into the building?
Speaker 2:Not, here, but yeah, there's a lot of places that do that. I've been in churches that do live animals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I remember there's some story. Yeah, okay, this is you right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was. Oh, was that West Palm? I think that was First Baptist West Palm, before it came family church. Okay, I think what happened A camel just went over into the, into a person, into a pew.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I've never, I don't think I've been in any service where a live animal has intentionally come in.
Speaker 2:Not unintentionally either, but I don't think anybody's ever brought a live animal into service for a play. At one of my churches we did a live nativity at christmas eve service.
Speaker 1:I think it was christmas eve service and we had a donkey and it just refused to go down the aisle so we had two guys dressed, it just sat there and you know, when a donkey makes up his mind, it ain't gonna do anything so we had these two guys, two deacons who sit on it and slap its bottom.
Speaker 2:They just, they had a, they had a rope, and one of them grabbed one side of the rope and the other and they just dragged that thing down the aisle with its bottom just feet out like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's hilarious, yeah, oh goodness, okay, um, so uh, there's this history.
Speaker 1:So I looked up the history of celebrating christmas eve services and it talked about a midnight mass. Sure, sure, so uh, in church history, a number of churches have celebrated that Christmas Eve service going into midnight, ending, right, you know, at 1201 AM. Uh, why do that? Why not do that? Uh, have you been a part of a church that does that?
Speaker 2:I have um Catholic church still does it.
Speaker 1:There's still the celebration at St Peter's Basilica every year right at midnight, but they start before midnight, right, they do. They start before midnight and they go into midnight and they kind of stop.
Speaker 2:And I've been in churches that give you an option. You can come at like 6 o'clock with your family, or there's one at 11 o'clock that ends after midnight, and we used to do both as a couple that would just be Darlene and I.
Speaker 1:We'd probably enjoy going to that other than the fact that we're probably both asleep well before that, especially not having kids now.
Speaker 2:Exactly, but with kids it's a but. We've, I've enjoyed those it's, it's, it's, it's, uh. In the church I grew up in, it was special Um, and we would usually end with candles and we would proceed out to the outside in the front of the church and end with the candles. Outside is just the symbolic nature of taking the candles or the light singing outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, yeah, so you're saying process out with the with the light, okay, into the, into the night. Oh, that's cool, it was nice. I mean, is it necessary to do it at midnight? No, but it just rings in the new day, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, how many churches do you think like non-Catholic Protestant Baptist churches do you think? Do that Still?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably fewer now than yeah, yeah, I rarely hear of any that actually are doing one, but I'm sure they do actually are doing one, but I'm sure they do. And if they do, it's great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how many kids do you think are just sleeping in the pew during that? They come in their pajamas? I would assume kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you would think so, you know, when they fall asleep on the way home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a late night. I don't ever see the other side of midnight. Yeah, I rarely do. I can probably count on one hand the last number of years. So, all right, well, hey, just one more quick thing, pastor Bob, and then we'll be done. Do you have like a go-to devotional text to teach on? So, do you go to Matthew? Do you go to Luke? Do you do kind of a version of John, the word becoming flesh, you know? Is there a way? So when you're doing a devotional, I assume you pull from all of them.
Speaker 2:You almost have to to tell the whole story to get the whole picture you pull from each of the gospels. Um, if I had to pick one, I would probably go with Luke, just because I've got that one more memorized and there's more detail in that one. Yeah, shepherds are in Luke.
Speaker 1:Yeah, shepherds, not in Luke.
Speaker 2:No, okay, they're definitely in.
Speaker 1:Luke shepherds.
Speaker 2:But I probably would use John as my favorite, just John. Chapter one, sure, because it just summarizes the whole thing and John doesn't mess around with telling us about the Light coming in the world. He doesn't go back to the nativity, he goes back to eternity past and starts there and explains it all.
Speaker 1:Matthew and Luke are historical accounts. What John is doing is explaining from eternity past for an eternal future. Christ has now entered into.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a theological explanation of Christmas. Yeah, so that's probably my favorite passage to go to, but there's different ways to do it. But again, I think people don't get. Sometimes pastors can, I think, get too creative at Christmas. Just, there's a reason why we celebrate Christmas celebrate it, emphasize it, use those texts to do it.
Speaker 1:Be reminded not necessarily be wow, did something new. What we're celebrating is something that is old and great. We don't have to make it better. It doesn't get much better than Christ coming for us. Anything else? You'd add Christmas Eve service. If you don't have a church to go to, go to a solid church, Come to FBC Tampa.
Speaker 2:We'd love to have you Make it part of your celebration. I think it's important for parents. Parents are always trying to strike this balance between the secular nature of Christmas and the traditional, the sacred nature, and I think a Christmas Eve service is the perfect way to do that. I think it is an opportunity to teach your children. Yeah, we're excited about what's going to happen tomorrow morning or tonight, whatever your family's tradition is, but this is why we celebrate Christmas, and so I just I would encourage families to use it as a teaching tool for their kids.
Speaker 1:That's good. I love that. All right, well, hey, thanks for listening. In next week We'll probably record again and you'll get to hear from us, yeehaw.
Speaker 2:See you later.
