Christmas is a great opportunity for churches to engage with their communities. The vast majority of our friends, family and neighbours will be celebrating Christmas in some way, so it’s a natural time to invite people to church and help them understand a bit more about the story of Jesus. To that end, here are three great ways your church can communicate with people in your parish (es) to help them understand more about the real meaning of Christmas.

1) Christmas Starts With Christ.

Christmas Starts With Christ is a national, ecumenical advertising campaign helping churches put the story of Christ’s birth at the heart of Christmas. There are free posters, church packs, web banners and videos that your church can use to reach out to people in your area.

This year, we’re encouraging churches to club together to buy radio advertising space for the Christmas Starts With Christ radio ads. J Peter Wilson of the Christian Broadcasting Council (he lives in Bridlington) has worked out that the following three stations reach the most 15 – 34 year olds in our Diocese with 47% to 60% of them listening to these three stations. If churches in these areas clubbed together and paid £77.50 each, the Christmas Starts With Christ radio ads could be broadcast 75 times (72 spots for Capital) evenly rotated across all the days and evenings from 11th to 25th December inclusive.

If your church could afford to do this, please talk to your Deanery or Churches Together colleagues to see if they could join in. If you would like more information, or if you would like Peter to talk about the benefits of the radio campaign, please contact Peter via email: peter.wilson@hnbt.org.uk or call him at home on 01262 416266 or on 08448 112 610.

2) Noticeboards, posters and banners

The Diocese is holding a session on using church noticeboards, posters and banners to reach out to passers-by. Led by CPO (Christian Publishing and Outreach), the session will take place at Diocesan House on the evening of Wednesday 30th September. This is a great opportunity to think how you could use the outside of your church to share messages about Christmas (including Christmas Starts With Christ materials) to invite people inside. If you’d like to attend the training session, please contact Eleanor Course on: comms@yorkdiocese.org or 01904 699530.

3) Games

For a lot of people, Christmas includes playing games with friends and family. Games company Ugly Duckling is offering churches the chance to give away their game ‘Table Talk for Christmas’ for free. It’s a great game that your church can offer it as a gift to those in your community.

Table Talk for Christmas is an all age family game that explores the spirit and meaning of the Christmas story. It is an ideal gift for churches to offer through their community Carol Services, parent and toddler groups, local schools or via the media (radio and local papers) to all those living in their community. To find out more, visit www.table-talk.org or tabletalkuk.blogspot.co.uk.