Biggest-ever Southwest Carols

Rediscover Church's Lead Pastor Mark Pugh says:

"Both of those events had thousands of participants (over 6000 joined in the last one) and it was such a wonderful expression of unity as well as an opportunity to seek God's mercy at this time of great need.

"Just a few weeks ago I shared an idea with a few people that had been capturing my imagination and prayers. It relates to a large-scale Christmas gospel outreach across the southwest.

"Praise God, people have been discovering the love of God during lockdown but I'm convinced that as stewards of the best message in the world we should be aiming for many 1000s to discover Him!

"Christmas will be different for so many people this year against the backdrop of the corona struggle. There will likely be a lack of social interactions and regular elements such as large carol services and school nativity plays etc are unlikely to be possible – at least on the same scale as we are normally used to.

"I think there could be a wonderful opportunity for us to share the gospel in a different way - together."

Possible ingredients for the proposed high-quality online broadcast on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th December include:
• Professionally-produced carols by a range of participants including well known Christian singers such as Matt Redman, Lucy Grimble, London Community Gospel Choir, Wildwood Kin and a Cathedral Children’s Choir
• Personal testimonies, with people sharing their faith sincerely and engagingly
• The gospel presented clearly and succinctly by a well-known evangelist or speaker
• A large nativity featuring multiple schools across the southwest, performed in sync with an audio narration
• Mostly pre-recorded segments, with live presenters introducing them
• Churches signing up to help with follow-up at a local level
• Individual recordings of carols and talks made available to churches after the event, for use in their own Christmas programmes

Mark says:

"We have conducted some initial feasibility study and believe we could do it.

"As well as looking to conduct a significant social media advertising campaign and looking to achieve maximum publicity with news channels etc, we also believe it could be an opportunity for the members of our churches to invite friends and neighbours either to join them for mince pies and carols in their homes (in bubbles of 6) or to just invite them to watch in their own homes."

"Could we make this the biggest carol service ever in the South West?"

For more information and to offer your help, email mark.pugh@rediscoverchurch.com or ring 01392 425070.