We have finally arrived…the first Sunday in Advent…and the other unofficial beginning of the Christmas season (Thanksgiving being the other one). Today at Salem we are have a Hanging of the Greens worship service (Does anyone else have a Hanging of the Greens worship service?). We will finish decorating the sanctuary this morning. A lot of the decorations have been put up already in the interest of saving some time. The evergreens on the pews will be put up, the children will decorate the Christmas tree, a poinsettia will be brought in (we add a poinsettia each week of Advent), and the manger and cross up front are talked about. All in all, it is a fun worship service with a lot of people involved (especially the children).
Yesterday we got a good ole fashioned Minnesota snow storm. Nothing too big but definitely enough to cause some cancellations yesterday, including the worship service at Belmont Lutheran Church (the other congregation I service). One service on Sunday morning really throws off my groove.
Anyway…let’s being our "unofficial" start of the Christmas season together in a word of prayer. Let us pray…
Loving and tender God, we come before you today with much on our plate. We have a lot to do to get "ready" for Christmas. We have decorating and baking and shopping and planning and so on and so to get done. Sometimes this causes stress and sometimes it causes us to lose sight of what is really important. Please keep our focus directed in the right direction…for Christmas is all about your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord…the greatest gift of all. Help us not to lose sight of what our preparations are leading us to and don’t let the secular world cloud the true meaning of the season. Dear God…thank you for loving us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior we pray…AMEN!
God bless you this day and everyday and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
-edh-
The Heart of a Pastor 
We have a Hanging of the Greens service every year. Unfortunately the pastor had to go out of town unexpectedly for a funeral so I had the honor of leading the service. It went pretty well but I’m surprised at how much planning goes into it. Well, I should say how much planning should have gone into it as I forgot a few things and almost forgot several more…
we do not have a hanging of the greens, but I think it is a great idea. by the way, I tagged you at my place, Christmas X3 meme.
Hanging of the Greens is a fun thing. It started out as a Sunday evening service on the first Sunday of Advent. But with attendance so low and the fact that we lose a Sunday of decorations we moved the service to Sunday morning last year. So far so good. This year the weather was aweful and that kept numbers down.
Diane — thanks for the tag. I have been so behind in stuff these past couple weeks that I have fallen behind in my blogging, but I am working on my 3×3 and it will be posted soon.