Christmas Eve Under the Stars/Sunset ;)

So we decided to do a Christmas Eve service at Butterfield Park here in the French Valley. It's kind of a tradition for us at Chorus Church; that is, if you can have traditions in a Church that's only 3 years old. Either way, it's something that people at Chorus look forward to every year and I can see why.

This year we started the service @ 5:00pm. I wanted to run 3 screens, but the scary thing was that sunset wasn't until about 4:50pm. I was really nervous about using any screen at all because of the fact that we were outside. Pastor Dave assured me that it would be o.k. At about 4:30pm I looked up and still couldn't see anything on the one screen we decided to use. I contemplated scrapping the screen altogether and then it happened... The most beautiful thing any worship/tech guy could ever imaging. The sun went down and graphics began to appear in front of an incredible Southern California Sunset! Dave was right.

We started about 10 minutes after for 2 reasons... to let the sun set some more and to allow the people to fill the seats... and fill them they did. Our largest attendance ever! And check out the horizon in the picture. I guess the last couple of years they've had drizzle or rain. This year was incredibly beautiful.

All in all, it was a wonderful service. It was cool having Pastor Dave on Keyboards. It was as close to a true inter-generational worship team as I've ever been a part of. And Christmas is the perfect time to do so.

Here was our band...

Dave (adult) - Keys
Dan (adult) - Bass
Eric (adult) - Agtr
Josh (Young Adult) - Drums/Djembe
Skyler (16) - Vocals
A.J. (15) - Agtr
Daniel (14) - Drums/Djembe

Here was our set...

Carol of the bells (instrumental)
O come all ye faithful (traditional)
Joy to the world (traditional)
Angels we have heard on high (traditional)
-welcome- (Elena)
-message- (Dave)
Do you hear what I hear (Third Day arrangement)
O holy night (Skyler)
Silent night (traditional)

And by the time we got to Silent Night and lit the Candles (glowsticks actually) it was plenty dark.

How was your Christmas Eve Service???