Quiet Christmas in a ghost town

It has started already. The island exodus that we experience each December. The upside to ministering to a lot of University students and young military people (and military families) is that the church is lively, vital, and exciting. The downside is that many of them leave the island mid-December to go "home for the holidays," and we are left with a lot of empty seats and extra parking slots.

This year we are being hit harder than I can ever remember.

We will have our Christmas Service on December 25th with a skeleton crew of volunteers and an anticipation of minimal attendance. A pastor friend at a local mega-church has two services scheduled that morning, at 8 and 10. The building seats more than 1,000 -- last year they had about 25 in the first service and 100 in the second. Such is the nature of life in a place with a large transient population.

So, for me, the period between Thanksgiving and New Years is less busy than usual, and has become a contemplative time of introspection and seeking direction for the coming year. In my next post, I hope to deal with what has developed so far. Think "mantra."