By Chad Glazener, Lead Pastor, First Covenant Church Portland
Joel and I sat across the table, sipping soup and commiserating about the weird quirks of pandemic pastoring. As all pastors do these days, we started comparing notes. What’s working? What’s hard? What’s a surprising gift?
Eventually, our conversation turned towards the future. Even though Advent was months away, we knew it’d be here before long. “What has your church done for Advent? Christmas Eve? Christmas Day?”
Our pastoral team at First Covenant had already decided that we’d make a pre-recorded Christmas Eve service. Since we couldn’t gather safely, we were going to do our best to serve our community digitally. And though there was loss in that reality, there was also creative opportunity.
While we lost the ability to have old traditions, what would it look like to re-imagine Christmas Eve? Because with a digital service, we could do things we had never done before. We had the chance to take familiar verses and hear them in a different way. What might it mean to hear the stories and sing the songs, when we couldn’t be in a church building?
We realized that we had an opportunity to move closer to the emotional center of the Christmas Eve story. A story about displacement, scrambling for a creative solution, and being surprised by the joy of God’s presence in places we wouldn’t expect.
I looked up at Joel. “I know that some of the Portland churches have had joint services in the past. Here’s a crazy idea: what if all five of the Portland-metro churches celebrated Christmas Eve together? And what if Christmas Eve wasn’t in a church, but on the streets around the city?”
As Joel and I thought about this idea—a five-church worship service–the more it seemed to make sense. Portland is a city, like many others, that has been torn by 2020. Portland is a city that became a political lightning rod, making our city a place to be feared, not loved. And we had the opportunity, as sister churches, to resist that narrative of fear.
In this moment of division and polarity, now was the time for our congregations to come together, to live into the reality that God has one church in Portland. Scattered across the city in small parishes, we are the Covenant church that God planted in the city he loves.
For me, it was a chance to meet and work alongside respected leaders. As the newest Portland pastor, I have been amazed by my colleagues. These pastors love their churches deeply, and work hard for their neighbors. They are intelligent, kind, passionate, and prophetic. I’m the new kid on the block who hit the clergy colleague lottery.
With these riches—healthy churches and mission-minded leaders—a question began to emerge for me: “What does God want to do with his church in Portland?” It’s a great gift to have healthy congregations in such close proximity—what might that make possible?
To our surprise, the pandemic made it possible. This unusual way of worshipping together created the space for a new kind of creative collaboration. Working together on our liturgy, we came up with a set of guidelines and principles that would guide our vision. We wanted a service that matched the mood of the year and moment in the story. A service where we acknowledge the pain of labor, and the vulnerability of childbirth. And that through that pain, and with that vulnerability, the divine meets the human.
Our service features all of our clergy leading different readings and composing new prayers. Our service features over a dozen musicians from our churches, who safely recorded separate tracks that Rev. Mark Stuckey has mixed into an incredible new sound.
Though we have transitioned into Christmas (12 Days, y’all!) we would love to share what we’ve made with you. If you’d like to see our Christmas Eve service, and remember the hope of the coming light of Christ, check out the YouTube video below.
God has planted us here for a reason. God has planted you there for a reason. With the Spirit, we are on mission together, and we are excited to see what new work God will continue to do among us all.
