Naperville's Our Saviour's Lutheran Church brings creativity to Christmas Eve worship

Our Saviour's Lutheran Church in Naperville, like many churches in the country faced a challenging feat this Christmas season, making Christmas Eve special, despite the challenges of 2020.

This challenge was not easy as the Naperville community had recently moved into Tier 3 mitigation due to increased COVID numbers.

The staff and church members pulled together to create and execute on a vision for Christmas Eve Worship that kept safety as a priority and helped the congregation feel the joy of Christmas.

An "In-Car Christmas Eve Worship Experience" was created.

Attendees were required to register online in advance of the event.

When attendees arrived in their cars Christmas Eve, they were directed to a parking spot and tuned their radios to an FM radio frequency. The entire worship experience was transmitted to the cars with an FM transmitter.

At the Celebration Campus, there were large screens to add to the worship experience. Our Saviour's has two campuses in Naperville.

The event concluded with attendees being able to exit to the passenger side of their car and singing "Silent Night" as a community with attendees holding finger lights and battery-operated candles provided by the church. The result was truly a remarkable worship experience.

In addition to the "In-Car Christmas Eve Worship Service," an online Christmas Eve worship was also available.

Our Saviour's had eight "Christmas Eve In-Car Worship Services" with over 400 people attending. The church has heard wonderful feedback about Christmas Eve Worship from attendees.

The Felbein family of Our Saviour's stated, "Thank you for both the online and drive-in services. Appreciate all of your efforts in making this a Christmas we will always remember."

The Rev. John Gerike, senior pastor, stated, "It was a special night our congregation will always remember. I am grateful to the efforts of our staff and volunteers that made this vision a reality and who brought the joy of Christmas to our faith community."