EDITOR’S NOTE: This is one of four Christmas-themed stories in a feature package produced by ABP and its New Voice Media partners.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (ABP) — Rather than cutting back on lavish Christmas programs this year due to the economy, some church leaders insist hard times make them more valuable than ever.
Billy Orton, minister of music and worship at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., said his church did not even consider cutting back its annual Living Christmas Tree performance, now in its 24th year.
“The message of hope, peace, joy and love is needed now more than ever,” Orton said.
While a major investment of resources, Orton said, the church views the Living Christmas Tree — with free admission and no offering taken — as a gift to the entire community.
First Baptist Church in Hunstsville, Ala., builds a pageant around its Living Christmas Tree every year. (2007 Michael Misianowycz Harvest Action Photo)
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“We are thinking there might be even larger crowds due to the fact that folks will hold back on purchasing tickets to other holiday concerts and presentations in the area and instead choose to attend one of our six performances,” he said.
Steve Poole, minister of music and worship at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air, Md. — a congregation born during hard economic times in 1932 — said he volunteered to trim his music budget along with other expenses being reduced in 2009, but so far many members have remained faithful to support missions and ministries of the church.
It costs Oak Grove about $15,000 each year to present 11 performances of the Living Christmas Tree, Poole said. The church collects a free-will offering, with any money received over expenses going to a benevolence ministry to help needy families in surrounding Harford County.
“If the tough financial times we are in now bring about a reduction in the free-will offerings, then we may need to cut back on some of our plans for the 2009 program,” he said.
The idea of lining up choir members on risers stacked cone-shape to resemble a Christmas tree has been around for decades.
The outdoor Singing Christmas Tree at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., thought to be the oldest, has been a tradition since 1933.
The advent of the megachurch in the 1970s, however, introduced cavernous worship centers large enough to accommodate bringing such massive structures indoors.
While it’s unclear where the idea got started, one of the early pioneers was Bill Shadle, longtime music minister at First Baptist Church in Denton, Texas. He asked Millard Heath, a heating-and-air-conditioning contractor, about building a tree-shaped platform out of metal pipe for his 103-voice choir in 1972.
Figuring pipe would not handle the load, Heath instead designed a platform using structural steel.
He patented the design and started a company that since has sold more than 200 trees for churches in 30 states and overseas.
M.H. Specialties in Bertram, Texas, now offers custom-built models ranging from 18 feet to 48 feet accommodating from 30 to 450 singers or more. Packages cost from $12,000 to nearly $100,000, but according to the company website some churches cover the initial cost within two years of purchase thanks to offerings taken at performances.
Jeffrey Smith, who purchased the company in 2003, said he hasn’t seen any downturn in business due to the economy.
“Ninety percent of our trees this year are replacement trees,” Smith said.
Smith said he just finished putting a tree stage up in Knoxville, Tenn., in a church that has been performing a Living Christmas Tree for 35 years, but just now is upgrading from a wooden stage to steel.
A church in Bradenton, Fla., he said, had one tree taken down and replaced it with two. A church in Ormond Beach, Fla., is considering purchase of a 60-foot tree to go outdoors on the beach, possibly in 2009.
In addition to its impact on the Huntsville community, Orton said his church's Living Christmas Tree also is important to its own membership
In addition to more than 200 musicians in the chorus and orchestra, he said, the program involves the skills of a wide cross-section of the congregation, from construction workers, technical people and decorators to car parkers. This year’s program also features the church’s children’s choirs.
“I am praying that the impact of the 2008 Living Christmas Tree is significant and eternal,” Orton said.
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