By Brett Hetherington*

Church ministry teams and community outreach agencies work tirelessly throughout the year to assist those in need. On December 6 more than a dozen organizations in Nordonia Hills took their love of serving others to new heights, holding the first ever Community Christmas Connection.

It all began with an idea Pastor Josh Elliott had three years ago after his first Christmas at the United Methodist Church of Macedonia (Northern Waters District).

“Our church had historically done angel tree where you grab a tag and get a specific gift for a specific child, and we’d done the shoeboxes in the past. And there’s nothing wrong with either of those ministries, they serve a purpose they’re good ministries in and of themselves. However, in my opinion we have struggled since COVID to re-establish connecting with people. We learned how to be isolated quite well. We struggle to find connection points, especially as a church,” Elliott shared. “I wanted us to explore how we could do ministries like the angel tree or the shoeboxes but reestablish that relational ministry aspect where we could minister to the people, directly engage in conversation, get to know them, develop a relationship, instead of doing ministry by proxy or by checkbook.”

Working with the Nordonia Hills School District to identify families who might benefit from such a ministry, Elliott and church members widened the circle to include other members of the community.

“We reached out to two different mayor’s offices, the Rotary Club, the fire department, the police department, the VFW, the Legion, a bunch of local businesses,” he said. “Nine churches and all of these community stakeholders have come together to make this possible.”

Cathy Miller, a Community Christmas Connection volunteer from UMC of Macedonia, shared how the community’s response has overwhelmed everyone involved with the outreach. “We have been overwhelmed with the generosity of the community of our churches. It’s just unbelievable,” said Miller. “Everyone was so giving. I walked in the other day and I just cried. They’re going to walk out with bags of stuff and contact information – like, ‘you need a church, you need someone to talk to?’ So that’s why we called ourselves the Community Connection.”

The Community Christmas Connection invited parents, grandparents and guardians to shop for Christmas gifts for their children on Saturday, December 6 from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. at UMC of Macedonia. Each was introduced to a personal shopping “elf” who got to know the family while shopping, building relationships as they traveled from room to room. One room was filled with tables of age-specific toys to be selected. Another was dedicated to stocking stuffers. A third was staffed with volunteers who were ready to wrap presents if the shoppers wanted them to be wrapped, or they were ready to send them home with wrapping paper and tape so they could wrap the gifts themselves. The final room was the premium room where bikes donated by Cycles for Christ and other items were set up raffle-style, with each shopper given tickets to place into buckets for each item they wanted to try to win.

“The donations have been great, so overwhelming. People have been so generous. We did not buy any of this,” said Lori Maloney of Saint Barnabas Catholic Parish. She assured that those who did not win the raffle for the bike did not leave empty-handed, saying, “We give them coupons for a free bike come spring.”

The shopping trip culminated in an area manned by the church’s United Women in Faith offering cookies, tea and coffee and one last table where information on each participating church was offered as well as free Bibles and a $25 gift card to Walmart to round out any gifts the family might be missing or for food.

“I think the timing of this year’s event with the shutdowns and SNAP benefits being throttled, a lot of funds that parents might have set aside may have had to go for food that they weren’t planning on so it might have made Christmas a little leaner this year,” shared Elliott.

One volunteer who was working behind a table in the first room shared “The people in the community and the people that we partnered with – all the different churches, all the different other organizations as you can see their hearts are open, they’re all over the tables here in the room.”

The original goal of families to be served was 20-25, but with the outpouring of support and volunteers the event was able to serve north of 60 families according to Elliott.

“It’s way bigger than we ever dreamed it could have been. We thought maybe two or three churches, we already knew we had cooperation from the schools, we thought that would be it. But the community just really rallied and, in my opinion, has done something really special,” he said.

This is the first year for the Community Christmas Connection, and there was much excitement in the building, and a passion to continue. There was even talk of spreading and sharing the model with neighboring communities. Elliott stressed that this was not just a ministry of the church but a ministry of the community for the community, and that is exactly what happened.

As one volunteer expressed, “It shows you if people pull together what you can do.”

To learn more about the Community Christmas Connection visit https://commchristmasconnect.com/.

The Conference Communications team would like to share other stories that highlight ways that each of us is answering the call to reach out to our communities in creative ways. Please e-mail your ministry story to EOC Executive Director of Communications Rick Wolcott at wolcott@eocumc.com.

* Brett Hetherington is the Communications specialist for the East Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church.