I received my "Share the Good News of Christmas" package in the mail yesterday... and I am impressed and excited.
First, the material comes in a nice, attractive plastic Christmas gift bag - one that you can give away or hang on a door knob. Inside you will find a small, easy-to-read, visually appealing Max Lucado "tract" about "the Good News of Christmas" with a clear yet, I believe, inoffensive, approach to the message of Christmas. The second attractive insert is an invitation that the person giving out the gift bag would fill out in advance, indicating a church's Christmas service date & time. The third piece in the bag is the ESV New Testament, again with the same font and style design as the gift bag, brochure, and invitation. This "Christmas Bible" has a nice introduction (preface) for the reader like any other book would have and begins with two Christmas passage readings. The Christmas readings are again well-selected and written without Christian jargon. There is then a useful "Where to find help when you are..." topical index followed by a brief "How to read the Bible" introduction and then a suggested 30-day Bible reading program that takes selected chapters/sections from most of the NT books to review the life of Jesus to the spread of the Christian faith ending (obviously) in Revelation 21-22.
Overall, it is indeed an impressive gift bag. An attractive presentation with a clear and gentle message that I think would be appropriate to give to an unchurched friend without being preachy or causing offense. Having been a part of the family of God for so many years and be involved in church/ministry for so long, perhaps I'm overly optimistic. It seems to me that CrossWay has prepared an excellent packet that should be of use to many churches this Christmas season as they seek to reach out to their communities.
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