Each year, church volunteers dress up as shepherds, wise men, Mary and Joseph to remind the community of the reason for the Christmas season.
One local church will present its first-ever live Nativity scene this year. Providence Christian Church, in Bargersville, decided last year to start a live Nativity for the public with a goal to teach the meaning of Christmas.
"When they see the live Nativity and they see the stable, it’s a good reminder that it’s about Jesus," organizer Shelly Smith said.
They took almost two years to develop the idea for the Nativity, and this year decided to make it a reality. The church found a group to build a stable and will use costumes from past reenactments of the birth of Jesus, Smith said.
Thirteen actors will dress up as angels, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and the three wise men. The only detail missing from their set this year is the animals, Smith said.
"We wanted to (have live animals), but since it’s our first year, we didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew," she said.
Twenty-two-year-old Michaela Smith was away at school in Missouri when she heard her church was looking for volunteer actors. She said when she heard the news, she knew she wanted to help when she came home for the holidays.
"Overall it just means the whole reason we celebrate Christmas and I think it’s a great reminder for the community about this special time," she said.
The set will be a drive-through scene in the parking lot with the choir also outside singing Christmas carols. After viewing the Nativity, guests can park and head inside to enjoy hot chocolate and cookies in the church basement.
Providence Christian Church is not the only place to see a live Nativity this year. Franklin Church of the Nazarene is also showing its annual live set, which has been a church tradition for about 30 years, organizer Sheila Hines said.
The Nativity isn’t just the traditional stable scene, however. This church takes guests through the birth of Jesus with four scenes. Each scene highlights the different characters in the story with sections dedicated to the shepherds, the wise men and Mary and Joseph riding a live donkey to Bethlehem.
"We have everything already organized, since we’ve been doing it for so many years, it’s only a whole day of putting it all together," Hines said.
The most difficult part leading up to the live Nativity is finding enough volunteers. Hines said with a smaller and older congregation, people don’t always want to volunteer to stand out in the cold. However, Hines is hopeful this year will be different.
"It’s not always easy standing out in the cold, holding a donkey," Hines said. "But it seems like this year we’re getting a lot of volunteers, so I’m really happy about that."
Despite the small congregation, the church continues to present this live Nativity each year because they want to remind people of the meaning behind Christmas.
"The giving of gifts is great and the Christmas tree and the Santa Claus is all fun, but we also got to always remember Jesus is the reason," Hines said.
A live Nativity is a longtime tradition at First Baptist Church of Greenwood as well. The tradition of the drive-through stable scene has been going for 10 years, organizer Ron Bray said.
"We have the youth dress up as the characters and we always have a donkey and last year, we had a donkey, two sheep and two goats," Bray said.
This is the second year the church is using its new stable set, which replaced the original set that fell apart last year, Bray said. The new set makes setup much easier, he said.
With 300 to 500 vehicles coming in each year, Bray said his goal is to hopefully impact at least one person with the live Nativity.
"We’re all shepherds here on earth and we’re supposed to be leading the lost sheep to Christ, and there’s a lot of lost sheep out there," Bray said.
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Here is a look at some local live Nativities happening this month.
Providence Christian Church
When: 4 to 6 p.m. today
Address: 4080 W. County Road 100 North, Bargersville.
First Baptist Church Greenwood
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 21
Address: 99 W. Main St., Greenwood.
Franklin Church of the Nazarene
When: 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 22
Address: 140 Branigin Road, Franklin.
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