By Diana Zoga
Published Jan 14, 2019 at 10:22 PM | Updated at 10:36 PM CST on Jan 14, 2019
Every Christmas, the congregation of the Royse City First United Methodist Church donates its Christmas Eve offerings to charity. Last year, half of the donations went to a nonprofit and the other half to an elementary school down the street, to help cover the cost of school lunches for families thrat had fallen behind in payments.
That was Christmas 2017.
The following year, Pastor Chris Everson went to the church board to ask about taking the tradition a step further.
“The question came up: What would it look like if we did this for the entire ISD?” Everson said.
Last fall, he asked the congregation to think about what they would spend on Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner and then set aside that amount to help other families in the community.
By Christmas, the 200-member congregation donated more than $10,000.
“If the church does not impact the community the church is in, then the church isn’t doing its job,” Everson said. “With us having the opportunity to make an impact, then we are doing what Christ has called us to do to — serve the least of these.”
