Christmas just seems to come earlier and earlier each year.

No sooner have you unpacked your holiday bags, or dried yourself off from an English summer, than the great, greedy, commercial Christmas machine gets in gear. Advertisers, entertainment media, TV schedulers, the retail sector and the hospitality industry - everyone’s in on it, out to maximise the full potential of the season to be merry.

Everyone, that is, except the church.

Christmas is the best natural opportunity in the calendar for churches to reach out, bar none. It’s the time when church attendance – even by the utterly unreligious – goes through the roof. It’s when people are naturally drawn to community, to connection and to contemplation of the spiritual. Yet we often fail to make the most of it, or work it into an overall strategic plan.

The biggest mistake a church can make with its Christmas programme is to treat it as a one-off, standalone event, gloriously isolated from the rest of the calendar, hurriedly planned in November. Never forget that outreach always works most effectively as an ongoing process, rather than isolated hits. Christmas is no exception.

This guide is designed to help leaders construct a joined up process that leads through the autumn term, to a climax at Christmas, which then follows through in to the new year. It’s an opportunity to think ahead – to look forward – and to plan the most effective response possible.

It really is all about making sure you have the best, most evangelistically productive Christmas season ever.