The baby Jesus is visited by the angel and the Three Kings in the 13th Annual Journey Through Bethlehem at Trinity Baptist Church in 2010. From left: Philip Pruitt, Steven Hurst, Chip McGaughey, Beau Bennett, Lindsey Sarver and Taylor Kingsley. STAFF FILE

For years First Baptist Church of Whitehouse has put on a traditional Christmas-themed service that featured a lot of music.

This year the church decided to do something different. With the involvement of about 200 people, the church is putting on a drive-thru Bethlehem from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday.

“It allows us to expand our reach into the community and it also takes such a big volunteer force to do it,” Worship Pastor Don Pardoe said. “Instead of just being a music ministry thing, it’s taken the whole church to be involved.”

The event will recreate scenes that resemble what Bethlehem would have looked like when Jesus was born.

Because of the way the church is situated, the Bethlehem scenes are located under the covered walkway next to all the buildings. This means the show will go on rain or shine.

Cars will drive next to the walkway from start to finish while listening to an audio recording that shares the story of each scene they are looking at.

The recording is accessible through smart phones or church-provided CDs or iPods.

“The whole thing is to present a very, as close as possible to a real account of what happened that night,” Pardoe said. Live animals including miniature donkeys, sheep, goats and chickens will be present in some of the scenes.

Amy Culpepper, 52, a church member who has been integrally involved in the project and wrote the script for the audio recording, said her father had done a walk-through Bethlehem at his church and she thought First Baptist Whitehouse would be a great place to do something like that for the community.

She said her hope is that people who come will understand the real reason for Christmas: that Jesus came to Earth to offer humanity a hope and peace they can find only in Him.

“That is the real reason we have Christmas,” she said.

Pardoe offered a similar sentiment.

“The thing that we notice in the last decade or so is that we’ve become so politically correct in everything that a lot of people now are very disconnected from the story of Christmas,” Pardoe said. “What we’re hoping (is) that the people who drive through will kind of reconnect, if they’re familiar with the story or, if they’re not, that they will be introduced in a way that would provoke interest and possibly create a life-change because it’s a life-changing story.”

 

Twitter: @TMTEmily

 

 

If you go

 

What: Drive-thru Bethlehem

When: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4 through Wednesday, Dec. 7

Where: First Baptist Church of Whitehouse, 801 E. Main St.

Why: To share the story of Jesus’ birth

Cost: Free

Info: Hot chocolate and cookies will be provided