This past Sunday was a different sermon experience at Good Shepherd.

The "Red Dot Sermon" was more a state of the church - a "You Are Here" message -- than a clarion call to action. (We'd had enough of that during What Child Is This.)

As part of the message, I shared some numbers about ministry in this church that people might not know. I didn't even know them until I prepared the sermon! Here they are:

1. The church sent over $557,000 to both local and global mission in 2010. This includes the $207,805 raised for the International Justice Mission for What Child Is This as well as 15% of every Sunday offering -- about $350,000 for the calendar year. That money went to build churches in India, support pastors in Cambodia, teach English in Russia, and provide rent, utilities, and dignity right here in Charlotte.

2. The people of the church processed 110,000 meals through First Serve's partnership with Stop Hunger Now. The bulk of those dehydrated, high protein meals went directly to Haiti in the aftermath of last January's earthquake.

3. Volunteers from Good Shepherd prepared and delivered 547 meals to others in the congregation in 2010. These meals go to people in the early stages of grief, returning home from a hospitalization, or celebrating the birth of a baby. There are over 140 meal making volunteers who make this ministry "run."

4. Approximately 500 houses got blessed in 2010. We greet new movers to Steele Creek with a card, a blessing, and a "World Famous Refrigerator Magnet."

5. One (1) grateful pastor.

Here's the Christmas Story . . . told from the perspective of some of the children of Good Shepherd:

I once heard Jack Hayford -- long time pastor of The Church On The Way in Van Nuys, CA and the author of the contemporary hymn Majesty -- say this about growing a church:

You don't want to grow a big church. You want to grow big people.

I like that concept.

And I saw much evidence of "big people" -- people living unselfish, Spirit-filled lives -- in our Christmas Eve celebrations. Here are the Top Five:

5. Parents teaching their children the value of sacrificial giving at a young age by taking them to the altar to present their offerings to What Child Is This.

4. Volunteers who gave up their Christmas Eve to work in the decidedly un-glamorous ministries of welcoming, blessing seats, candle wax removal, and crowd control.

3. Staffers who approached me throughout the night with the question that is music to a pastor's ears: "What do you need me to do?"

2. The brilliance of the actors at the 5:00 G-Force children's experience and the skill of the musicians at the 7:00 and 9:00 praise and worship services.

1. Most remarkably, we had a team of people host our Room In The Inn ministry on Christmas Eve. RITI is a ministry with and for our homeless neighbors in Charlotte, and each Friday night during the winter we house 12-14 people who have no other lodging. It takes between 20 and 30 volunteers to pull off a RITI night. This year -- again, on Christmas Eve -- we had two young men with small children volunteer to spend the night at church and we had another crew of people come in early on Christmas morning to serve breakfast and clean up. Big people indeed.