With the first days of December comes a sense of urgency. There are not enough hours in every day to plan and pull off the “perfect” Christmas, especially when the perfect Christmas involves an attic’s worth of decorations, endless shopping lists, making and mailing photo cards, shipping deadlines, travel delays, crowd control, sleeping arrangements, entertaining relatives, overindulgence, and, ultimately, exhaustion.
If you’re looking for something different this year, why not start the season by experiencing the story behind the celebration of Christmas?
Journey to Bethlehem has been a local tradition, presented by Salem Baptist Church in Apex, since 1991. Every December, church members transform their campus into a walk-through story of the Nativity. Visitors become “travelers” as a robed guide meets your group and gives you shekels to spend on jewels or precious stones in the Jerusalem marketplace. Listen as your guide asks villagers about a rumor of a newborn king. Pause near a pen of sheep while curious shepherds tell a tale of angels and a strange bright star in the night sky. Walk softly past the guards into the palace of a jealous king. And wait patiently as your guide tries to awaken an innkeeper who is said to know the whereabouts of the blessed baby boy and his parents.
Behind the Scenes
What began as a small-scale outdoor live Nativity has grown to a four-day event that has attracted 4,000 visitors in recent years. Recreating the ancient backdrop and a dozen storytelling scenes requires nearly 150 volunteers who do everything from parking, greeting, registration, and concession sales, to serving as actors, guides, security and medical teams, and behind-the-curtain helpers. And that’s not to mention the crews who transport, construct, and tear down the sets for each scene. Even the church’s individual Sunday school classes “adopt a scene” and provide extra hands before, during, and after the four-night run.
An event of this scope requires detailed coordination and Journey to Bethlehem runs smoothly every year, the last three of which have been under the co-leadership of Chris Claggett and Lee and Bart Nourse. For the Claggetts and the Nourses, the annual event has been a family affair. The Claggett family’s participation began when their son, Timothy, was a newborn and the lead pastor’s wife invited the trio to take part in Journey’s concluding scene. Today, Chris’s wife provides valuable administrative support, their daughter Kendyl has had a number of roles in the palace and angel scenes, and Timothy is nearly old enough to volunteer as well. Lee’s husband, Bart, is a go-to resource for technical issues and their son Dylan has been a musician, a tax-collector, and a concessions attendant.
Lee, who is on the church staff as Preschool Ministry Coordinator, shared with us that co-directing Journey is easy, thanks to a long history of church members participating year after year. “Each scene has its own directors, usually there are two to share the load, and they recruit the actors for their scene. We have such great scene directors that [Chris and Bart and I] just coordinate meetings, get information out, and help where we can.”
Many Hands Make Light Work
Longtime Journey volunteer and scene director Karen Bingham has noticed over the years how meaningful it is when entire families serve together.
“Some of the kids started out with their dads in the shepherd scene. One King Herod has a daughter who dresses up in a long t-shirt and black leggings and a gold belt and she fans him [during the scene]. Another family has four musicians involved. [The youth] call it ‘coming of age’ because you have to be 16 to dance in the palace [scene], so the girls can’t wait until they’re 16. The guys can’t wait until they’re old enough to be guards. We had a guy in high school last year who was King Herod and he was thrilled.”
Such is the anticipation of becoming a volunteer with Journey that some people will end up on a waiting list for the following year. Lee says, “This is the biggest outreach we have, the one that involves the most volunteers at any one given time. Our entire church gets excited about serving and they love to work with Journey. We have a ton of people sign up for different things and we can’t use everybody. A lot of them are repeats. This year, we’ve had a lot of new people sign up and that’s amazing.”
You might be picturing weeks’ worth of work to set up Journey to Bethlehem considering the path utilizes multiple buildings with dozens upon dozens of massive tarps covering walls and windows, intricate sets for each scene, and outside spaces as well. Lee laughed when she admitted that “it’s so streamlined that it’s insane” and explained, “We start setting up on Saturday morning. We have an entire little house where we store everything. We load it up on trucks and drop it off in the respective scene locations. It takes about two hours to get it staged. On Wednesday, the night before Journey, we start at around 5:00pm and we’re usually done by 9:00 or 9:30pm. There are preschool and other church functions going on so we can’t interrupt those things. At the end of Journey, on Sunday night, when the last group gets through the manger scene, we tear it all down, pack it up in the trucks, and put it back in the house.”
Making the Journey
Rest assured, to walk this 45-minute Journey you won’t need a carry-on. Nor will you need to wait for hours. All that is required is registration in an open timeslot for the number of travelers in your party. This is so the organizers know how many travelers to group with each guide.
Travelers gather in the multi-purpose room with an assigned group number and guides leave with a new group every six minutes. While you wait, you can purchase concessions that benefit the church’s youth mission trips and keep busy with table games, live entertainment, and big-screen Christmas programs.
“Last year,” Lee says, “we started taking a few online reservations. The multi-purpose room wasn’t overcrowded. We’re doing that again this year and trying to adjust the numbers a bit to make the groups even and to make sure we serve walk-ins. If you can’t find an online time, please just show up and we’re going to get you in. We lock the doors at 8:30pm, but we will run groups until the last person gets through the manger scene.”
Journey’s Rewards
Naturally, there have been some changes and updates to Journey to Bethlehem over the years in order to accommodate the church’s expanding campus, improve safety and ADA-accessibility, repair worn costumes and backdrops, and ensure that technology provides communication among organizers and the best possible experience for travelers. What hasn’t changed is the story itself, and people’s reactions to it. This is what Lee and Karen find most rewarding about their involvement.
“I think it’s important that we tell the story,” Karen says. “The story is still fundamental. It’s nice to have families come through every year, but we also want to reach those who have never experienced it before. We have a Mandarin bible fellowship group that comes with a translator. They sometimes invite their family members that don’t go to church. I stand back to watch their faces and that’s incredible. I tell the youth, ‘If you’re in [Journey], it’s a good way to invite someone who’s not going to sit for an hour-long church service. They’ll come see you and hear the story.’”
Lee agrees. “Christmas is so busy for everyone. I think we can lose sight of why we even celebrate it. Journey [happens] at a time when people are more receptive to hearing about Jesus and, for me, that’s the greatest thing. We may never know who and how many we reach with Journey, but if we can reach one single person [who’s] never heard about Jesus, that’s what we’re there for.”
Ultimately, for the Salem Baptist Church congregation, Journey to Bethlehem is more than an annual re-enactment of the Nativity. It’s an event that brings to life their mission statement: Glorify God. Make Disciples. Share His Story.
Salem Baptist Church is located at 1821 North Salem Street in Apex. Journey to Bethlehem will be held from Thursday, December 12 to Sunday, December 15, 2019. On Thursday and Friday evenings, the doors to the multi-purpose room (gym) open at 5:30pm and the first group of travelers begins its journey at 6:00pm. On Saturday and Sunday, the doors open at 4:00pm and the first journey leaves at 4:30pm. If you wish to schedule your journey for a specific time, visit the Salem Baptist Church website at www.salem-bc.org and click on the Eventbrite link. If you don’t see the timeslot you’re looking for, come as a walk-in. Journey to Bethlehem is free, and all are welcome.
Photos are courtesy of Bill Gregory and Salem Baptist Church.
