Skipping Christmas Church

Skipping Church after Christmas

Christmas Eve is one of my favorite services of the year. The Sunday after Christmas isn’t.

“Pagan! How can you suggest one Sunday is different from another?” Simple, it is. Proof is in the attendance numbers. We’re just burnt out.

One thing we learned during our Advent Conspiracy study is that we need to slow down if we are to enter the story of Christmas. That’s our plan, and skipping Christmas Church at Cottonwood is part of it.

Christmas Eve Service 7PM: This is our focus for Christmas worship 2010. You can arrive at the school as early as 5 to help set up the manger, drinks, Christmas lights, incense, advent, communion, music, readings, and the whole shebang. You can wait and show up at 7, and bring some goodies to share with the rest of us. Bring a friend too, you won’t want to miss this service.

December 26 No Service: Take a break from ministry for a week. You don’t have to come early to set-up, or teach kids or make coffee, or greet or… just sit back and enjoy. Go ahead - join your home team or another church and worship with them. January 2^nd life will be back to normal at Cottonwood (whatever that means). Meanwhile…

It’s our prayer that this isn’t just a way to get out of work. We pray it will help all of us, church staff included, to slow down and enter the story of Christmas. May we all be able to worship fully on December 24, 25, and 26.

Merry Christmas,

Dan

JOY

I love the message of Christmas.

I love the old carols, and the new stuff (check out I Heard the Bells by Casting Crowns here). I love to hear about joy, hope, peace, love, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ. I love our home traditions of giving PJs on Christmas Eve, listening to Scrooge and drinking hot cocoa. I love the food. I love decorating as early on Thanksgiving as possible (while driving JoLynn crazy) as the kids and I remove everything that isn’t Gold, Silver, Red or Green. But that’s not the message of Christmas

I love our new Advent Conspiracy traditions of spending less and giving more meaningful gifts here, so we can send our money to those who need it more. I love that our little church gave Christmas to six families here, while at the same time sending over $700.00 to Haiti for families there. But mostly I love the message.

I love thinking about the JOY that the Shepherds, Simeon, Mary, and Joseph felt; and about the JOY those six families in Rio Rancho and those in Port-au-Prince will feel. But, the reason we give is because of the message. The message is…

You matter to God.

That’s the message of Christmas. That’s why He came – that’s why He was born, why He lived, why He died, and why He rose again. You matter to God. That’s the message I love. That’s Christmas.

How great our JOY!

Dan

Reminder:

CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE 7PM. Food, hot cocoa, lights, hot cocoa, manger, and you.

NO SERVICE DEC 26. Take a break from our set-up and tear-down portable church work over Christmas. Join your home team or another church and worship with them. Just don’t like them more than us!

Happy Hanukkah

Have you ever been in total darkness? When I worked for Camp Peniel, we had a crazy leader who took us into an uncharted cave. There were three adults, (the unnamed leader, myself, and the bus driver), and 16 junior high boys. We hiked, crawled, and scratched our way through a maze of up, down, and sideways muddy tunnels until coming to what seemed to be the end. By this time we had been in the cave for over an hour. We sat down and turned off our flashlights to see just how dark it really was. No matter how close your hand was to your face, you could see nothing. Nada. Zip. There was this moment of panic when you wondered if any lights would come back on.

On the way out a boy was injured, and our unnamed leader, at the front, the only one who knew the way out, hurried out with the boy, leaving the rest of us behind. He told one of the boys (I was at the end of the line, so didn’t know what was happening) to “take lefts” on the way out. Now I was in the lead, and lost, and when tunnels go up and down as well as left and right, which left do you take? I took the wrong one.

We were now down to two flashlights (others had broken, bad batteries, dropped into water, etc), crawling through an area inhabited by thousands of bats, and doing everything possible to remain sane. One flashlight was extremely dim, the other was bright enough to freak out the bats. We knew we were lost - nothing looked familiar. The cave seemed like an endless labyrinth of ant tunnels. We prayed plenty.

Every time my thoughts slid down the “what if the last couple flashlights die” path, I forced them to climb back up. It was too scary to consider. We were over three hours in the cave before finding our way out. Once out, I let the thoughts slide. The other leader and I sat down and considered the confusion, misery, panic, and worst possibilities – all for the lack of light. “God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light.’” Genesis 1:3.

Hanukkah is called the “feast of lights.” It’s the celebration of the lamp of God being re-lit in the temple after the Greek army was defeated. In John 10 Jesus travels to Jerusalem for Hanukkah. It’s the at this time, when the city was lit up in celebration, Jesus said, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.” John 12:26

“O LORD, you are my lamp. The LORD lights up my darkness.” 2 Samuel 22:29

Happy Hanukkah,

Dan

Love All

Love All – really? No way.

Love All is the final sermon/point in the Advent Conspiracy series/book. I understand “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (Jn 3:16). But, I’m not God. I don’t know that many people – how can I love those I don’t know? Is it even honest to say I love those I don’t know? And, more importantly, where does God tell me to love all?

Please don’t give me the “love your enemies,” (Mt 22:20) and “love your neighbor” (Mt 5:43) teachings. I know my neighbors and I wish I could forget my enemies. Somehow God can help me love them both. But, love all?

This Christmas season, the church office has been flooded with calls from unemployed single moms and dads who need help. If love is an action, how can I help them all? I can help a child through Compassion.com, and poverty in Haiti for a few. I can help a family or two who can’t have Christmas this year. But, I can’t help all the 3900 kids who will die due to dirty water tomorrow, or the hundreds of thousands of homeless in Haiti, or even all those who have called the church office for help with Christmas (well, maybe, but JoLynn wants to keep our house). Loving all is overwhelming.

I’m not sure how to teach this lesson on Sunday except to say - I can’t love all. That’s a God-sized task. Jesus can, He is God. That is why He was able to die for the sins of the entire planet. I can’t, I’m not. As Christ lives in me, in my attitude, I can love all, and in my actions love some. I hope and pray I’m not coping out.

Loving some,

Dan