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In a little devotional booklet titled Christmas: The Miracle of God With Us (J. Countryman), Billy Graham writes: "Christmas is not just a date on the calendar. It is not just an annual holiday. It is not a day to glorify selfishness and materialism. Christmas is the celebration of the event that set Heaven to singing, an event that gave the stars of the night sky a new brilliance. "Christmas tells us that at a specific time and at a specific place a specific Person was born. That Person was (in the words of an ancient Christian creed) 'God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God' -- the Lord, Jesus Christ. "From the lips of Him who came fell these words: 'The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost' (Luke 19:10). Like piercing trumpets, these words heralded the breaking in of the Divine to human history. They declare that Heaven has come to our rescue and that God has not left us to stumble alone on Earth's pathways. What a wonderful and glorious hope we have because of that first Christmas!" And what a privilege we have: to be called to proclaim that Good News! Michael
Duduit, Editor Click here to visit "I Was Just Thinking" (Michael's blog) for insights and observations about faith and culture issues. Recent topics: Does it take profanity to make a real man? Can we disagree without demonizing? Preaching Subscribers: Check the Christmas Media Review in the December issue of Preaching On-Line to learn about great resources for Advent and Christmas worship.
Creative ideas for Christmas In his most recent Creative Leader newsletter, Ed Young, Jr. talked about ideas he and his staff are working on as creative ways to engage people with the message of Christmas. Ed writes: "Though we might not have absorbed the true meaning of this season in our youth, as church leaders we understand its importance and recognize we must search for ways to communicate its significance without relying on clichés or tried-and-true standbys. "In a recent staff meeting, I challenged our team to think beyond the ideas and experiences that have served Fellowship Church well in the past. The enemy of creativity is predictability and Christmas is not the time to be predictable. We're surrounded by people who have been hurt and hardened, but almost all of these individuals will give God a chance during the holiday season. As church leaders, we must do all we can to capture their attention and capitalize on these rare opportunities. The stakes are too high to cling to convention for we will risk missing the people who need to absorb the reality of Emmanuel, a God who is with us. As a staff, we started throwing around ideas and put team creativity to the test as we planned for this year's Christmas services. Here are some of the ideas we're considering: • We're putting together a mixed-media marketing campaign including promotional packs for local businesses, car antenna balls, a direct mail send out, and something we've never tried before. We're printing vibrant t-shirts featuring our Christmas service information and giving them away to our entire church to wear throughout their Christmas shopping, with an emphasis on one specific shopping day. Seeing 20,000 Fellowship Church t-shirts throughout the Dallas/Ft. Worth area is a great way to start a conversation and invite someone to our Christmas services! • We also want to expand the Christmas service experience, but the transition time between our services presents constraints (we all have constraints that demand creativity). So we're taking advantage of opportunities outside of the auditorium and starting the Christmas atmosphere before people even arrive. We're thinking about giving out a CD with music and a short message to play in the car on the way to and from church. • We're going to engage multiple senses -- starting in the parking lot. Groups of carolers will be circulating and we'll be handing out hot chocolate and apple cider. We're also looking into setting up fire pits for marshmallow roasting. • We're emphasizing a personal touch by ramping up our parking and greeting ministries and adding extra teams to give people a warm greeting as they get out of their cars. (To
learn more about Ed's newsletter, visit www.creativepastors.com)
Repeat key phrases to make impact In a recent article for PreachingTodaySermons newsletter, Don Sunukjian says, "One skill is you should use the same key phrases all the way through the message. The words ought to be consistently used, so they rain down through the message. For instance, a recent message of mine was on the filling of the Spirit, from Ephesians 5, where Paul says do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. After an introduction, I asked the questions I said I wanted to answer in the message: (I) What do we mean by being filled with the Spirit? (II) What does it look like? and (III) How do we get it? That was my outline. "When I came to Roman numeral two, I used exactly those words: What does it look like? And when I got to Roman numeral three, I used the same words: How do we get it? I was sure to repeat that same key phrase. You might think, Of course. But a preacher often won't do that. He'll say something like, 'Okay, second,'and he'll give it. And the listener will say, 'Second what?' "Now the speaker thinks he is absolutely clear, because on his outline he's got one, two, and three. "It's exactly the opposite of writing for the eye. Your English teacher would say to you, 'You're using the same word too many times. Let's use some synonyms.' But orally you need to keep using the same word to make that audio connection. "I heard a speaker once who said, 'In the comic strip Peanuts, there's one character who has to have his security blanket. Linus lives in an insecure world. He needs to have his security. We also live in an insecure world. We too desire security. The psalmists too lived in an insecure world. Many times a psalmist would cry out in fear, and God would be there to meet him. is one of those instances. Let's turn to Psalm 27 and see how the psalmist views God and see what a difference his view made.' And all of a sudden the listener has spaced out. The listener has lost track and wonders, Where are you going with this message? You started out talking about security, and I've lost the thread. "The speaker doesn't realize he has started using words other than the key words. He should have said, 'We live in an insecure world. The psalmists also lived in an insecure world. In many of the psalms, the psalmist would cry out' -- not in his fear -- 'in his insecurity, and' -- not that God would be there to meet him, but that -- 'God would be there to provide security. Turn to Psalm 27' -- not to see how the psalmist views God, but -- 'to see how the psalmist found God as his security. And we'll see what a difference it can make in our lives when we know God makes us secure.' "It's that tracking of the same word all the way through. Getting those words in as the message proceeds is one way of gaining clarity." (Click here to read the full article.) http://pttranscripts.stores.yahoo.net/skoforcl.html
Preaching the Cross I recently had the privilege of preaching for J. Alfred Smith at Allen Temple Baptist Church, a large African-American congregation in Oakland, CA. (We also jointly led a preaching conference the next day with about 80 attending.) Dr. Smith has a new book out called Speak Until Justice Wakes (Judson Press), and one of the chapters in this excellent though brief volume is on "Preaching the Cross." He observes: "Popular preachers on the American scene seem to be steering clear of preaching the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that in order for preachers sought after by Main Street to succeed in attracting the masses, they need to avoid preaching about the one who, according to the Scriptures, died for our sins. "After all, people are attracted to practical preaching; that is, preaching designed to address human problems with human solutions. People love to hear preachers who make them forget present pain. They want the good news of peace, joy, contentment that is soon to be theirs. When people come with the burdens and cares of the week, they want the preacher to untie the Gordian knot of misery in favor of a God who assures them of prosperity. "The god many seek today is the deity of upward social class mobility and middle-class prosperity. These listeners' hearts are not tuned to hear about the blood and gore of a Palestinian Jew dying helplessly and hopelessly on a Roman cross. . . . "If the preaching of the cross is unpopular, if prosperity gospel and peace of mind preaching are preferred . . . what must preachers do who are loyal to preaching faithfully the biblical message with textual integrity? Peter Taylor Forsyth . . . addresses all these concerns in a classic called Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind:
"Forsyth says that we must preach Christ and not preach about Christ. We must place Christ before people. Christ, and not our oratory, draws persons to God. . . . What is there for us to preach but Jesus Christ -- crucified, dead, buried, and risen again for us?" (Click here to learn more about the book Speak Until Justice Wakes)
ILLUSTRATION:
The Man and the Birds You know, THE Christmas Story, the God born a man in a manger and all that escapes some moderns, mostly, I think, because they seek complex answers to their questions and this one is so utterly simple. So for the cynics and the skeptics and the unconvinced I submit a modern parable. Now the man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind, decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn't make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn't swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man. "I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite. That he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud. At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms. Instead, the scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn. And then, he realized, that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me -- that I am not trying to hurt them but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. "If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safe, warm . . . to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells -- Adeste Fidelis -- listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.
Register
now for the Don't delay -- make your plans now to participate in one of the most powerful preaching events you'll ever attend! The third International Congress on Preaching will be April 17-19, 2007, in Cambridge, England. The theme is "Preaching Truth in an Age of Idolatry," and you'll have the opportunity to hear and interact with some of the most effective preachers and teachers in the English-speaking world, including N.T.
Wright and a host of additional speakers and workshop leaders. (Click here for a complete list.) The best hotel rooms are beginning to disappear, so act now to begin planning your ICOP adventure. Registration is currently available at an earlybird discount -- register today and save $55 off the normal rate. To learn more or to register, visit the website at www.preaching.com/icop or call (800) 288-9673 (outside the US, call 615-312-4245.)
ILLUSTRATION: Children, Christmas Programs A little boy forgot his lines in the church Christmas play. His mother, sitting in the front row to prompt him, gestured and formed the words silently with her lips, but it didn't help. Her son's memory was blank. Finally she leaned forward and whispered the cue, "I am the light of the world." The child beamed and with great feeling and a loud, clear voice said, "My mother is the light of the world."
ILLUSTRATION: Victory Jumping from their seats, the spectators in Athens, Greece, roared, "Nike! Nike!" "What does that mean?" asked James. "That means victory," answered the judge. That afternoon, James Connolly stood on the victor's stand and received the first place medal -- the first Olympic champion in 1,500 years and America's first Olympic hero. James had dreamed of Harvard, working multiple jobs for years to save the tuition. But when news came of the rebirth of the ancient Olympics, he took all his college funds and went to Greece to become an Olympic jumper. At age 27 in 1896, James Connolly embodied the Olympic motto, "Swifter, Higher, Stronger" and the words of Father Henry Didon, "You who wish to surpass yourself, fashion your body and spirit to discover the best of yourself, strive always to go one step further than you were aiming for." Paul embraced that attitude in Philippians 3:13-14: "One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal. . . ." (David Jeremiah, Baptist Press, 9-22-06)
ILLUSTRATION: Threats, Weapons Dave called the FBI and said, "I'm calling to report about my neighbor Billy Bob Smith! He is hiding marijuana inside his firewood." "Thank you very much for the call, sir." The next day, the FBI agents descend on Billy Bob's house. They search the shed where the firewood is kept. Using axes, they bust open every piece of wood, but find no marijuana. They swore at Billy Bob and left. The phone rings at Billy Bob's house. Dave says, "Hey, Billy Bob! Did the FBI come?" "Yeah!" "Did they chop your firewood?" "Yep." "Merry Christmas, Buddy"
"You can no more separate yourself from your influence than you can separate yourself from your shadow as you walk in the noonday sun." (George Truett)
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ILLUSTRATION: Making things simple The Winter Break was over and the teacher was asking the class about their vacations. She turned to little Johnny and asked what he did over the break. "We visited my grandmother in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania," he replied. "That sounds like an excellent vocabulary word," the teacher said. "Can you tell the class how you spell 'Punxsutawney'?" Little Johnny thought about it and said, "You know, come to think of it, we went to Ohio."
To add to your Christmas list . . . Some excellent recent releases that you may want to add to your shopping list this year. (If you'd like to learn more or order a copy of any book, just click on the title, which will link you to Amazon.) I love the Baker History of the Church series, so I'm always glad to see a new volume released. The fifth installment is now available: The Age of Reason: From the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution. The book, by Meic Pearse, covers the years 1570-1789 and thus deals with a variety of substantial topics, including the English Civil War (and Cromwell), the rise of pietism, the emergence of the Englightenment, the Great Awakening in Great Britain and the American colonies, and much more. If reference works are of interest to you, then it's hard to beat the most recent edition of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Univ. Press). The more than 6,000 entries cover a stunning range of topics, from theology to biblical studies to church organization to biographical articles -- from "Aaron" to "Zwingli." It's not inexpensive, but you will find it to be a useful quick reference for any number of topics of ministerial interest. Another interesting reference is the New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (InterVarsity), which will provide a valuable tool for pastors and teachers as they deal with questions regarding the Christian faith in today's pluralistic culture. Spending a few minutes a day with this hefty volume will be like a graduate course in apologetics. A bit less hefty in weight but still quite useful is Simple Church (B&H) by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger. Rainer and Geiger draw on case studies of 400 American churches to show that simple is better than complicated when it comes to church life; as Rainer puts it, "The healthiest churches in America tended to have a simple process for making disciples." As a result, "church leaders need to simplify." This book may be the most valuable Christmas gift you buy yourself this year!
"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child." (Erma Bombeck)
A woman goes to the post office to buy stamps for her Christmas cards. She says to the clerk, "May I have 50 Christmas stamps?" The clerk says, "What denomination?" The woman says, "Has it really come to this? Okay, give me 6 Catholic, 12 Presbyterian, 10 Lutheran and 22 Baptists."
Elf Pet Peeves • All the tables and chairs in the cafeteria are built to Santa's Size. • Those 16 hour workdays in December. • The Movie "Elf" wasn't true to the book. • Three Words: Reindeer Stall Duty • Toil for 364 days a year just to make children smile and no one cares. Meanwhile, frolic around one day in some stupid outfit in February with a lousy bow and arrow and all of a sudden you're a hero. • North Pole PPO health plan doesn't cover tattoo removal. • The EPA's new relaxed reindeer-emissions standards. • Icy cold North Pole temperature makes it hard to produce quality workmanship. • Reindeer game #12: Elf lacrosse. • Jolly Ole Santa has never yet brought back a single cookie to share. (Adapted from Top 5, by way of Sermon Fodder and Joke A Day Ministries. To subscribe go to http://www.sermonfodder.com)
And finally . . . Some people are serious about their Christmas shopping. Even a fire didn't deter holiday shoppers in a Mentor, Ohio Dillard's department store, according to a Dec. 7 AP story. In fact, firefighters had to block the doors to keep additional customers from entering while the fire was being extinguished. "It was amazing," said Mentor fire Battalion Chief Joe Busher. "Even though there was heavy smoke in there, they all wanted to stay and shop. We even had to put people at the door to keep people from coming in." According to the AP story, the fire burned circuits of a high-voltage electrical panel near a women's dressing, firefighters said. It took them eight minutes to put it out. Busher estimated fire damage of about $30,000 and about $100,000 in smoke damage to merchandise. The Dillard's manager said the store would reopen Friday. There will, no doubt, be a line waiting to check on the "fire sale."
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