Merry Christmas! It’s better than you think!

This week I read a couple of blogs on Christmas, one by a retired pastor Don Watson on the Adventist Today website, and another by Andrew Willis from the Voice of Prophecy in the United Kingdom.  Here I want to share a few highlights for a simple reason: because there is so much confusion about it and it is one of seasons that pushes even Christians to be at odds with one another.

Is the celebration of Christmas on December 25 really a pagan custom that early Christians borrowed, or is it a good evangelistic opportunity? 

Here is an interesting historical background.  The earliest evidence of Christians celebrating Christmas comes from around A.D.284, where Donatists celebrated the birth of Jesus on December 25.  Who were Donatists?  The most strict Christians ever! During the Diocletian persecution many Christians compromised and renounced their faith.  When things got easier many wanted to return back to the church.  The question arose: should those Christians who gave up their faith under duress be allowed back? Could the leaders who left be allowed to take office again?  Following their Savior's example, majority of Christians said "yes," giving them the chance to start over. But a movement in North African church rejected this idea, believing that if members who'd turned their back on their faith were allowed back, it would contaminate the church. They were concerned with the purity of the church and wanted to avoid any pagan influences. Led by Donatus, this group became known as the Donatists.  Interesting, isn’t it that the most studious group in their avoidance of anything that even resembled compromise with the world or hint of paganism, was remembering Jesus on December 25.

There is no record of pagan celebrating Sol Invictus on December 25 until AD 354/362, much later than the Christian celebration. And then it was only in the 17th and 18th Centuries that secular enlightenment scholars started to suggest that Christianity had borrowed the date of Christmas from pagans.  Question to the critics of Christmas – did you check your sources? Christian believers during the first two centuries knew the date of Crucifixion as March 25, and connected it with the day when Angel announced to Mary her pregnancy.  Nine month from there – December 25 was suggested….

The word Christmas itself has nothing to do with Roman Catholic mass either.  The word comes from Latin root “dismissal” which literally means “to send.”  The idea of the Mass comes from understanding that at the end of each church service we are being sent on a Mission.  Christmas means being sent by Christ to carry Christ into the world.  To celebrate Christ-mass then, is to be constantly aware that we have been "sent" to reveal God's love as Jesus did when He came into the world.  Apostle Paul writes "God, in Christ, reconciled the world to Himself, not counting men's sins against them.We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."  (2^nd Corinthians 5:18-20)  That's the meaning of Mass!  We have been dismissed, sent out, from the celebration of Calvary [where we are reminded that we have been reconciled, forgiven, accepted, justified, saved - unconditionally loved!] as His Ambassadors to "Implore" people on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God." 

Christmas is God’s invitation to us to become partners with Jesus in saving the world by His Love, by His Faith, by His Promise.  It is an annual invitation to everyone to take Christ’s birth personally.  Jesus is alive and He wants you to know (not only ancient shepherds, or Peter, James and John, you!) "For unto YOU is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord." 

How do you serve?

It’s 3 am, Sunday morning.  This night my prayer before falling asleep could be summed up in this plea “Dear God, interfere with whatever I am doing, with whatever we are doing as the church, make Your Will known, stop us in our tracks if You have to, and show us what You want us to do; wake me up if you have to....”  So, I was up at 2 am, with a list of things I must do this week. 

And now I am reading the Sabbath School lesson.  Wow!  What a challenge: one can be a close associate of a spiritual person and not be converted!  One can even be in a position of apprenticeship, and yet have totally different set of priorities.  I could not help but reflect on our church situation.  We are not sure about our Common Vision, even though it was preached from the pulpit, written about in blogs and newsletters, taught at Board meetings, presented in details at elders meetings.  The reason is simple – each holds different priorities, and to give it up is a sacrifice many are not willing to make.

Sunday lesson makes a statement “Jesus said that the willingness to be a servant was a prerequisite for any leadership position in the church (Mark 9:35)”  Servanthood is not an option in God’s Kingdom!  Every member is a servant!  When we get baptised we promise to follow Jesus who came to serve.  When we come to the Communion we bend down to wash another’s feet, to place ourselves in a symbolic role of a servant.  Do we take this beyond symbolism?  Do we serve in real life?

It is a great privilege to be called into God’s service in any capacity.  Have you considered this privilege when the Nominating Committee member contacted you over the past couple of weeks asking to serve?  Last week I asked you if you are guest or a family.  This week as I interacted with few people I learned that not all read the bulletin!  Maybe we need to take an extra minute to draw everyone’s attention to the communication that is printed weekly for your benefit....How dare you!!!!J

As we approach the festive season, let’s remind ourselves that the reason for the season was God not willing that anyone would perish in their selfishness, but all would have life through His Son, who came to seek, save and serve, and then commissioned this service of reconciliation to those who would follow Him.

Every time I speak about spiritual gifts I bring up Hebrews 2:3-4 where Apostle says that our salvation is confirmed to us by spiritual giftedness we receive.  Consequently, to neglect our spiritual gifts, to fail using the deposit of Holy Spirit in our lives for service is to neglect our salvation.  How then shall we escape???

How do you serve?  Who do you serve? Where do you serve?  Why do you serve? WHEN WILL YOU SERVE, FOR REAL?

How do you “fit” in our church: a guest or a family?

The Nominating Committee had done a great job placing everyone on our membership roll into a meaningful ministry.  Members prayed, researched, worked together to streamline our organization and add ministries to make our church even more functional in 2011. 

We believe that God has placed in every church a complete set of gifts, and no church Body is meant to be missing parts.  Yet, the health of the church is determined by the willingness of each member to do their part. There are no “handicap” churches, but there are paralyzed or sleepy churches.  And it’s all by choice of members.  We want to have Women’s Ministry in addition to active men’s Ministry.  We want to have Pathfinders ministry offering spiritual growth for teens.  We want to have Seniors Ministry.  And the Personal Ministry has a task to “plug” every person into a meaningful ministry.  How have you responded to the Call?

The Church is also a family.  Whenever there’s a party the guests leave and the family stays to clean dishes, and shares costs.  What is your place in our church? 

Do you just come for the “party” to receive a good time and be blessed?  We love you, keep coming, and we hope that in time you would desire to join the “family” and make it bigger and better. 

Do you contribute to pay bills, prepare things and stay after to clean up and prepare for future?  Do you come to a “family meetings” where plans are discussed and budget is decided?  Or do you just “pay the price of a ticket” as a visitor by giving a donation to the particular programming you like to attend?

I have written before about the “culture” present in every community.  The first value of our church culture is “family.”  We care for one another, we want to know each other and we want to spend more time with each other.  We also recognize that the family has grown big.  It’s a “tribe” with many clans.  To affirm belonging, representation and total participation “chieftains” of each clan come together to form Elders’ Council.  We want to serve everybody.

Recently someone sent me a cute comment in regards to the work of the Nominating Committee: “Pray for the tired, recruit the tireless, and avoid the tiresome.”

I Invite you to consider your place in the Body of Christ – a hand, a foot, an eye, and consider your role in the Family of God.  If you are a family member, what is your chore?  In a functional family everyone is involved, everyone has some chores, everyone knows their place.   Body, let’s function well!  Family, let’s work together!

More on Vision, Worldview & Values

With my blogs I continue sharing with you perspectives about importance of the Vision.  This week I took a day off on Tuesday to spend time with Sandra through her surgery.  To make a waiting time in the hospital useful I took two books with me “Getting things done” by L.E.Schaller & “Naming the elephant” by J.W.Sire.  Two different books, on different subjects – and both are addressing the same topic!  The Worldview, Culture, Values and Vision of a community.

Sire is surveying all available Christian and secular definitions of the “worldview” as a foundational vision each one has on all aspects of life. Worldview it’s like a lens, a single conception from which everything flows.  One discovery that floored me was this statement by philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd “all human endeavour stems not from worldview, but from the spiritual commitment of the heart, and there are two basic commitments, leading to two basic conditions of life: Œman converted to God & man averted from God.” He continues with his assertion that all worldviews come from these two motives. Œthe power of the Holy Spirit that keeps one in communion with God or spirit of apostasy & rebellion.

First is the matter of personal conversion, which affects how we see the world around us, values are translated into our conduct, creating a culture of behaviours.

A few weeks ago elder Mike Keim sent me a comment “culture eats strategy for breakfast.”  Then, the same day a Leadership consultant Andre Thomas asked me a question: “What is the culture of your church?”  Schaller’s book was about how culture affects productivity in the church.  Culture determines if things get done, or don’t ever.....

Last week I shared fragments of my vision of a preferred future for our church, stating my values of witnessing, discipleship and spiritual nurture, care, learning and more.  

I invite you to examine your own values.  What is your personal culture? For example, here’s a list of values randomly collected from different churches.  See if you can identify with some, and then define/discover yours in addition:

·         High commitment to world missions

·         Greeting and warmly welcoming with caring smile every visitor

·         Building a large endowment fund as security for future

·         Preserving the building in excellent condition

·         Caring for one another

·         Preserving traditional schedules and procedures

·         Paying all bills on time

·         “Taking care of our wonderful minister”

·         Preserving and Perpetuating nationality or ethnic customs

·         Excellence in vocal music over broad participation....

What we value will determine what we do.  And what we do frequently squeezes out other things that are not valued, creating a unique culture.