Prepare the Way of the Lord–Mark 1:3
Snuggles……….
How many times do I prepare for things?
I clean, I mix things up, I run errands…
And yet, when I prepare my child for things
I talk to him, I make pictures and tell stories about that which we are waiting for, and I snuggle him, preparation takes a lot of snuggling….
Can I prepare for God this way?
John is every pastor’s dream member. He’s a life-long believer, well-studied in the Bible, gives generously, and leads others passionately.
But last year he dropped out of church. He didn’t switch to the other church down the road. He dropped out completely. His departure wasn’t the result of an ugly encounter with a staff person or another member. It wasn’t triggered by any single event.
John had come to a long-considered, thoughtful decision. He said, “I’m just done. I’m done with church.”
John is one in a growing multitude of ex-members. They’re sometimes called the de-churched. They have not abandoned their faith. They have not joined the also-growing legion of those with no religious affiliation–often called the Nones. Rather, John has joined the Dones.
At Group’s recent Future of the Church conference, sociologist Josh Packard shared some of his groundbreaking research on the Dones. He explained these de-churched were among…
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There is much to choose from this Advent at Faith and Wonder–check out the offerings below and to see how you, your family, or your church might engage with the stories of God this Advent and Christmas!
**5 days a week of audio storytelling beginning December 1st
**Features stories from the Jesse Tree–including some traditionally left off the branches (ehem…the women’s stories)
**Each episode will include a personal storytelling prompt
**A terrific Advent practice (Episodes will generally be less than 10 minutes in length…as for your own stories…take your time!)
I am hoping to have it up on iTunes…still awaiting some technical changes to make that happen!
Christmas By Heart: 12 Days of Story-Learning (Begins Dec 1st)This video story-learning workshop is aimed at learning Luke 2:1-20 and includes:
**”Tips for Telling”…View original post 111 more words
The elves are starting. Many parents do the elf on the shelf thing (Not me, Advent is busy, and we find them creepy although lots of parents do a good job) or even the kindness elves. Christmas flyers are being sent out, and of course retail has been talking Christmas forever
Tumblr is starting to look snowy
And us pastors are DEFINITELY starting to think about Christmas-Auditions for our Xmas play have started this week. (which we put on for children as food drive…YAY)
Technically, in my family, we aren’t supposed to listen to Xmas music til thanksgiving
(but I give myself a pass to sneak it in the car, when I’m alone)
And you have to watch Love Actually 6 weeks before Christmas, because that’s when the
movie starts……and that may be before Thanksgiving.
Then on thanksgiving we toast with Egg Nog and watch our first official Christmas movie–which is tricky to decide…. (My brother wants “Its a Wonderful Life” I like “Miracle on 34th” My one sister likes “Holiday Inn” My other sister likes “The Santa Clause” the kids prefer “The Grinch who Stole Christmas” the cartoon)
1020 × 765 – ort
And we do celebrate St. Nick’s day on Dec. 6th where St. Nick leaves Candy in everyone’s shoes and a family game/movie in the holiday spirit……
Ok, lets be honest, we celebrate ALL MONTH LONG
I am all for surprises and delayed gratification, I love waiting for good things, and I like advent, but since I (and everyone else) is already planning Christmas…….I wonder if some year WE ought to just OWN Christmas at church the way retail does.
You know go all out
Start celebrating as soon as humanly possible
Tell the Christmas story five weeks in a row. Because there is always Way, way too much story to get through on Christmas Eve (and I always feel sad for the parts I miss)–Angels and Shepherds and Wise Men and Mary and Joseph (not to mention all those animals hanging around)….so many scriptural narratives to cover!!!
And there are so many good ways to tell the Christmas story, Velveteen Rabbit, The Littlest Angel, the Gift of the Magi, Miracle on 34th St, all the puppy and kitten present stories, the shepherds perspective, the drummer boy, the (three) wise men, the unexpected Christmas youtube video, the googlemaps version of Mary and Joseph’s journey, Charlie Brown & the Grinch, the advent conspiracy, the feeding of people on thankgiving, etc. etc. etc.
As someone in the Nextchurch Twitter discussion pointed out, we are celebrating Christ’s birth ALL THE TIME anyway.
Besides, not everyone may even know the Christmas Carols anymore (tears) maybe we should sing them on Sunday–I know the ambiant music never covers as many true hymns and carols as I want (Holly Jolly Christmas is fun, but First Noel speaks to me)
. 
Maybe Advent is during the week and Christmas is every Sunday. (Hey, it works for Lent right?)
How would you take ownership if you starting celebrating Christmas after thanksgiving? How would it change how your church did mission that month? Could you tell the gospel in different ways? Are there lead-in activities that might make it more possible to engage and connect to the community? How about your stewardship campaign, if you directly tied it to Xmas could you do so in a good/GREAT way?
Seems to me that if we are to party people into the kingdom, great mission/storytelling and singing of Christmas is a great way to start….after all, who doesn’t love the candlelit service? Who doesn’t wish that this is how church feels all the time?
One of these years, I’m going all IN!
“For some reason the term “oriental,” as a label for those of Asian descent continues to remain in the vernacular of US American culture whether it is the 80 year old grandmother making a side comment about the dry cleaners or the college freshmen from small town USA talking about the international student that sold her a mattress”
In seminary I took a course called Cultural Hermeneutics team-taught by two professors. One would go on to become one of my favorite teachers and the other would become my senior thesis advisor. A close friend, at the time and now, Erica Liu, along with a handful of other Asian Americans and I sat eagerly looking through the syllabus on that first day of class. We would be introduced to African American, Latin@, African, and Asian frameworks for reading the Bible and doing theology. But…where was the section on Asian American hermeneutics? It would be an understatement to say we felt let down.
But, the professors were both very open to revising the syllabus right away and added a section including some relatively new resources by Asian American theologians. This is what made me love and respect these teachers – their willingness to listen to us, and even be changed…
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My church works hard to be community oriented and to be out in the neighborhood.
1 that runs a Neighborhood Farmer’s Market in our parking lot from May-Oct, completely thru volunteers
1 that arranges for free exercise classes (with babysitting) during the farmer’s market
A Market that book-ended by 2 Chicken BBQ fundraisers (the company cooks, we serve)
p.s. we put up great signs for these events. GREAT signs!
1 that puts on a health fair, plays, concerts, art shows.
1 that has done a clothing exchange, electronic recycling,
1 that has a weekly free playgroup and runs a 2, 3, and 4yr old Nursery School
1 that hosts over a dozen AA’s, 3 other congregations, 2 community choirs, an immigrant ministry & the neighborhood association
When I talk to people about my church, the reach is far.
Our location is good, most people have stepped into our building at some point for various things
Our Farmer’s Market is well known, we are possibly the best small farmer’s market in the city
And everyone is shocked, I mean shocked by how small we are….they think we have 150 people at least
Why is that?
Because we are bigger on the inside
That’s what happens when a church holds God and the Community in their hearts..
we end up growing in ways that we can’t even comprehend….
And God increases our efforts twofold/fourfold/tenfold
Its time to STOP thinking of ourselves as a small church, and to start thinking of ourselves as bigger on the inside
| — | Ursula K. Le Guin |
“”the distinction between God and Human is also no longer simple to cut” Pieces are distinctly part of the whole…and it takes male and female to be whole
Last year for Fr. Shannon Kearn’s Queer Theology synchroblog I wrote about the image of God in Genesis and the potential to reimagine the dominant interpretation of the creation story otherwise (and some material from that has reappeared here in edited form). To queer creation is to reimagine from a perspective that’s not invested in upholding heavily binarized categories: man-woman, human-animal, creator-created, and so on.
There can be no doubt that the narratives of Genesis 1-3 (creation, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve) have been weaponized and used against LGBTQ folk in order to delegitimize their existence, to name them as “unnatural” or “contrary to creation”. Transgender people, for example, are told that God created “man and woman”, and that to “tamper” with one’s “biological sex” is sinful and disordered; and those who are nonheterosexual often hear that clichéd refrain: “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” For many Christians then, Genesis…
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katyandtheword 