Advent Conspiracy

If you are like most people, you will soon be fully immersed in all the major decisions that go with the Christmas season. The checklist of "to do's" includes:
1. The delicate act of balancing time at your parents and the in-laws without slighting anyone.
2. The super-human effort it takes to work all the extra events into your already crowded schedule.
3. If you are one of those super organized people, you will also carve out time to write one of those "here's what happened in our family" letters chronicling all the exciting blessings of the past year.
4. Due to the sagging economy this year we will also have the extra added stress of thinking through flying or driving, getting everyone a present or drawing names, etc.

If we were really honest, I think we would have to admit there are just some things about the holiday season we pretty much dread... like warp speed schedules, spending time in over-crowded malls (I don't do malls...Thank God for Ebay.com and Overstock.com!) and a little too much focus on giving stuff that will be broken or forgotten by next Christmas.

If you serve in ministry, you get the "double whammy" effect. On top of all the regular person stuff, you have an incredibly crowded December schedule that Superman himself couldn't keep up with. Think about it. Extra rehearsals, the adult musical, the children's musical, the special event that nobody even knows why we do it, and of course the feeling of obligation to make it to as many Christmas parties as possible. Church people are really good at saying stuff like "if you would come to our special event it would really say so much about how important this ministry is to our church". Nothing like a little church peer pressure to make the holiday festive!

Sometimes I think we automatically shift into "Christmas season overdrive" in ministry. As much as we want everyone to have a special Christmas season, I wonder if we don't over program ourselves to death and leave ourselves and our church family thinking "This schedule is over the top and I can't wait until all this insanity is behind us. I actually know minister's children who absolutely dread the month of December!

Before you think I am the world's biggest Scrooge, I want you to know I am all in favor of celebrating Christ's incarnation. What Paul said in 2 Co. 9:15 echoes my exact sentiments for Advent (the first coming of Christ). "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" What a perfect declaration for the miracle of the virgin birth, God dwelling with us as our Immanuel. My commitment to my family each year is to make sure we truly worship the Lord vs. getting all caught up in the Christmas chaos that engulfs so many Christians. We limit our activities in favor of carefully selected and meaningful events. We limit our gifts in favor of special family moments and giving to our favorite missions.

This year The Brook Church is going to be encouraging all our families to do four things:

• Worship fully (Giving God our presence vs. just focusing on getting presents)
• Spend less (Not defining a "good Christmas" through material gifts)
• Give more (Giving your time, talents, and treasures in honor of Jesus)
• Love all (Getting involved in missions through a financial offering and a family project)

I will be blogging about this quite a bit from now through the Christmas. So will other Brook ministry staff. I hope you will check out the link below and see just how far reaching this Christmas could be if we all committed to the "Advent Conspiracy".

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/