Filed under: Holidays
In the early centuries of the church, the focus of the Advent season was on the disciplines of fasting and prayer. It was a time to rightly align your heart with the passions of Jesus – to identify with his love for the world, his connection to the poor and suffering, and his commitment to justice. The Christmas feast was never intended to be a time of self-focus gluttony but a self-sacrificing commitment to God’s redemptive mission in the world.
The earliest traditions of St. Nicholas (the predecessor to Santa Claus) were about giving gifts to the poor – not the receiving of gifts for the self.
Where did Christmas become a time of simply memorializing the ‘infant baby Jesus’ through songs, pageants, and candlelight rituals? As followers of Christ, lets call for this season of Advent to be a time where we commit to prayer and fasting. Lets challenge each other to have a more simple Christmas.
Lets:
- fast from unnecessary spending
- give gifts that we personally make
- give an equal amount to a cause that Jesus is invested in that would equal to the amount that we spend on a family member
- serve this holiday season. The greatest gift we can give our children is the gift of servanthood
- adopt a Christmas family that would have little, if any, Christmas without your help
My prayer for all of us at The Well this Advent season is that we discover the incredible gift of Jesus’ miracle birth and how through our desire to reach out to others – we are reminded and overwhelmed with the reality that God is with us.
Filed under: Holidays
The beginning of a new year is always a time where we stop and think back on the previous year. We remember the good times and we reflect on the difficult parts. As I work through this process in the life of the church, I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I am for everything that God has done.
As we began the year, we had about three or four families that had committed to The Well. We had no location and we very little resources. All we could do was pray. Pray for God’s guidance and clarity and the courage to follow through on what God was calling us to do. I have a group of people that I send prayer requests to every week (I have been doing this since we first found out that we were planting a church). Fortunately, my friend saved all my requests and sent me the prayer requests that I sent at the beginning of 2008. My prayer at the beginning of the year was for “God to guide people into my path that either had a desire to help start a church or were in need of a church community.” As I looked at that prayer and thought about the year, I stand in amazement. We just completed what was probably our most labor intensive week in the life of our new church. During the week of Christmas, we moved our entire church 5 different times. If you are part of a church that has a physical location, think about that when you think about the pros and cons of your building. Even though we moved the church 5 times, we had people willing to do that. Some took time off from work and others used their vacation time to make sure that everything was ready and available for Sundays and Christmas Eve. We had people willing to serve. In addition, we had hundreds come on Christmas Eve that did not have a church community that they called their own.
I am reminded of how faithful God is and how His timing is not always my own. As I prepare for 2009, my prayer doesn’t really change. I still pray that God will guide people into my path as I know that there are still so many people who need to find a church where they can worship. I also know that there are resources that God has for our church that I simply have to wait on. But, I will say that I pray more confidently and boldly. I know God has great things in store for The Well and look forward to being a part of such an awesome community of faith.
