Thank you so much for sharing that. It completely expresses what I have been feeling for several years now. And it really fits witht the theme we are going for this year with our creative elements.
I am posting it to my creative team.

I guess I would be more like what you said Tyler and that is: “I also wonder why it takes a “conspiracy” for Christians to do Christmas different than the rest of society.”

For me why is it around Christmas we Christians decide we need to get off our perverbial back sides and “do something good”. I personally beleive this is typical window dressing that the church feels it has to do something “special” or rise to the occasion because the rest of the world is watching us because this is our celebration. I also feel this is what happens when our churches are filled with people who need to be motivated to act like Christians, than geneuinely have a changed heart or will. If we are not exhibiting “Advent Conspiracy” the remaining 335 days of the year then we are participating in nothing more than “works” and we need to take a long hard look at what’s wrong with us the remaining 11 months of the year.

Preston- First off I think faith is accompanied with works. James makes that pretty clear. And that is really the heart of this whole thing: If we call ourselves Christians and do Christmas no different than anyone else what are we saying?

The bottom line for me (and this is something that will come out tomorrow) is that I don’t care what it takes for me to do Christmas different as long as it happens. God can take my desire to save money and use it to bless the world and at the same time change my heart. I’d rather have somebody have the wrong mindset for doing Advent Conspiracy and still do it, then to love the idea and do nothing. God can use the person who decides to do something for the wrong reason, because He can change that person’s heart.

Well we are doing at The Brook and we love it. It has reminded us of things that we know are important but sometimes forget and we love doing something together as well. We’ve taken positive steps to think about how we’d truly like to celebrate Christmas. Our congregation is loving it and they are really challenging ME as well. We’re doing alot of different things personally…..

1) It all started when I wanted to take my team to use their musical gifts to serve others outside of church and we had lots of ideas but settled on serving dinner and doing a concert at the local Rescue Mission. We’ll be in the women and children’s section so we’ll give out goody bags with toiletries as well. We’ll do some singalong and some worship and we’ll share the gospel. Then we’re going to my house to just hang out together. I usually spend more so we can say “thank you” to our volunteers but this year it’s simply a get together at our home and a chance to be with one another. I usually buy them gifts personally from me but this year I gave a guitar to a worship leader in the Dominican Republic in their honor. Next year we hope to take a trip to do training and encouraging.

2) I started the GiveWorship Project (www.aworshipfulheart.typepad.com/giveworship) to help resource worship leaders in countries with few resources. So far we’ve sent 4 guitars, 6 CDs and some accessories and amps. Not as much as I’d like but better than nothing. I’ve seen people ask for this for Christmas (give a guitar and don’t buy me a thing).

3) We’re of course giving to the Living Water International through the church.

4) Our family is buying virtually no gifts for one another. We’re making them and buying something meaningful. Instead we’re going on a trip together (we live in three different cities and our oldest son has applied for the Peace Corp so who knows what next year will be like). We are also giving gifts in one another’s honor to different organizations.

I don’t see what could be wrong with it – perhaps it will help people to think differently and to see that they can make a difference. The people I’ve seen involved in this are super excited and have drastically changed how they are celebrating but are more excited! That has been great to see.

Bottom line – I’ve seen God at work in our congregation.

My point is why should Christmas be any different than any other day of the year. I celebrate the birth, the life, the death and the resurrection everyday of my life. Why should my “goodness” meter be spiked higher in December than any other day of the year? What is God more interested in Tyler the motives of our hearts or “good works”? From what I can tell it would be the motive of one’s heart.

As to your point regarding faith and works I agree – however at the same time works can be accomplished with selfish motivations and therefore that is a dead work in my opinion. Even if the work is a work of benevolence if it is not done with Godly motives then it is dead. What I tend to see is many churches motivate their members once a year to do something that makes them “feel” as if their doing something “Christian”, when the other 11 months of the year their own church giving and tithes are in the basement and the church can hardly make its budget.

Preston- I guess I don’t understand your first point. If Christmas shouldn’t be different than any other time of year…Why have Thanksgiving? Why have weekends? Why go to church on Sundays? Maybe I’m not understanding you.