Have You Missed Christmas?

I’m afraid a lot of people will miss Christmas this year, even though they’re busy shopping, cooking, preparing, enjoying parties and going to church events. In the midst of all the advertising and all the hype, the point of Christmas too often gets lost for many of us.

Here are three ways you can miss the point of Christmas.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is receiving.

     Receiving is a major part of the excitement of Christmas. Children all over America can’t wait to see what’s under the tree for them. Even adults are not above getting excited when they expect a special gift, and very few people don’t enjoy unwrapping a present. There is nothing wrong with the anticipation of receiving Christmas gifts, but receiving gifts is not the most important part of Christmas… even though it is easy to get carried away with the thought of getting stuff.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is giving.

For adults the opportunity to give is likely the biggest turn on of Christmas. The look of delight in the eyes of someone who just got what they “always wanted” gives the giver rich pleasure. When the gift you give is right, it gives at least as much pleasure to the giver as it does the receiver. Giving can also be the biggest pain. Shopping is often hectic, less than fun, and sometimes the bill for Christmas gifts destroys the family budget for the entire year. Also, giving loses its allure when you feel obligated to give a gift to somebody you don’t really know or like very much. (i.e. cousin Martha’s fourth husband, or the aunt who spends more on her shoes than you do on your rent)

The traditions of giving and receiving have their roots in the Christmas story. They reflect the gifts the wise men gave and, of course, God’s gift of His Son to all mankind, but these traditions are not the point of Christmas.

ü You miss the point of Christmas if you think it is family.

The classic mental picture of the perfect Christmas is the perfect family in their perfect floor length robes worn over their clean and pressed pajamas with their hair perfectly in place, in the perfect living room, with their perfect tree with a perfect fire in their fireplace drinking perfect coffee and hot chocolate and neatly unwrapping their perfectly wrapped packages while it gently snows perfectly big flakes outside the perfect landscape window. However, most of us don’t have families exactly like that. Some of us don’t have family at all. Others are separated from their families by physical or emotional distance. For these people the joyous Christmas season is a stressful, even depressing time. That is not what God intended. Obviously, happy times for families are good, but the angel said the good news was for all the people. The point of Christmas is for the unattached as much as it is for the dream family.

The point of Christmas is God becoming a man so that we can become like Him.     

Christmas is remembering the unique point in history when God came to live among us. As John put it in the first chapter of his Gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Creator and King of the Universe chose to make a lowly entrance. Instead of sliding down a sunbeam or being born in a beautiful palace, he chose to come to a stable surrounded by ordinary people. He became one of us. Even more to the point than His entrance were His subsequent life, death and resurrection. It would be no exaggeration to say that the point of Christmas is actually Easter. Perhaps Paul expresses the point of Christmas best.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)

God came to do for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. God came in Jesus to reconcile us to Himself, to forgive us of our sins and wipe out the barrier they cause between God and us. In Jesus, God showed, once and for all, the extent of His love for us. The coming of Jesus as a man serves to make us aware that this earth, this life, this physical universe is not all there is. There is more to life than what our senses can observe. Finally, Jesus came to save us from our selfish paths that all lead to self-destruction, and to make us fit to spend eternity with Him. He shows us the way, because He is the Way.

Please don’t miss the point of Christmas! It is a package addressed to you! Go ahead open it!

*** If you are looking for an inspirational Christmas story, I invite you to visit my blog "Christmas at Tiny Naylor's" from December 2012; "Bill the Innkeeper" and "An Uncertain Christmas" from December 2011.

A Mission Field You May Never Have Heard Of

 In seminary I had a class from C. Peter Wagner: “Strategies For World Evangelization.” It was a church growth class on a global scale. We learned about “unreached people groups” within countries all over the world. I kind of filed that approach away in my mind. Then, many years later I became aware of an unreached people group right here in the United States (and worldwide) that I had never heard identified. Here is how I came to know about this group.

A lady in our church called me one day to ask me to pray for her new little granddaughter who had a severe hearing impairment; in fact, she was deaf. From time to time the grandmother would bring the little one to our church and she would take her to the nursery. Pretty soon, the whole family came to church on a fairly regular basis. Our nursery folks took good care of little, blonde Amy, but when she was four she outgrew our nursery department. I vividly remember the first morning after she turned four. As I stepped to the pulpit I dismissed the children 4 years through 5^th grade to our great children’s church. I saw Amy’s grandmother walk hand-in-had with her out of the sanctuary to take her to her class. As I saw them go, tears came to my eyes, and I had a hard time getting into my sermon, because my heart broke when I realized we were not prepared to teach a deaf child about Jesus. From then on, her grandmother, and later her mother, tried to help by going with Amy and signing to her what the teacher said. They were gracious about it, but I knew it wasn’t enough, and it also meant that one of them had to miss worship every week they came.

About this time, I found out about a ministry called Silent Blessings, which had been founded by a college classmate of mine, Marshall Lawrence. He understood the problems of deaf people better than I ever could, because his daughter is deaf. He offered some breakout sessions on ministry to the deaf at our annual denominational convention. For the first time, I got a glimpse of understanding that the deaf community is an unreached people group who live among the rest of us. Around 30 million Americans have significant hearing loss. Turns out only about 2% of deaf people know Christ as Savior, and most churches have nothing for them. Less than 5% of churches have any outreach to the deaf and usually that consists of offering sign translation of the sermon. While that is helpful, it is not nearly enough, especially for those who were born deaf. A child who grows up deaf will probably never hear the Bible stories most of us take for granted, so when a sermon is signed to them as an adult, they often don’t have enough background to understand it very well.

Marshall also introduced a deaf pastor and some deaf believers to the breakout sessions. It was delightful to hear their testimonies through translators. What’s more is they had a deaf service two nights of the convention and that was a real eye-opener to me. More precisely, it was an ear opener. Even though they couldn’t hear, they still praised God through music. They loved to feel the beat, which requires the volume to be turned up very loudly.

Our church tried to make accommodations for Amy. I shared my concern about Amy and the deaf with our people and many of them understood the problem. Amy’s mother and a friend taught sign language and several of the children took the classes and really tried to communicate with Amy. We had Marshall come and share his ministry with us. I took two free ASL classes at the local college, but when you aren’t around a deaf person all the time, it’s hard to approach proficiency. Anyway, about the time I finished my classes, Amy’s family moved away and we only saw her when she came to visit her grandmother.

Our church wanted to do something that would reach deaf people, but we ran against problems that are common to people who want to reach this community:

1. The deaf community is tight knit.

2. They are self-sufficient.

3. They have a hard time trusting the hearing community.

4. They don’t consider their affliction as a handicap, or even an affliction, and they don’t like being treated as handicapped.

5. They speak a foreign language called ASL, American Sign Language.

Families with deaf children have unique problems:

1. Nearly 95% of all deaf children have hearing parents.

2. Only about 10% of those parents ever learn enough sign language to hold a conversation with their children.

3. They have to make very difficult decisions concerning treatment and education. Right choices are not clear-cut. They are far reaching, and there’s a lot of conflicting advice.

What I would like my readers to do:

1. Please pray for this enormous, largely ignored unreached people group.

2. Educate yourself about the deaf community. A great first step is to visit the Silent Blessings website, silentblessings.org.

3 Check out the children’s television program that Silent Blessings produces, “Dr. Wonder’sWorkshop.” It’s an amazing tool God is using to teach deaf kids about Jesus. If you can’t find it on your TV listings, check out samples at silentblessings.org.

4. Give to folks who are on the mission to the deaf community like Silent Blessings

5. Consider having Marshall Lawrence come to share his burden for the deaf with your church, small group, or club. He will open your eyes and touch your heart with this great ministry. 

Thank You to My Friends who have Served on Veterans Day

I never served in the military. The draft was on in my day and I was in the last cohort that received a deferment because we went to college. When my number was drawn, it was very low—30—which meant, without the deferment, I would have been called very quickly. I remember the day they drew my number. I did something I never did before or since. I walked off my summer job—just told my boss I was leaving and left. I drove around the Kansas countryside to decide what I should do. If I passed the physical, I would have been in uniform in a few months. Perhaps I should enlist. Could I get into the National Guard? My dad served in WWII; shouldn’t I go too? He waited to be drafted and I knew he didn’t want me to volunteer. How would I do? Could I handle the discipline? How would I react if I were in combat? I was confused. Finally, I decided that since I didn’t have to go right then, I wouldn’t. The deferment made me ineligible for the draft until I graduated unless I quit school, became a part-time student, or fell below a 2.0 gpa. Also, I was a ministry student; they had special deferments for ministers and student ministers. Should I sign up for one of those? I just didn’t feel right about taking ministerial student route. I was not a conscientious objector. I didn’t like the idea of fighting, but I knew that I would, if I had to. I just didn’t know how well I would fight. I decided I would use the regular student deferment and, after I graduated I would decide. But when I graduated the war was over. I was never called and the draft ended.

I have always liked reading history and I have read a lot about war. I stand in awe of the guys who have been in combat, especially those who have fought bravely. I’ve always wondered how I would react in combat. Would I stand strong? Would I curl up in the fetal position? Would I become a homicidal maniac? Or would I run away? I will never know. I’m kind of glad of that. I’m grateful to the men that faced an enemy so that I never had to. It’s right to celebrate these fellows (and in recent years, ladies) and the sacrifices they have made: in their bodies, in their psyches, of their time, and in their families.

About 10 years ago I was called to officiate at a funeral for a man I knew as a stroke victim. He was only a couple of years older than me, about 55 when he passed. He had been confined to a wheelchair for a number of years since his stroke. He seemed like a great guy, but he had a hard time communicating because the stroke had affected his speech as well as his mobility. He was a Viet Nam veteran so there would be military honors. It turned out he was quite a vet. He was a genuine hero. Six guys from his unit showed up and told stories of him that he had never spoken of, even to his sister. They had been a special reconnaissance team and spent a lot of time behind enemy lines. This guy that I knew as a cripple had earned a bronze star and a couple of other high honors on the field. At the funeral, these men had wonderful things to share about his bravery. I felt inadequate to say anything worthy of this man. He had gone to war because he was called. I had not because I was not called. He learned some things about himself that I can never find out about myself. I still feel a great deal of gratitude toward him and all the vets.

I travel a lot and when I see someone in uniform at an airport, I always try to thank them for service. It’s not much, but it’s way better than the reception Viet Nam era guys got. Veterans are among us and not distinguished by uniform, so these remarks are the best way I know to thank them.

Thank you veterans and God bless you. If I knew how to salute, I would salute you now.

"We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."- George Orwell (or at least attributed to him)

Who are You Trying to Impress?

That was the question the conference leader asked a group of about 500 or so pastors and church leaders. “Who are you trying to impress?” I was a very young associate pastor and being a typical Baby Boomer know-it-all, I answered to myself, “I’m not trying to impress anyone. I just want to be me.” Then, the leader went further and said “Who would you most like to hear compliment your ministry? A friend? A parent? Another pastor? A seminary professor? Who would you most like to hear say good things about your preaching and your leadership?” Well that brought the question home to me. I thought I would love to have some of my old profs (I was about a year and a half out of seminary) tell me I was doing things the right way. This conference leader had started his church with nothing and led it to be, at that time, one of the fastest growing and most effective churches in America. He said, “I decided when I started that if I could get a compliment from anyone on my ministry, I wanted it to come from the unchurched in my town. That is who I decided to try to impress.”

To me, that was a brand new way of looking at ministry, and it has become the way I have tried to conduct myself as a pastor. Because Jesus’ command to us is to make disciples, I knew I needed to make an impression on those who don’t know Him. How else could I help influence them to join me in following Christ? This idea began to color the way I sought to preach, the programs and events I led my church to do, and even the kind of building we eventually built. Sometimes, it’s meant choosing to do things in a way that was not impressive to my profs or even the older leaders in my church. From time to time, those people made their disappointment with me very obvious. But the Lord did not assign me to impress them. Jesus had the same problem. Most of the religious people of His time were not impressed with Him at all, while the regular folks followed Him.

Impressing the unchurched does not mean becoming like the unchurched, but it does mean sharing the Gospel in ways that get their attention and speak to them. It means treating them with respect and loving them. It means doing your best to make them feel accepted, comfortable and loved in your presence. You won’t have to point out their sin (the Holy Spirit will take care of that), and it’s not your job to judge them (I believe that is reserved for Christ). Your job is to care about them and want them to join you on the journey to heaven.

Too often the practice of congregations does not match its rhetoric. They say they want to win people to Christ, but they leave the unchurched feeling like they are a bother. When people do decide to join the body, the congregation often keeps them on the fringe of the fellowship for a long time. (Right after becoming the pastor at a church, I heard some of the core people talking about the “new family.” Turned out the “new family” had been attending and giving to the church regularly for 5 years.)

Lesson for Pastor: It’s easy for your office to become an ivory tower. You can find yourself surrounded only by Christians and people who try to act like Christians when they are around you. Find ways to get to know unchurched people in your community and be Jesus to them. Join a service or hobby club, play on a ball team not sponsored by the church, volunteer as a police or fire chaplain, coach your kid’s sports team. Do anything that will put you in close contact with people you might be able to influence for Christ. Then, get to know them. Become friends. Share life with them and thereby earn the right to share Christ.

Lesson for Church Leaders: Help your pastor develop a culture in your church that expects and welcomes unchurched people. Realize that they will bring baggage with them from the world and be willing to help them deal with it when they’re ready. Don’t expect people who don’t know Christ to act like Him. Be real with them. You probably aren’t as Christ-like as you should be either. Share the road to Him with them.

My mentor, Dan Harman, used to say when I was his associate at First Church in Fresno, CA that he wanted there to be three kinds of people in Fresno: 1.) People who are members of First Church. 2.) People who are members of another church, but say, “If I didn’t have a church home I would go to First Church.” 3.) People who don’t go to church anywhere, but say, “If I decide to go to church, I think I’ll try First Church.” We didn’t get that far, but we worked at it. I challenge you to work at it too.

Think about it. From whom would you like to hear a compliment? Who are you trying to impress?