Well, this one is the latest so far – been a little under the weather lately but was reading over this section on Christmas services and traditions. I must say that Christmas 2007 at my baptist church was somewhat refreshing – we’re without a “worship leader”
at the moment and the wonderful guy filling in took an approach to Christmas that is so diffent these days in SBC churches (I’m organist at mine – yes, a few still have those – we’re fortunate at the moment) and I was
very pleased because he mentioned that at Christmas he
really liked hymns and carols insted of the usual contempo mush that most baptist churches have become so
accustomed to. So, 2007 Christmas was just that – traditional and for an organist heaven on earth even but for a brief four weeks.

I determined a few years ago that we needed and Advent wreath at church and begin to put one on the top corner
of the organ console nearest the congreation and each year more and more interest has been shown towards Advent and it’s meaning and this past Christmas I had
orded some pamphlets with a brief description of Advent and short devotionals or services that were availble if folk wanted more info – I ran out! Refreshing.

At home my wife and I decided to start our own Advent tradition and we had an Advent wreath on the table in our living room and each Sunday evening after getting in
from church we lit the candles week to week and had a short devotional on each weekly theme and closed each one with communion and prayer – just the two of us – it was very moving, very wonderful.

My wife and I decided to take this one step further and share it with the family on Christmas morning – when everyone arrived we gathered around the table in the living room and I lit all five candles, mentioning the theme for the four Advent weeks and the Christ candle for Christmas Day – had a short reading from the Book of Common Prayer followed by a reading from gospel of Luke chapter 2, a short prayer and family communion – it was powerful. All this we did without a big show – just a simple, short time of remembrance that our hope began with a simple birth, in a simple place, to simple parents, announced to simple shepards in the midst of their work – “unto you is born this day a savior who is Christ the Lord….”

Hope all had a very blessed time this past Advent and Christmas season and hope that you have a great 2008!!

The service revolved around storytellers telling the story of the Fourth Wise Man, who totally misses Jesus the first time around and has to put his family jewels in the hands of any woman that will take them but uses the money to heal people and finds him on the way to the Cross and gives him water. It totally made me reflect on how I should make lots and lots of money so I could found hospitals and build big churches like the Astrodome so I can show everyone how much I love God and stuff. Totally true and much better than the old story that Linus tells.

The best part, though, was while we were rocking out to “What Child is This” my Grandmother, who has dementia with paranoid delusions, Parkinson’s Disease and uses a wheelchair, confused the drum solo with gunshots and thought God had sent someone to shoot the church up. I always know it’s Christmas when I have to physically restrain my Granny during a Christmas Eve service.

When it was all done I was so very edified that I was too tired to go to Midnight Mass at my friend’s Episcopal Church like I do every year. So instead my parents, who were just as edified as I was, decided we should watch the Pier Paolo Pasolini film “The Gospel According to St. Matthew,” which was totally edifying in a different way, and taught me that a gay, atheist, Communist could have more orthodox things to say about the Birth, Life and Death of Christ than an Southern Baptist church.

But they didn’t post the schedule until about 5 days before Christmas Eve and when I informed my parents that we wanted to go to our own church, it became an ordeal. We always go to my dad and stepmom’s late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, attend church with them and other family on that side, then come back and eat dinner then open gifts with that side of the family. We wanted to come over a little earlier to still spend time with them, but when they left for their service, we’d leave for ours then come back and do all the rest. But, par for the course, there was a conflict. They wanted to go to the 4pm service and ours was at 5:30. So doing this would have meant missing out on about 4 hours of time together on Christmas Eve. They’d already arranged it with my grandmother and other family, so we gave in and went to the contemporary SBC service…again. But the caveat to me giving in was that next year, we’re going to our own church and if the times conflict, they will be expected to adjust, not us.

So I was very disappointed. The service was fine. Better than past years actually, but still lacked reverence and awe and reflection like I think a Christmas Eve service should. The rocking opening number (that Trans-Siberian Orchestra number that’s so popular now) didn’t help matters.

But at least I didn’t have to suffer through Jingle Bells or O Christmas Tree like services I’ve attended before.

I kept getting distracted by the pastor’s accent – he ended every phrase (not merely sentence) with “nuh”. When we travel outside our familiar accents…. :^)

Nothing particularly “special” about the service – no kids dressed up as angels or special readings outside of the basic Matthew/Luke passages. It was very good to praise God’s incarnation in a normal way. Since then it’s helped me to remember that we are to celebrate His coming all the time and not just at Christmas time with a special performance. Not that special performances are bad, just this time a special performance wasn’t what God needed to touch me.

On the way up to communion, my oldest grandson turns to my wife and says “Nan, why are we doing this?”. Before she could say anything, my younger grandson looks around from in front of “Nan” and shrugs with his hands in the air and says “I don’t know”. They are 5 and 3 respectively. The congregation broke up since they were the loudest part of the service at that moment…

Now THAT’S Christmas worship to me! I could just picture God smiling at that! Christ is born!

No Christmas eve service at our church. For some reason A/G churches don’t do that much, something I really miss from the DofC. Currently we’re without an official “worship leader” so we’re limping along with keyboardists who struggle with Christmas songs. Changing chords every beat is a bit much for them! Our pre-Christmas service opened with a version of “Feliz Navidad”, which I thought a bit odd– and I’m the bass player! Oh well…

Instead, we as a family have carols on Christmas eve, read both gospel accounts of the nativity, and toast the season (with sparkling juice). It’s a holy and blessed time that we all look forward to.