I am Christian. I hate Christmas.

Yes, I claim to be a christian. But I don’t believe in Christmas, at least the way it is done now.

Christmas seems to be a:

• time to shop.
• time to give.
• time to share.
• time to love.
• time to buy gifts (for oneself and others).
• time to spend time with family and friends.
• time to have good food.
• time to feel bad for the under-privileged.
• time for Santa Claus.
• time for the tree. And decorating it.
• time for carols.

I don’t get it. If Christmas is supposed to be Jesus Christ’s birthday, where is He? There is everybody and everything else, but Him. Even the Christian radio station play songs to Santa Claus and Drummer Boy. I play my CDs in the car now.

Christian artists bring out Christmas albums, well in advance. And you wonder if anybody ever gets the point.

It’s even sadder to see churches fall in the same mess. Joshua Cody from Church marketing sucks, one of my favourite blogs, has an excellent post.

For me, Christ is not a baby anymore. He grew up. He died. And He rose up. And He is coming again. He reigns. And it is Him, I love to worship.

Oh! by the way, I am glad the Walmart lady wished me “Merry Christmas”, instead of “Happy Holidays”.

The ‘emerging’ Church

I came across an interesting article on the CBN website on an incipient trend in evangelical Christendom – a movement called the ‘emerging church’. Prima Facie it appears to be an interesting phenomenon. I intend to investigate it further.

Here is the link.

http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/carey_emerging_church.aspx

A primary writing of this movement is a book titled ‘A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey’ by Brian McLaren. Here is the link to his website http://www.brianmclaren.net/

The book documents a conversation about Christianity between two fictional characters: a traditional conservative pastor and a liberal college professor. I plan to read this book over the coming months and will be blogging about my findings and conclusions.

Long Sundays

I went home for the Easter weekend. My home church have extended their service timings. It was 10am to 2pm earlier. Now, Sunday services start at 10 am to 4 pm. 6 hours in church on Sunday. Every Sunday.

The concept is simple. 6 days you get to do what you like. Most of us spend more than 8 hours in office. Sometimes, 12 – 15 hours! God says – spend one day for Him.

I attended the service and I did not get bored or tired or even hungry (lunch is served in between). But most of the people I put the idea across are shocked. They can’t imagine being in church for that long.

My pastor says, “Worship is something we are going to do for eternity. We better get used it to now.”

What is your opinion?

Loving and not judging

Tim Stevens wrote an open letter to Britney Spears in his blog. What’s special about it is that we don’t often do things like this. We are quick to judge – quick to point our finger. But to love, no matter what? Wow..now, there’s a concept.

There are people like Britney Spears all over the place – all around us. People who hurt. People who have been rejected. Abused. Hurt. The list can go on. And we, as Christians, get the opportunity to love and to accept.

Isn’t that what Christ called us to do?

P.S. I prayed for Britney Spears today. And it’s true. She matters. To a God who created her, who still loves her dearly. And to the church who was loved the same way.

Calculating Easter

It is already Easter week. 21st March is Good Friday and 23rd March is Easter Sunday. I have always wondered how they calculate those dates. Tim Stevens did the research on his blog.

You can check out the full calculation here.

The Onehood

I was in the United States of America recently. Attended two churches there – Times Square Church in New York and the Princeton Alliance Church in Plainsboro, Princeton. I enjoyed the service in both places – the worship and the message. I can definitely recommend these churches to you if you are visiting these areas.

One thought that struck me is that in all the places I have visited in India and abroad, there is one place where you truly feel at home. In worship. It does not matter who you are worshiping with. And I find it amazing. Because when I first landed in the US, I did feel like a total stranger. I mean I was. But I didn’t expect it because I thought I could be comfortable as long as I knew the language and watched enough Hollywood movies. Wrong thinking. Of course, I did settle in quick. But it just wasn’t home.

But when I went to church, it was very different. I was at home. I was with family.

Galatians 3: 28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Times Square Church, Broadway, New York City

Princeton Alliance Church, Princeton, New Jersey

Today, Life and Hell

There are 14 instances in the NIV version of the Bible for the word “hell”. 54 instances in the KJV edition.

I was reading an interesting post on Hell by Dan Kimball, where he spoke on the topic in his church. It is true that not many churches discuss this topic any more. It is also true we have to live in the present and God’s promises are for this life too. But do we lose our perspective sometimes? Aren’t we supposed to live today knowing tomorrow, we will stand before God’s judgement throne?

Dan quoted Spurgeon and I am too -
“If sinners be dammed, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” – Charles Spurgeon

Should you be working for Jesus or the church?

I heard someone say today, “Come, work for the church”.

Are we supposed to work for the church or Jesus? For the body or for the head? Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” (Matthew 28:19, NKJV).

We work WITH the church for Jesus. The focus is always on Christ…never on ourselves.

Illustrations – Innovative Sermons

This scene is from last Sunday’s sermon at Faith City Church. To illustrate a point, Pastor Babu John used his English translator and son. It was clear that everyone was all eyes and ears to what was happening on stage.

Illustrations are a great way of giving life to a sermon. It could be a

• story
• skit
• song
• choreography
• video
• or doing something totally different (than what is usually done).

How do you innovate or improvise for your sermon? Comment here.

Church from a vistor’s perspective

Church Marketing Sucks has a very interesting series going on at their blogs. David Zimmerman, pastor and guest blogger is writing about attending church from a visitor’s perspective. He writes from his own experiences – good and bad, about attending churches. Good lessons there.

He has reached only the 5th article. There is still more 4 more to go.