The War on Advent

During one of my Advent sermons this year I remarked, “I don’t think there really is any such thing as a ‘War on Christmas.’  At least, if there is one then they’ve apparently missed.  I do, however, think there might be a ‘War on Advent,’ and that churches and retailers are inadvertently allied in that the war.”  The more I ponder that thought, the more I wonder if I’m actually right on that score.  The more I talk to people during the month of December the more stressed it seems that people become.  They need to get their shopping done, they have parties to host or attend, they have cards to mail, and they have gifts to wrap.  And why do they feel this way?  Because we’ve been told that this type of stress is what the “holiday season” is about.

If that’s the case, then “Bah humbug.”

The thing is, the Church doesn’t really actively promote an alternative to this understanding.  Look, I get that Christmas has become a retailer’s dream come true over the last 100 years or so – and I realize that retailers (in an effort to get more money) are trying to appeal to people who may not celebrate Christmas™ and so are saying, “Happy Holidays” instead.  I accept that as the reality on the ground, the desire for ever-increasing revenue is neither relationally healthy nor sustainable – but it’s where people are at.  Sadly, however, too many Christians has focused on the word “Christmas” being unchallenged in the winter holiday corpus and so have started campaign after campaign to let Christians know which stores said, “Merry Christmas” and were, therefor, ok to shop at.  I guess it could be considered a successful tactic in the culture war – but it does absolutely nothing to challenge the notion that December is for spending money, and lots of it, as fast as you can with as much stress as you can bear.  Redirecting that stress to “acceptable retailers” isn’t going to expunge it from our hearts.  Nor is the presence of “Xmas” on signs part of the war on Christmas.  ”X,” which is the Greek letter “Chi” is the first letter of the word “Christ” in Greek, and has been acceptable shorthand for Jesus’ title for almost the entire existence of the Church.  It’s OK, folks, take a deep breath and breathe.

A War on Christmas?  Whatever.

But there seem to be a concerted effort to expunge Advent from the Christian calendar in order to replace it with the “Christmas Shopping Season.”  Advent, you see, is a time of reflection which is meant to develop a sense of hopeful anticipation for the arrival of the Incarnate Son on the scene of history (both his first and second comings).  To this end, Advent is a season where we ready our hearts and minds to enter in to Jesus’ Kingdom.  The Christmas Shopping Season, on the the other hand, is a season of never-ending festivities, consumption, and the anticipation of a “good haul.”  The differences are huge, and the problem is that there really isn’t all that much difference between the “Christmas” that Christians are trying to defend and the “Christmas  (that is, ‘Holiday’) Shopping Season” that the retailers are showing down our throats from September through December.  Christians are out shopping, decorating, planning parties, attending parties, standing in line, and preparing the yearly “haul” – just like everyone else in the country.  The only difference, it seems, is whether or not you say “Merry Christmas” at a store instead of “Happy Holidays.”

Even worse, the idea that the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas are “The Christmas Season” impacts Christian worship.  By the 2nd Sunday of Advent the hymns for that Christian season are spent (if they are sung at all) and so Churches immediately switch to Christmas carols because, “it’s Christmas.”  The deliberate creation of anticipation that is at the heart of the Advent Season gets lost, and so Christmas becomes nothing more than the marking of “Jesus’ Birthday.”  By the 1st Sunday of Christmas church-folk are already beyond the celebration of the Christmas Holiday and are gearing up for the new year celebration, just like everyone else.   I still remember setting up the Sunday worship following Christmas day at the first church I pastured, and annoyed looks I got from people by the audacity to sing Christmas carols “after Christmas.”

Look, I don’t pretend to be some Advent Saint.  I got my Christmas present already because my phone was on it’s last legs and I happened to need a new one.  My house has been decorated since the first week of Advent, and I’m frankly Christmas partied out by this point.  The fact is, if there is a “War on Advent” then I’m afraid that I’ve lost the battle just like most of the other people I know.  Kinda sad, but there it is.

Maybe someday I’ll get a bunch of people who will do all their Christmas celebrations during the actual Christmas season, so we can spend Advent remembering to long for Christ’s coming.

Evaluation Day

I might be odd, but I actually enjoy being evaluated.  I think this is partly because I’m usually my harshest critic, so the critiques that other people bring are rarely surprising.  When people evaluate me highly, however, it’s pleasantly surprising.  I am used, however, to being evaluated on things like, “What did you do for continuing education this past year?”  It’s very likely that I’d resent being evaluated on topics like, “How much money did you raise for us last year?”  Both are specific questions, and both are quantifiable, but the latter treats me like a balance sheet rather than a human-being.

Thankfully, I’ve never been publicly evaluated that way – my psyche would have broken.

Today, I had my annual staff evaluation for ABCNJ, which I found to be an affirming experience.  I typically look at what I failed to accomplish, but the folks doing my evaluation kept pointing out what I managed to accomplish in what amounts to be a side-job.  This was good for me to hear.  The other thing they did was to encourage my creativity (i.e. “playing with toys”) because they’d seen good ideas for ministry come out of that, several of which have already impacted that way we do ministry as a region in ABCNJ.  I thrive on encouragement like that, not because I need to be patted on the back, but because the affirmation of freedom in experimentation, movement, and learning allows me to tie the canvas of things I enjoy together into the type of creative super-ball that makes me excited to try out new things.  I have to say, people are lucky to find one place in their lives that gives them that freedom.  I’m currently in TWO places that afford me that privilege in ABCNJ and Central Baptist – and my greatest boss of all time back at Miles River Middle School gave me that same luxury (hi Judy).  In that, folks, I’m blessed.

So, I’ve been affirmed, encouraged, and told to stop beating myself (which I won’t do, but it’s nice to be told that).  Oh, and I also showed more patience among the less tech-saavy people in the region this year than last – so that’s a nice sign of positive growth (though I do think that has a negative impact on my geek-status, I need to check with the geek lore-masters on that).

So, look out 2010, here I come.

Advent 2009

It seems every year I end up bemoaning the Church’s complete ignorance of the season of Advent.  First, we get caught up in the culture war mentality which lashes out against the “War on Christmas.”  Second, we pack our schedules so full of december activities that it seems we don’t have a single moment to breathe.  For myself, the first point never made any sense to me at all, since the “War on Christmas,” if it actually exists, has dreadful aim (about 4 weeks off, to be exact).  The second point, however, beats me senseless.  December can be a nightmare of a month for me.  As a student finals and papers kept me near the point of exhaustion.  As a Pastor, husband, son, and father – December lays out a whole series of demands on my energy which seem to be anything BUT spiritual.  And I have no one to blame for that but myself.  After all, I know that Advent is supposed to be a time of waiting and reflection – but I keep bouncing from Christmas party to Christmas party and decoration to decoration because that’s what I’m USED to.  I need to be re-trained.

This year, I’m doing something about that.  I discovered a wonderful Advent Application in the App Store that I’m using to guide my Advent Journey.  The readings are from last year, but they are wonderfully focused.  The Application is rich in Scripture, Art, and Prayer – it’s also deeply rooted in the Christian Liturgical tradition.  As such, sitting down with it and meditating on the daily movement draws me deeper into connection with the Triune God and his Church.  It is time well spent, and I hope that it will shape my Advent journey into something a LOT more healthy than my traditional “run around until you drop” approach.

What are you doing this advent?

A Week Off

I’m off this week.  This means, given that the kids were in school Monday through Wednesday and my wife’s family is coming here, I’m hanging around the house.  I have to say, it’s nice.  I don’t really like traveling all that much because suddenly a vacation turns from “rest” to planning how to fill one’s time.  I plan how to fill my time when I’m working, I really don’t like doing it when I’m off. Notable exceptions to my dislike of travel are the Jersey Shore, Williamsburg, and Gettysburg.  Otherwise I’m a “staycation” kinda guy.  Though the Jersey shore is really just the extension of one’s home town for everyone living in the greater Philadelphia area so I guess that really doesn’t fit into the travel category. I’ll even be in worship at Central on Sunday so I can be with my friends there and support the wonderful man who is coming to share with us.  There are times where I do visit other churches when I’m off – but I like worshiping with my friends at Central, and when I’m “off” on a Sunday the congregation respects that and lets me enjoy being out of the center of things.

I bring this up because a friend of mine came over to help me hang some stuff up yesterday (actually, I watched and learned) and he asked me, “Aren’t you on vacation?”  I said, “Yup.”  Then he smiled and said, “You really suck at going on vacation.”  This was my friend Absent Scott, who just got back from a cruise – so I can see how the contrast was rather large for him.

In actuality, I’m quite happy.  For the last three days I’ve played with my kids (we’re trying to get all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy) and dusted off my copy of Civilization 4.  When I’ve felt like it I’ve read out of the Lincoln Biography on my night-stand, and I’ve have lunch with a good friend.  My one regret is that I forgot to save a novel to read over vacation, though I might have a couple of the free ones I got from amazon in the kindle app on my iTouch.  In other words, I’m de-stressing.  I’m even trying to get back into my exercise routine despite the crowded house (the cold that leveled me the other week got me off balance there).  I’ve been rather stressed since September because I failed to stagger my vacation time – so it’s really nice to de-stress.

So, happy Thanksgiving folks – how are you de-stressing?

A New Wordle

I’m preaching on the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) to conclude our series on stewardship.  Just to see what would happen, I created a wordle out of my manuscript.  I think it turned out OK, actually. Click on the image to see the larger view.

The Paradigm Shift

I was recently asked by a fellow pastor, “Wes, are you going to show something new every time we get together?”  When I responded what this pastor meant they replied, “Well, I still haven’t figured out the last tool you showed off.” I get this pastor’s point, the problem is it springs from a mentality that no longer works.  A mentality, I might add, many churches still work from.

My friend still thinks of the trends I show in technology as a series of tools to be learned, mastered, and leveraged.  As such, the rapid development of these tools – e-mail, personal web-sites, blogs,myspace/facebook, texting, IM, linkedIN, youTube, and twitter – seems overwhelming.  After all, no sooner do you master one tool, that seven more are developed!  It’s no wonder that people and churches which are working from the mentality of “tools to be learned, mastered, and leveraged” retreat into their shell.  The rapidity of change and development is enough to drive anyone mad.

Here’s the problem.  The above mentality springs from the old industrial revolution mind-set of specialization.  People learned to do one thing, and do it well – that’s all they needed to master.  That was revolutionary in it’s day, and created a lot of displacement when it happened, but over time it became the accepted norm.  It was simply how things got done – and that mentality migrated off of the manufacturing floor and into every facet of industrialized society.  Heck there’s even a seminary out there that boldly proclaims how they train “specialists in the Bible.”

The Industrial Revolution, however, is over.  We are in the midst of the Communications Revolution and the old mentality of “learn, master, leverage” no longer functions.  The tools expand, adapt, and migrate away from the specialists to rapidly to keep up.  Every vocation needs to accept this paradigm shift, even pastors.  We can no longer simply hope to teach people a tool to master so they can Communicate with others in this shifting environment – people will feel discouraged and overwhelmed near-instantly.  Rather, we need to train people into embracing a mentality which can migrate with the shifting tool-set along with those who are native to the Revolution.  This mentality would help people to first focus on the nature of the Communications Revolution, rather than it’s tools – a mentality which helps people to understand that it is act of networking and strengthening connections that matters more than the tools that are used to make the connections.  From this mentality,  an intuition can be learned that assists people as the tools shift.  Instead of wondering what buttons to press in order to master the tool, people will learn to watch and see how any given tool is helping people to connect.

The irony is that the mentality central to the Communications Revolution is actually closer to the heart of the Church than the specialist model of the Industrial Revolution – churches have been in that model so long, however, that specialization is viewed as the way things have “always been done.”  It’s my hope that the Holy Spirit will continue to make believers aware of the possibilities for ministry in this revolutionary time as we move forward.

Getting started, however, is the trick.  Many people feel as though they’ve been forcibly migrated into the Communications Revolution – exiled from their home in the Industrial mentality.  Resentment among these people high, as is sorrow for what has been lost and bitterness towards those who have managed to adjust.  Perhaps in this the prophetic message with call upon the exiles in Babylon to embrace life in the foreign realm, along with the Biblical tradition of healthy lamentation, may help move us forward.  Time will tell, but we must make a start.

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

Man it’s been a while!

I was sent a link to the video below this morning by a friend who thought I would enjoy it.  She was right!  It is a series of reflections on the shift in narratives that education must take if we are to truly educate people in this intensively connected world.  In short, if we’re going to have students who learn how to think in the 21st Century, we’re going to have to move away from the factory model of education that’s dominated our system since the industrial revolution.  I’m in general agreement with the premise of the video – though I do think the first point is a bogus stat.  What matters isn’t the amount of IT an “industry” uses, what matters is the connectivity that an industry leverages to grow in understanding.  In this world, that will inevitably lead to IT – but as the expression of connectivity, not as the goal itself.  At least, that’s what I think.

Anyway, enjoy the video.

Olive Tree Reader Beta

I did this video last week, and announced it on twitter.  The fact that I didn’t put it on my blog is a sign that my on-line activities are shifting a bit.  Though I would like to get in the habit of blogging more provided I have something to say, and don’t become a ranting loony looking for conspiracies in order to drive traffic.  We’ll see.

Anyway, if you have an iPhone or an iTouch, you really should consider picking up the OliveTree reader from the App Store.  Enjoy.

Wordle of Acts 10

 

http://www.wordle.net/. Images of Wordles are licensed CreativeCommons

I’m currently writing a retreat for Eastern’s Student Chaplains.  This year’s focus will be on the centrality of testimony to the Christian life and journey.  The first session will spend some time in Acts 10, detailing Peter’s encounter with both God and Cornelius.

On a whim I wondered what Acts 10 would look like as a wordle, and here are the results.  Isn’t that cool?

 

MLB major #fail

Last night, when the Phillies came back to win the game and take a 3-1 lead in the NLCS my gang and I were all amazed by the lack of any kind of excitement on the part of the TBS broadcasters.  To be honest, this z-level broadcast team seems to talk about the Dodgers constantly and we’ve been wondering just how much MLB is hoping for that “cleansing” series between the Dodgers and Yankees (how it’s “cleansing” is beyond my ability to comprehend). Last night, the image on the right popped up on twitpic (click on it for the larger pic).

Whoops!

Now what probably happened, in case you’re wondering, is that this story was written after the 8th, with some details left to be filled in after the game had ended.  That basically how sports-writing works. If they were decent sports writers they would have had another story ready to go in case the Phillies came back – which they did.  Unfortunately for MLB, a writer appears to have gotten a bit lazy late in the same and submitted the story to be published at the conclusion of the game.  In a word, busted.

MLB’s web-editor had egg on their face, but so does the writer – and now Philadelphia has even more fuel to be the loudest fans on the planet when game 5 starts up.  Thanks MLB – you’ll have to wait until next year for your “cleanse,” the Phightin’s are moving on.