So this is Christmas

When I was little, every Christmas Eve my mom's side of the family would go to my grandparents' church for their candlelight service. While it was always a well-produced show, it was a tad bit dull for children (and apparently, my mom, too). Because one early year, my mom, younger cousin and I discovered that if you held the half-inch thick candle long enough, the wax started to soften. So every year after that, we all compared how long we could stretch the wax and make a curlique at the end. It made the ceremony a lot more bearable. But it was a little embarassing having to turn the candle in to the baskets at the door when we left. I hated that glare from the old ladies that said, "Ugh, these children, don't have any respect for the church property."

The point of this story is that I was really wishing for one of those candles at my old church's annual Christmas dinner show. Now, I'm not going to use its name because I'd hate for this to turn people away from a church that's usually great, but I feel like this needs to be said and I feel like we can all learn something from it. It was boring. Well-produced, and filled with talent, but incredibly dull. A candle would have at least distracted me. Every song sounded the same (I literally could not tell which song they were playing until the singers began, and I'm a fairly musically minded person). Beautifully performed, but the same. Except for three songs. O Come O Come Emmanuel, Jingle Bell Rock, and Rudolph. Performed by two people. I swear, every time they get on stage whatever they sing/play automatically becomes my favorite version of the song. But anyway, after some pedestrian music, they started the drama.

What. the. heck.

Not only was it kinda dumb and not that funny, but there was no message. Once I realized it had to be ending soon, I kept looking for some tie-in to the Christmas story or spreading Christmas spirit or something. But it never came. And then a few pastors got on stage and discussed how the play was all about individual stories and so was the Christmas message. But they never really discussed the actual Christmas story. Sure, there was a little about the shepherds and wise men, but nothing about how miraculous it was or really even why Jesus came, or, for that matter, why shepherds and wise men are even in the picture. I thought the best year for this show was when they made a really strong connection to Easter. But this year? Nothing.

This is extremely upsetting to me. This church has been pretty radical in what it does and always breaks the mold on how churches function and the way to spread the gospel. Their music was one really big way for them to do this. So was this dinner. This year all of that was gone. It could have been any large church that's been around for 50 years. My hubby said they only got skin-deep. I though they only plucked a few hairs. They've always been great at getting to the heart of messages. Where did that go?

We always invited friends to this event, and we were really glad they didn't come this year. These are people who didn't grow up in church and expect something new and different. I was especially disappointed when I saw a friend from high school leaving with her grandmother. This girl is Wiccan. Her family has been dragging her to church function for years. One day she told me that being Wiccan gave her a place to belong and let her feel like there was a point for her existence, a place in the universe. If there was one church in the area that I thought she might find something different and become interested, find that feeling, it was this church. But I knew that when she left, she saw the same ol' thing and heard absolutely nothing. She is the kind of person Christians need to reach. How many others were in that audience and thought that there was nothing being offered?

Anyway, that being said, Ray was joking about how that show ruined his holiday spirit (he's a Thanksgiving person) because it didn't mention what the season was about. So remember, holiday spirit comes from Jesus, being born miraculously to die and rise miraculously so we can live. In the midst of all the trees and decorations and songs and presents, remind yourself that God did some amazing things Christmas night, just to show us that he loves us.