Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Christmas

Free-Church Liturgy: Blue Christmas

What is a Blue Christmas Service? Blue Christmas services are a growing trend in the Church. Also known as "Longest-Night," these services are intended for people who are not feeling particularly jolly as the Christmas Season approaches. Some services are targeted specifically at those who are mourning a death. The service I put together (from various sources across the internet, and some of my own ideas) is intended to be open to anyone who is mourning, whether it's a death or a broken relationship, lost job, etc. This can be an incredibly powerful service, with tons of opportunity to minister to people.  What you need for this service The leader book This service is mostly read, so use this document in a binder to lead. The booklet Rather than using a projector, we used a booklet with all of the words in it. This allowed people to follow along without being forced to look up if they are not comfortable doing so. A pianist This service requires backgrou...

Waiting for Christmas: Reflections for 2015

I really enjoy the Advent/Christmas season. It wasn't always this way. For a long time I hated it because I was working in retail and Christmas meant Christmas shoppers, which meant angry, demanding people for long hours (of course, I never gave a thought to the fact that I had become one of those angry people myself). But over the past few years, as I've really tried to focus on Advent--which is about waiting for God--I've seen my Christmas Spirit slowly return. This year has been my favorite Christmas season in a long time, and not just because I'm not working retail anymore. Well, it is exactly because of that, but there's more to it. Let me explain. When I finished seminary I expected to go into a PhD program. That didn't happen right away, and so I had to wait. Then it didn't happen again. So I had to wait. And I slowly began to realize that what I was waiting for was probably not a PhD program anymore; God probably had something else in mind. A...

The Christmas Jonah

Spoiler: It’s me—I’m the Christmas Jonah. I don’t mean that I’m back luck to sailors, or that I got swallowed by a whale (big fish?) and spit up three days later. No, I’m referring to a different part of the story. But I’ll get there. First let me explain where I am right now. I should be in Spokane at the moment. In fact, the plane I was booked on should be landing right about now. Instead, I’m sitting in the Pheonix airport. But that’s not the start of the story. The start of the story is early this morning, about 5am when I realized that my ride to the airport wasn’t going to make it in time to get me there for my flight. So I got in my car to drive myself to the airport, figuring I’ll just pay the parking and figure it out later. But the battery’s dead. So I jump my car with my portable car jumper (thanks, Dad!) and finally get on the road. Red lights all the way. Seriously, ALL THE WAY. I finally get there, park my car, and run into the airport. Interesting side note: a...