CHRISTMAS: Host a Chrismon Day!

What ornaments are on your Christmas tree?  There are TONS of beautiful ornaments out there: snowflakes, jingle bells, carousel horses, a myriad of santas and snowmen, colored glass balls either painted or with glitter, personalized, cute animals, ribbons and bows, and it goes on and on.  Then there's the natural look: popcorn, berries, nuts, flowers, pine cones, and birds.  My favorite are the homemade ornaments the kids make at school or in Sunday School or even the ones you make yourself.  What seems to be missing are the Christian ornaments.  We see angels, crosses, and sometimes a nativity scene creatively painted on a bulb but that's about it.  What about all the other Christmas symbols? 

Why not host a Chrismon Day during Advent?  Invite people from your church and churches in the area to come and spend a Saturday afternoon making Chrismons for their christmas trees.  The supplies needed are sheets of styrofoam, Chrismon templates, gold beads, gold sequin strips, pearls, glue, scissors, etc.  Anything gold and white are for Chrismons.  (Be sure to use glue that doesn't yellow.)  Chrismons are technically gold and white but, of course, if you want to get really crazy decorate with color.  If you want some decorating ideas see the photos in my first post about Chrismons.

If you're curious about the meanings of some of the symbols, check out this simple chart.

EDUCATION: Video - God On Trial

(I would NOT USE THIS VIDEO WITH KIDS YOUNGER THAN HIGH SCHOOL and if you use it with your high school youth group watch it first and be ready!  There are a lot of very provoking questions.)

Ever seen the GOD ON TRIAL (Masterpiece Contemporary)?  It's a pretty serious portrayal of a legendary discussion by Jewish rabbis in Auschwitz who have decided to put God on trial for murder?  No.  For breaking His covenant with them as the chosen people!  Very provoking questions and outcome.  There are so many interesting questions that I would watch and discuss in the same hour instead of watching the whole thing and discussing later.

Remind people that these are JEWS and not Christians having this trial so they come without the New Testament hope that Christians have.  Some questions that arise are:

• Historically Jews have suffered.  Historically, has God broken His end of the covenant with them?
• If God has betrayed us, why should we remain faithful?
• Are tests a part of the covenant?
• Who broke the covenant first, God or the people?
• Was the holocaust a punishment for breaking the covenant?
• In the covenant, if God reserves the right to punish the wicked, why is He punishing the good Jews and not Hitler?
• Is the holocaust a punishment or a purification of the people?  Will there be another holy remnant afterward?
• Were good people sacrificed because with God any sacrifice must be the first, best, unblemished?
• Is Hitler doing God's work in the same way Nebuchadnessar was in 2 Kings?
• If God is all-powerful and just, then why did he not stop the unjust killing of the holocaust?  Either He wanted to stop it and could not or He is not just because where is the justice in genocide?
• Evil is a choice in the world.  People have free will.  If given the free will to save one of your children, what is your choice?  Do we want free will?  Do we always have choices?
• Were the Jews martyrs?  Were they killed because of their faith or their race?
• If God is suffering with them, who needs an all-powerful God who suffers?  Do we not need a vengeful God who will send the angel of death to our enemies?
• What kind of God do we want?  Maybe God needs us?
• Do you ask where the evil comes from or where the goodness comes from?
• As Jews, whenever the Old Testament speaks of the descendants of Abraham and David, it is talking about the Jews at Auschwitz.  If God's covenant is about the survival of the people, is the survival of the people certain if Hitler kills them?  How can a people cease to exist?
• At the point of death, if you deny God, what does it get you?  At the point of death, after 4000 years of saying prayers and wearing "silly" hats, what does it get you?
• Justice?  Was God JUST when He let Pharoah live but killed the first born male children, drowned the soldiers in the Red Sea, smote the nations showing no mercy to men, women, or children, killed David's son for David's sin?  What do we learn about obeying God?  Is He good or just on our side?
• Hitler's Germans wore belt buckles that said "Gott mit uns" or God with us.  Has God made a new covenant with someone else?
• Is there nothing for those Jews to hope for, after all?

Considering the fact that the Jews don't consider Jesus and the New Testament, what important questions were not asked?

EDUCATION: Puppets for Preschoolers!

If you don't know Oriental Trading Co., let me introduce you.  This is the company you go to when you want to buy personalized pencils for Sunday School, carnival supplies, theme party decorations, Christmas ornaments to give the kids who participate in your Christmas program, craft supplies, education resources for young kids, and many other things.  They have a large Sunday School &VBS section as well as a Fun & Faith section.

One of the things they can provide are simple 14" hand puppets at a good price (8 puppets for only $36).  They're machine washable and with a little creativity and velcro you can easily turn them into different Bible characters.  They come in many different skin tones and can be used for a million different things from telling Bible stories to enacting life situations.  Remember that young kids LOVE to interact with puppets!!

EDUCATION: Bible Memory for Everyone!!

The other day a friend and I were tripping down memory lane and watching The Partridge Family and when they started singing, I started singing.  I knew that song from the 70s!  My brothers can recite whole sections of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It's almost a performance!  The reason is simple.  In high school kids listen to music constantly, day after day.  My brothers watched that movie a million times.  In his book, Brain Rules, John Medina says that in order to remember something long-term you need to repeat it over days, not minutes.  Kids listen to the same songs over and over every day!  This doesn't mean every piece of information needs to be a song, it means that in order for something to be stored into long-term memory it needs to be repeated more than once for 5 minutes.

Bible Verse of the Week
Try this:

• Choose a Bible verse for the week.  It can go with the sermon theme or the Sunday School theme for the week.  To start, make it something short but gets the point across. 
• Introduce the verse to the congregation during the sermon or just before or after it.  One of the tactics I use as I teach is, "Say it with me folks..." but, of course, you could introduce it however you want. 
• Put it in the bulletin for them to take home, have a short blurb about saying it out loud 5 times every night to commit it to long-term memory
• Revisit the verse before church the following Sunday as part of the welcome or good morning speech and have everybody say it together.
• Encourage them to say it as a family at dinner, at bedtime devotions, or attach it to a visor in the car and say it while driving.  
• Have the verses beautifully printed and hung on the wall in the education part of the building to remind everyone what they've learned.

Oh, be sure to put it on your website, Facebook page, or even Tweet it so those who miss can check it out!

EDUCATION: Catechism for the Grownups

Most people act like once they've completed confirmation they no longer have a need for the catechism.  After all, they've already passed that class.  There are ways, however, that you can incorporate more of the catechism into the regular life of the church.

• If you're going to offer the Lord's Supper, instead of a blurb about what someone might believe before they partake (or in addition to it), choose some of the questions people should be asking to prepare themselves for it.  (This would be one of my personal favorites!)
• Throughout the year, as you teach confirmation, add something to the bulletin that allows the congregation to follow along with the students and remind themselves of what they learned so long ago.  For example:
  Confirmation Update!
  Do you remember the purposes of the Law?  What purpose does it serve?  What is sin?  What’s the difference between original and actual sin?  
• If you provide weekly discussion questions for the family, make them available to the congregation through the bulletin as well.
• Use Luther's beautiful morning and evening prayers!
• When you're doing a baptism, include a separate sheet in the bulletin that introduces the family and the child, and on the other side, brief answers to the questions regarding baptism found in the catechism. 

After time people forget these things and need to be reminded of why we believe what we do.  According to brain research, if you want people to know and remember something, they need to see it often and over time.  Recap, repeat, and remind!

FAMILY: Looking for Christian Movies?

Did you know that along with all their other distribution labels, Fox has created one called Fox-Faith?  I didn't, but I do now!  All of the theatrical films distributed by this label have overtly Christian themes, or are based on books by Christian authors.

Try these websites to check out the films:

• Fox Connect
• Christian Movies
• Family Christian Movies
• Beliefnet
• Christianbook Fox Faith Family Films
• Christianbook Fox Faith DVDs

I can't promise all the movies have good stories, are well made, or are worth watching but it sure is nice that a major studio like 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has noticed that we're out here and looking for quality entertainment that reflects our beliefs.

CONFIRMATION: End of Year Class Project Video

I recently saw this video called "Evidence" on YouTube.  It's about 7 minutes long and is about a teenager who is charged with being Catholic.  She admits that she is and is about to be convicted but her attorney gets her off by saying it's a misunderstanding because based on her life, she doesn't really understand what it means to be Catholic.  It's fairly well done but the argument at the end could be better.

What a fantastic idea for a final confirmation project or a pre-NYG youth Sunday message!  They can either perform it live or create a video.  Have the kids write a script explaining and/or defending their faith.  The defendent wears a sign that says she is Catholic but there is no real evidence of that in her life.  The question the kids must consider is where is the evidence of your faith in your life?  Can people tell by your choices that you are a follower of Jesus?  Remember... if it comes from the heart of our faith, we do good works because we want to, not because we have to.

This video is really good right up until about minute 5 when he asks about serving the poor.  That's where the kids need to be creative about coming up with ways the person on trial shows they're Christian.  When did you serve the poor?  When did you stand up for somebody being bullied at school?  When did you befriend a "loser?"  When did you not follow the crowd because you knew what they were doing was not God-pleasing?  When did you turn off an inappropriate tv show?  Do you believe casual sex is ok?  When was the last time you read the Bible?  When was the last time you comforted a friend by sharing Jesus?  When was the last time you actually told somebody what you believe?  Carrying the sign of Christian or wearing a cross is not enough! 

This is how God showed his love among us:

He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

1 John 4:9 (NIV 1984)

Live Love(d)!!