Thursday, December 31, 2020

Why America Is Going Bonkers


In the first two decades of the twenty-first century people have been letting their imaginations run wild. There is a widespread breakdown of what were at one time common perceptions of reality. Logic and rational thinking have been abandoned by the wayside. There is a willingness to believe all kinds of lies and untruths. 

As Paul wrote his protegee Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.” We are living in that time. People are choosing false narratives over the truth because such narratives are more to their liking. These narratives fit with what has become their perceptions of the world around them.

When I worked as a social worker, I learned very quickly how people in their own minds will distort what is going on, how they will manipulate others to reinforce their distorted perceptions, and how they will minimize or ignore anything that does not support their distorted perceptions while exaggerating the importance and significance of anything that appears to support how they see things--irrespective of whether it does support their perceptions. The scientific term for this phenomenon is “cognitive dissonance” and it is often found in people with personality disorders and other psychopathology. Today we are seeing it on a mass scale, affecting entire segments of the population. Post-modernism would have us see as differences of opinion what previous generations would have regarded as aberrant thinking.

Human society cannot function when there is too larger gap between how its members perceive themselves, others, and the world. Each member of society becomes enclosed in his own little bubble, making cooperation between members of society more difficult than when members of society shared a much larger bubble. We are seeing the consequences of this fragmentation of perceptions both in politics and public health.

One segment of the US public adamantly refuses to believe that its candidate lost the presidential election even though the preponderance of evidence clearly and convincingly shows that he did. What meets the evidentiary burden of proof in both criminal and civil courts of law is not sufficient for this population segment. Because they are so enamored of their candidate, they cannot imagine him losing the election except by widespread fraud, a view he himself encourages and apparently has come to believe.

Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that if a propagandist tells a lie often enough, he will come to believe it himself. The lie will take on a life of its own and the propagandist will not have to put as much energy into propagating it as he did initially. We are seeing these observations confirmed daily on social media on the internet.

Despite his popularity with his base, President Trump, surveys have shown, is least popular president with the general population since surveys of presidential popularity first began to be taken. The recent presidential election was a referendum on his continuation in office. Despite a large turnout by his supporters, he lost that referendum. His lying, his bellicoseness, his lack of empathy, his authoritarian leanings, and his policies contributed to that loss.

While Trump donned the mantle of a champion of the pro-life cause, many of his policies have not been pro-life. His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the things that clearly showed that he is not genuinely pro-life. In his public statements, he has shown a willingness to write off a large segment of the population, including unborn children, as expendable. He also has supported cuts in food stamp and health care benefits that adversely affected the more vulnerable segments of the population such as seniors and pregnant women and added to the financial hardship of individuals and families that had suffered a loss of income due to the pandemic.

Trump similarly donned the mantle of a champion of religious freedom. Like his championing of the pro-life cause, his championing of religious freedom does not appear to be motivated by long-held convictions but by a desire to garner the votes of evangelicals on the right. In both his words and actions he has not shown the influence of the teachings and example of Jesus. This was not lost on many voters.

Trump’s reluctance to condemn the violence of extremist right-wing groups and his willingness to appeal to people’s worst instincts also cost him votes. His positions on a host of issues such as climate change, renewable energy, environmentalism, and the like turned off many younger voters.

For a substantial number of voters Trump was the more objectionable of the two candidates, something with which he and his supporters have yet to come to terms.

One segment of the US population also refuses to recognize the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and to cooperate with the state and local public health authorities in their efforts to contain the spread of the virus and mitigate its effects. This segment of the population is found in a number of churches across the United States. It, however, is not confined to these churches. Instead of being on the forefront of promoting the health and safety of the community, the churches in question are encouraging churchgoers to disregard recommended and mandated measures for reducing transmission risks.

I do not know how we can go about it but we desperately need to rebuild shared perceptions of reality to the point that most of the population can cooperate with each other. Churches need to play a part in reversing the fragmentation process rather than contributing to it. Whether they realize it, churches stand to lose a great deal from their contribution to this fragmentation. 

While Christian Church has always stood apart from the world in a number of areas, these areas are not where many local churches are standing apart in this day and age. For example, churches at one time distanced themselves from political activism while at the same time taking an active role in advocating for the poor and the needy and the vulnerable. Now we see churches engaging in political activities that are inconsistent with Jesus' example and teachings.

For better or worse, computer technology and the internet have played a significant role in the present-day fragmentation of perceptions. In the past the regional and local culture set the parameters within which reality was perceived. People were discouraged from going outside these paraments. Social pressure was exerted upon them to remain within such parameters. Those who failed to conform were shunned. They were sometimes confined to a lunatic asylum or a madhouse. 

With the internet people can move freely outside regional and local cultural parameters. They can congregate with other like-minded people on the internet. This has contributed to the erosion of widely-shared perceptions of reality and the proliferation of highly-individualized views of reality. This in part accounts for what has been described as the “tribalization” of the United States, its breakdown into social divisions with their own perceptions of reality that are not congruent with each other. One of the consequences is our society is becoming increasingly dysfunctional.

Online Small Group Discussion Template


An online small group meeting is a different experience compared to a face-to-face small group meeting. Thanks to technology innovations, people can still meet despite limitations with time and space, but it should not be approached exactly the same as an in-person group meeting. While many aspects of facilitating a small group will be transferable to the online interface, I would recommend tweaking the format from a traditional small group agenda.

An online small group, via a video conference call, requires a person to be static in front of a screen. This is less dynamic than walking through a front door, walking to a kitchen for snacks, sitting down for discussion, standing up for worship or prayer, etc. As a result, I believe it’s wise to plan for half the meeting time. Instead of a 90 minute to 2 hour in-person group, build towards a 45 – 60 minute online small group meeting. This will help to eliminate screen fatigue, low energy and wandering minds.

To help with this, I would recommend a process I’ve developed for our online groups at my church that I refer to as The S.O.I.L. Read More

The Unaffiliated Are Not the Unreachable: Understanding and Reaching the Nones


The religiously unaffiliated are the fastest growing group in the U.S.—How do we reach them?

The group known as the "nones" have fairly quickly become the predominant religious story in America. Nones—not to be confused with nuns—are the fastest growing religious group in America. The term refers to people who select "none of the above" when they're asking a question on a religious questionnaire, they're not necessarily atheists; in fact, most aren't. They're not necessarily anti-religious; some of them believe in God.

A more precise term would be the "religiously unaffiliated." Depending upon which study you look at, as many as one-third of the nones plan to go back to church one day. They're generally not all anti-God, though some are.
Read More

Trump Supporters Plan "General Strike" to Pressure Congress to Overturn Biden's Win


What is the chatter on the internet the last few days? It depends upon which circles in which you move. The people whom I know and who believe the false narrative that President Trump has been promoting, that the presidential election was stolen from him, a narrative that he had been promoting even before the election, are talking about holding a “general strike” on January 4-6. The expressed purpose of this strike is to pressure Congress into rejecting Joe Biden’s electoral college and popular vote victory and to give President Trump four more years in office. They are talking about a boycott of local businesses and stores and other ways of disrupting the local economy during this three day-period. It is argued that they have a constitutional right to hold peaceful demonstrations. 

Anyone who has any familiarity with the history of “general strikes” knows that they lead to violence. Strikers will attempt to intimidate the public into supporting the action. They will obstruct the entrances to businesses and stores and keep employees and customers from entering the building. They may threaten people. One can expect clashes between those who support the strike and those who are opposed to it. These clashes can quickly turn ugly. 

The online influencers promoting this “general strike” either will not say or do not know who called the strike. This  should set off alarm bells and flashing red lights. The strike may have been called by a foreign actor or a domestic terrorist organization seeking to create political, economic, and social dislocation in the United States, dislocation of which they can take advantage in pursuit of their own aims. It may have been an individual who enjoys stirring up trouble. Or it may have been the Trump Campaign. 

When an association of labor unions calls a general strike, it generally has some measure of control over the strikers although there is always the possibility that a local union may take action that the association does not support. This “general strike” has a strong likelihood of getting out of hand as local groups will be the ones deciding how to interpret the call. Local groups that are prone to violence may decide to go beyond boycotting local businesses and stores. They may adopt more confrontational tactics and resort to the use of threats and force. Whoever called this “general strike,” I suspect knows that it can easily get out of hand and that is their intention.

Boycotting local businesses and stores will further harm local economies that have already suffered damage from the COVID-19 pandemic. Communities like my own have seen businesses and stores go out of business and members of the community lose their jobs. Many families are experiencing financial hardship. This “general strike” is timed for the very same time that a number of these families will be receiving stimulus payments and extended unemployment benefits. This suggests that this “general strike” is not a “peaceful demonstration” as it promoters claim but a serious attempt to disrupt the US economy and to hinder its recovery. Those who called for the “general strike” are either very irresponsible or they are deliberately seeking to do injury to the United States or create civil unrest that they can exploit for their own purposes. In any case they do not have the best interests of the United States at heart.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

ZOOM Youth Group: Do's, Don'ts, and Alternatives


With many youth groups meeting on Zoom or other video platforms, we put together a list of do’s, don’ts and alternatives.

This list was comprised on youth leaders like you, in the trenches, learning as they go what works and what doesn’t. Read More
This article contains good advice for other groups meeting online.

2021 Bible Reading Plans




R.C. Sproul reminded us that “The Scriptures are absolutely key in the process by which the Spirit gives—and strengthens—the faith of Christians.”

The beginning of a new year is a time when many Christians evaluate their Scripture reading habits and begin or change a Bible reading plan. For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of effective Bible reading plans for you to choose from. Whether you are looking to complete the Bible in a year or focus on different books and themes, we hope these plans will be of great help to you, your family, and your church. Read More
One might also consider following the Tables of Lessons from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer. Be forewarned it includes readings from the Apocrypha "for examples of life and instruction of manners."

What Christians Should Know About the Qur’an


Review: ‘A Concise Guide to the Qur’an’ by Ayman Ibrahim

The 18th-century playwright Voltaire is known for his calloused quip that the Qur’an is an “unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder.” While such a statement is abrasive to Western ideals of tolerance, acceptance, and pluralism, many non-Muslims who read the Qur’an for the first time might be tempted to sympathize with Voltaire’s sentiments. So why would a Christian author exhort his audience to invest time reading the Qur’an for themselves?

In his newest book, A Concise Guide to the Qur’an: Answering Thirty Critical Questions, Ayman Ibrahim—professor of Islamic Studies and director of the Jenkins Center for the Christian Understanding of Islam at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—contends there is no better way to understand the Qur’an’s influence on one’s Muslim neighbors than to read the text for oneself. I agree.

Not only will a reader of the Qur’an better understand its role in a Muslim’s life, but the act of reading it will likely be received by one’s Muslim neighbors as a sign of your commitment to understanding them. Still, Ibrahim’s book contributes much more than a mere plea to take up and read. Read More
I have had both practicing and non-practicing Muslims as next-door neighbors. The small university town in which I live has a Muslim community, a mosque, and a halal grocery store. Muslim students from around the world attend the university. I agree with Ayman Ibrahim's contention that there is no better way to understan the Qur'an influence on one's Muslim neighbors than to read the Qur'an for oneself. The Qur'an plays such a central role in a Muslim's faith that the two are inseperable. The Qur'an is far from incomprehensible as Voltaire maintained. It is also shorter than the Bible. I own an annotated copy of the Qur'an which provides helpful explanations of the suras (or chapters) and passages of the Qur'an as well as notes on how scholars of the Qur'an have historically interpreted its passages.

Survey: UK Teens Are More Likely Than Millennials to Believe in God


The number is up from January, suggesting some may have embraced a belief in God during the pandemic.


new poll of Britain’s Generation Z finds older adolescents and younger adults are more likely to believe in God than are millennials, the demographic ahead of them.

The survey, conducted by YouGov in late November, found that 23% of Britons aged 16 to 24 said they believe in God, with an additional 13% saying they believe in a “higher spiritual power.”

By contrast, only 19% of those aged 25-39 said they believe in God, with 16% saying they believe in a higher power.

Both groups fell behind the general British population, 27% of whom overall say they believe in God. Read More

An All Hallows Service of the Word for the Sixth Day of Christmas (December 30, 2020)


One day from today we will be beginning a new year. Christmastide, however, does not end with the new year. It spans the old year and the new year and ties them together. Today is the Sixth Day of the Twelve Days of Christmas. The link to today’s service is: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/an-all-hallows-service-of-word-for_30.html#more:

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may follow a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May you and your loved ones have a joyous and blessed Christmastide.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Tuesday's Catch: The Distinctiveness of Christianity and More


From the Beginning, Christianity Has Been Defined by Its Distinctness In the ancient Mediterranean world how was Christianity fiscint from the pagan religions of the time? Ben Kesselring explains.

15 Church Growth Ideas Not every church is the same. What works for one may not work for another. To help spark new ways to improve your church, Church Fuel recommends these church growth ideas.

Five Things You Should Do As You Lead Your Church to a New Year [Podcast] In this episode of Rainer on Leadership the father and son team of Thom and Sam Rainer discuss five things that pastors and other church leaders should do as they lead their church to a new year.

How Christians Can Engage in the Fight against Pornography Though pornography is often spun as a liberty to be enjoyed by the masses, it is a menacing and ruinous captor, enslaving its users in nearly every conceivable way, down to the neurological level.

The (So-Called) "Traditional" Argument is not Traditional This article and the next article touch on two controversial issues in today's church. See also "4 Bad Arguments about Women's Ordination."

Does Same Sex Attraction Disqualify Someone From Worship Ministry? Dave Zuleger addresses the question of whether those attracted to the same sex should ever serve in ministry.

Monday, December 28, 2020

Monday's Catch: The Dangerous Love of Ease and More


The Dangerous Love of Ease As Christians living in the West, one temptation we face (often being unaware that we face it) is the temptation to become comfortable, cozy, content, altogether uninterested in anything that might threaten the repose we’ve constructed for ourselves. We live as Bilbo Baggins in the Shire of church history, largely tucked away from its many dangers and discomforts. 

6 Warning Signs Your Church Culture Is Toxic Every church has a culture. But how do you know if your church culture is toxic? More importantly, how would you know whether you’re creating a toxic church culture as a leader?

The Ultimate DIY Guide To Portable Mobile Church EquipmentIf you are contemplating doinf :church-na-box," this article is for you. If you are doing "church-in-a-box," this artice is for you.

This Is No Time to Preach in Neutral Being vague can create all kinds of pain, especially when we are vague about the expectations we have of other people.

An Invitation to Read the Bible with Us throughout 2021 Chuck Lawless invites his readers to join him in reading and study the Bible in 2021.

Spiritual Formation That Fits You Spiritual formation will look different for different people—and that's okay.

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Jesus Taught Love, Not Bravado


A number of churches held Christmas Eve service despite the urgings of the CDC and state and local public health authorities to not hold such gatherings due to the high COVID-19 transmission risk at a time when the pandemic is surging around the country. My own state Kentucky and neighboring Tennessee both have high infection rates. 

A number of pastors did not limit the size of the gathering or encourage the attendees of their services to wear face masks or social distance. Nor did they restrict or eliminate singing which has been implicated in the virus’ spread. When they were warned of the danger to the attendees of their services, a typical response that they had faith in God and trusted God to protect the attendees and themselves. The implication was that those churches which followed the recommended guidelines and adopted safety precautions such as limits on the size of gatherings, face masks, social distancing, and no singing were fearful and lacked faith.

While this attitude is not confined to Pentecostal and charismatic churches, it is fairly prevalent in churches in that tradition—in churches in which, when the church prays for healing for someone and they do not experience healing, the church’s typical explanation is that they lacked faith. If they had more faith, God would have healed them. This has led to those who were not healed questioning their faith. It has also been identified as a form of spiritual abuse.

God can miraculously heal people but his healing is not tied to their faith. God does not reward faith with healing, prosperity, a new house, an expensive car, or a fat wallet. God shows mercy on those whom he would show mercy. The notion that God rewards faith and money donations expressing that faith with blessings lies at the heart of the prosperity gospel and the “name it, claim it” movement. Both are distortions of what the Bible teaches.

We cannot earn God’s grace—his favor and good-will—or merit it. If we could earn it or merit it, it would not be grace. The prosperity gospel, however, see our relationship with God as a transaction in which we believe and he blesses. This view of our relationship with God has little to do with grace.

We believe, however, because God shows us grace. He enables us to believe and he invigorates, strengthens, and confirms our belief. He heeds our cry, “Lord, help my unbelief.” While God may do this through signs and wonders, he primarily does it through the reading and preaching of the Word, the sacraments, prayer, the fellowship of fellow believers, and the ordinary experiences of daily living. God does not always work through the extraordinary, the miraculous. He often works through the ordinary, the mundane. God could send his angels to proclaim the gospel to the corners of the earth. God, however, sends us.

God could protect us from the COVID-19 coronavirus with a miracle. At the same time he could choose to protect us with size limits on gatherings, face masks, social distancing, and other public health measures. He could also choose to protect us with vaccines. I believe that it may be presumptuous of us to expect God to do things a particular way. After all, God is sovereign. He is not a jinn in a lamp who is bound to obey our commands and to fulfill our every wish. He is not the servant. We are.

The pastors who insist that they do no need to follow the recommended guidance of the CDC and the state and local health authorities because they have divine protection remind me of the Corinthian pneumatics. They are puffed up with pride. What is unsaid but implied when they claim to have divine protection is that they are superior to other people. There is also the inference that other people do not matter. “Other people may not enjoy God’s protection but we do.” As the apostle Paul points to the attention of the church at Corinth, this attitude is not a loving one. Without love we are nothing.

Staying home, avoiding unnecessary trips, not mixing with other households, wearing face masks, social distancing, and otherwise following the recommended guidance does not mean we are fearful or lack faith. We are using the wisdom that God gave us. We are also putting into practice Jesus’s own teachings. He enjoined us to love others and our fellow believers and not to endanger them. Deriding one’s fellow believers as fearful and lacking faith is not covering oneself with love as the apostle Paul urged the members of the church at Colossae to do. Rather it is displaying a worldly attitude, one which dismisses as weak those who choose not to endanger themselves or others. It is an attitude that leads to insensitivity and indifference toward the suffering of others. It is an attitude that is inconsistent with Jesus’ teachings.

How do United Methodists celebrate Epiphany/Three Kings Day?


This article looks at a number of traditions, customs, and practices associated the Feast of the Epiphany. But it does suffer from one major flaw. The New Testament is silent on the actual number of the Magi who traveled to Bethlehem in search of a newborn king. The Greek text hints that there was more than three. So where did we get the idea that there were three Magi. It is assumed that there were only three Magi from the number of gifts that they presented to the infant Jesus--gold, myrrh, and frankincense. This is pure conjecture. While full of interesting facts about how different countries have celebrated the Feast of Epiphany, this article does not attempt to debunk the myth of three Magi. The next time your church has an Epiphany Star procession, more than three kids can dress as kings and wear robes and crowns. A safer tradition during the COVID-19 pandemic is to have an Epiphany bonfire with the participants wearing face masks and taking other precautions. The participants can maintain a safe distance from each other as well as the bonfire. Christmas trees are traditionally stripped of their ornaments on Twelfth Night and the trees are burned on the second eve of Epiphany. The day after the Western Church's Feast of the Epiphany--January 7--is the Eastern Church's Feast of the Nativity.

Epiphany is the day Christians remember the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus, bringing their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It occurs on Jan. 6 every year, the 13th day of the Christmas season. The word "epiphany," from the Greek word epiphania, means appearance or manifestation.

The arrival of these visitors was a sign that the incarnation of God in Christ had been made known and was recognized by the heavens to the whole world, so that even Gentile wise men from the East came to pay him homage. This is an observance of great majesty, solemnity and awe.

An even more ancient Christian celebration than Christmas, Epiphany originally focused on the nativity, God’s incarnation (God made flesh) in the birth of Jesus Christ, and Christ’s baptism. After the late fourth century, as Advent developed as a season of baptismal preparation in addition to Lent, Epiphany became associated with baptism. This is why we see images of the three Magi on many older baptismal fonts. Read More

How to Discover Needs in Your Community



Every area has needs—places of brokenness that God has called us, as the Church, to help restore. Use this step-by-step guide to discover the needs all around your neighborhood.

In 2013, Ashley Austin and his family relocated to Victoria, British Columbia, to begin the process of planting a church there. In order to plant a church that met the community’s needs, they spent time learning the community’s context. By discovering the context first and then building relationships in the community to discover specific needs, the church has grown from the original group of nine adults and six children to 350 attendees at the original site and has planted a second church in another part of the city.

“There’s now a sense of belonging, a sense of family and a sense of community for a city longing for relationships,” says Ashley. “That has led to countless opportunities to communicate the gospel. If restoration is taking something that’s disconnected and making it whole, when we join God in what He’s doing, He transforms even the most unlikely of situations.” Read More

An All Hallows Service of the Word for the First Sunday after Christmas (December 27, 2020)


The First Sunday after Christmas follows closely on the heels of Christmas Day this year. This service may be read at any time during the day or week. The service begins and ends with silence. The silence at the beginning of the service may be used to center your mind and heart on God. The silence at the end of the service may be used for reflection on the readings and the homily and for prayer. The link to the service is: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/an-all-hallows-service-of-word-for_27.html#more

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may following a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May you and your loved ones have a joyous and blessed Christmastide.

Saturday, December 26, 2020

An All Hallows Service of the Word for the Feast of St. Stephen (December 26, 2020)


During Christmastide the order of service for  All Hallows Murray’s online services will be taken from the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Service of the Word (2015). This permits the reading of the service at any time during the day, including at the close of day in the late evening. Due to an area online service outage today's service is being posted later than it would be normally posted. The link to the service is: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/an-all-hallows-service-of-word-for.html

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may following a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May you and your loved ones have a joyous and blessed Christmastide.

Friday, December 25, 2020

All Hallows Christmas Day Services: Two Services to Celebrate the Feast of Our Lord's Nativity


All Hallows Murray is offering two Christmas Day Services—one traditional and the other contemporary. The tradition service—a service of Matins—is modeled on the order of service for Morning Prayer in the Protestant Episcopal Church USA’s The Book of Common Prayer (1928) with some alterations and additions. The music includes carols, psalms, and canticles. The contemporary service is based on the order of service for a Service of the Word from the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Service of the Word (2015), also with alterations and additions. It is a much shorter and simpler service than the traditional service and the music is limited to carols. Both services have the same readings but from different translations. Both have the same homily. With one exception the selection of carols is the same. The links are: 

Traditional Service (Matins): 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-hallows-matins-for-christmas-day.html

Contemporary Service (Service of the Word):

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/a-service-of-word-for-christmas-day.html

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service.

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. An ad may following a song so as soon as the song is finished, close the tab.

Previous services are online at:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

May you and your loved ones have a joyous and blessed Christmas Day.

 

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Reflections on Christmases Past


There were so many good articles online about topics related one way or another that it was difficult to choose from among them. I finally chose four—one about Christmas traditions, one about the empty chair at Christmas, one for those who miss church, and one about the real Christmas Carol. The only thing that ties them together is Christmas.

If someone asked me what was my most memorable Christmas, I would be hard put to answer their question. I remember one Christmas Eve when my mother, grandmother, older brother, and I crossed a snow-covered common to attend a Christmas Eve service at our village church. I remember the snowy blanket that hid the common from sight, the cold, and the bright light that streamed out of the doorway when the church door was opened. That is all that I remember.

On another occasion we went to the village hall for the village’s annual Christmas party. Father Christmas made an appearance with a bag of gifts for the children and mine was a Little Grey Rabbit book. We also watched a Punch and Judy show. Punch murdered Judy and then the policeman who came to arrest him. When the devil came to drag Punch to hell, Punch gave him sound drubbing with the policeman’s truncheon.

We lived in a cottage at the edge of the common and the cottage had an old-fashioned parlor. My grandmother and my mother set up a Christmas tree in the parlor with my grandfather’s help. My older brother and I were not allowed in the parlor until Christmas morning. Our contribution to the festivities was to make paper chains, cutting strips of colored paper and pasting them together as links in the chain. We hung those around the rooms.

When my older brother and I fell asleep on Christmas Eve, Mum would leave at the foot of our beds one of her stockings stuffed with nuts, oranges, liquorice all-sorts, chocolate, pink sugar-mice, pencil boxes, colored pencils, and other sweets and small gifts. The stocking and the Christmas  parcel that my aunt who lived in the United States sent us were the only gifts that I remember.

My grandmother and my mother always made a Christmas cake, a fruit cake topped with marzipan and icing and decorated with silver balls and that sort of thing. We also pulled Christmas crackers and wore the paper crowns inside. Four other seasonal treats that we had beside the Christmas cake were a Christmas pudding, mincemeat pies, sausage rolls, and a trifle. My grandfather sometimes made vinegar toffee.

Our Christmas Day celebration were rather modest celebrations. They were fairly English. All that changed after my family emigrated to the United States and I do not believe that it changed for the better.

In later years the two things that I came to appreciate the most were the late-night Christmas Eve service and Christmas dinner with my mother and my aunt. Both my mother and my aunt have passed away. The members of the church where I was preaching had other commitments on Christmas Eve. Last year I attended the Christmas Eve services of two different churches. This year I am staying home on Christmas Eve due to the pandemic. Here are the links to the four articles I chose for Christmas Eve.

9 Things You Should Know About Christmas Traditions
Christmas comfort for families with an empty chair

A Word of Hope for Those Missing Church
The Real Christmas Carol

A very merry Christmas to all my readers. May this Christmas be for you filled with the grace, joy and peace that God alone can give. 

You Are Invited to All Hallows Evensong for Christmas Eve


As dusk falls and the evening lights gleam, Christmas Eve begins. It is the beginning of the Christian Church’s yearly celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, a celebration that lasts twelve days. It is a time for rejoicing and reflection, for generosity and goodwill. Please join All Hallows Murray as we begin this holy season with a Christmas Eve service of Evensong. The order of service is taken from the Protestant Episcopal Church’s The Book of Common Prayer (1928) It has been shortened and simplified for ease of use online. It is a service in which you take part, reading the lesson, the homily, and the prayers and if so moved, singing the carols. The link to the service is:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-hallows-evensong-for-christmas-eve.html#more

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service. 

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. 

Previous services are online at: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Wednesday's Catch: To Feast Is to Worship and More


On This COVID Christmas, Food Is Love and to Feast Is to Worship And we have twelve days in which we can feast.

The Pandemic Demands We Honor the Aged Caring for the elderly is more about duty and love than public policy.

Los Angeles County Lifts Ban on Indoor Worship, Thanks to SCOTUS This is a victory for the COVID-19 coronavirus, not US churches. The churches in Los Angeles Count, which were most opposed to the county's restrictions were those that were least likely to adopt safety measures on their own. Southern California is experiencing the highest infection rate in the United States. If their indoor services become superspeading events, it will be the fault of the five US Supreme Court justices who made the ruling.

Four Key Safeguards to Make Sure Your Church’s Finances Stand Up Under Scrutiny Sam Rainer describes a number of the more subtle misues of church finances and how churches can safeguard themselves.

How Can I Share Jesus This Christmas? Christmas present us with a unique opportunity to share the best gift of all, the Gospel.

The Church’s Mission in Unusual Times: A Global Perspective A byproduct of Covid-19-related shutdowns around the world has meant that local churches have been forced to evaluate their essential mission. When programs stop and the church is limited in its ability even to meet together, what must continue?

5 Posts on Reaching Your Community If nothing else, the COVID crisis over the last nine months has often pushed local churches outside their walls to minister to their community. Needs have been more obvious, and congregations have been more open to making a difference

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Tuesday's Catch: The Second COVID-19 Stimulus Bill and More


The FAQs: How the 2nd COVID Stimulus Bill Affects Churches and Individuals As with the last stimulus bill, the most noticeable effect for most Americans will be a rebate on their taxes that will come in the form of a direct payment.

Why People Do Give to Their Church... and Why They Don'tMoney is a touchy subject. It’s been said that the last thing that gets converted in a Christian’s life is their wallet. But we also know that the Bible teaches generosity, and specifically, to the local church of which we are a part. Many do give. Many don’t. Why is that?

Televangelist Pat Robertson Says Trump Lives in an 'Alternate Reality' and Should Move on from Election Loss Pat Robinson, a prominent conservative backer of President Trump, acknowledges the president's delusional state of mind and urges him to accept his defeat in the recent election and get on with his life.

Former SBC President Signs Statement on SBC’s Failure to Acknowledge Systemic Racism New Orleans pastor Fred Luter, the only Black person to have served as president of the predominantly white Southern Baptist Convention, has added his name to a statement on justice and repentance released Friday (Dec. 18).

Liberty, Justice, and Love for All The 2020 presidential election may be over, but we are hardly out of the woods. For the foreseeable future, discussing issues of politics and justice seems destined to be a toxic venture. For those of us in the church, however, this need not be the case. After all, injustice is not a new problem. In fact, we’ve always had truth from the Bible that directly addresses it.

Harnessing The Discontent of 2020 to Make Necessary Changes 2021 is an opportunity to make long overdue changes to the way we do church.

Why Does It Matter that Jesus Was Born of a Virgin? Parthenogenesis is not unknown in nature. Scientists have successfully cloned a number of animals as well as re-engineered them. Virgin conception is not outside the realm of credibility so why do some Christiansrefuse to accept this belief in Jesus' virgin birth?

Is Christmas Pagan? This subject is brought up every year at Christmas time. Christmas, however, is not a pagan holiday and has never been a pagan holiday. Christians should not feel guilty about celeberating the birth of the Saviour of humankind.

How to Have the Best Christmas Ever Even with all the changes 2020 has wrought, you can still enjoy Christmas. In fact, this Christmas Eve may be your most memorable one yet.

“Hey Pastor, You’re Doing It Wrong”, Everybody What a crazy time to be a pastor. The only thing you can be absolutely sure of is no matter what you do, or don’t do, church people will tell you did the wrong thing.

Caring Without Hugs No, we cannot reach out and hug those who need hugs so badly. But we can embrace them in countless, creative ways. And our empathy and our compassion tell us we must.

8 Reasons Churches Talk More about the Great Commission than Do It What is keeping your church from fulfilling the Great Commission?

Monday, December 21, 2020

Five Ways of Celebrating Christmas During a Pandemic

I will be celebrating Christmas alone this year. But then I have celebrated Christmas alone for the past thirteen years since I moved to western Kentucky. It is not a new experience for me. Before I moved to Kentucky, I went to my aunt’s home on Christmas Day and exchanged gifts and ate Christmas Dinner with my aunt and my mother. My aunt, my mother’s younger sister, and my mother had been living together for a number of years. Both were widows. My mother moved in with my aunt after she underwent surgery. The two sisters provided each other with companionship until my aunt’s death. After my aunt died, I invited my mother to come to live with me here in Kentucky. She declined. Her younger sister’s home had become her home.

My cousin, my aunt’s son, graciously allowed her to live there until her death in 2013. Since my mother’s death I have not returned to Louisiana where she lived and where I used to live. I still have kin living there but the long drive and an aging car have discouraged me from making the trip. They have gotten on with their lives since my mother’s death and I have gotten on with mine. As my oldest niece put it, her grandmother was what held the family together. With her death we have gone our separate ways.

The reason that I am writing this article is to help readers who will not be traveling this year or attending large family gathering celebrate Christmas. Because they cannot do what they have done in the past, Christmas does not have to loose its specialness. They have not just one day in which they can give themselves over to jollification as C.S. Lewis would put it. They have twelve days in which they can make merry, devoting themselves to feasting, singing and other forms of jollity.

Now the Puritans frowned on all forms of jollity and went as far as banning Christmas in the seventeenth century and ordering in its place a solemn fast—a time of abstinence and penitence. But the English people would have none of it and rebelled against this order. They would celebrate Christmas as they were accustomed to celebrating it—with singing, dancing, food, and drink.

We should not be too hard on the Puritans. They were seeking to refocus the English people’s attention on Christ at Christmas and away from carnal pleasures. But they may have gone about it in the wrong way.

As the Gospels tell us, our Lord attended wedding celebrations and did not turn down invitations to dine. His critics accused him of being a glutton and a winebibber. He told his disciples that they would have plenty of opportunities to fast when he was gone. While the coming of the Christ should always be the primary focus of the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord, his first appearing does call for rejoicing and even merriment as long as it is not done to excess.

Too often we try to cram into one day, what should be extended over an entire season—the Twelve Days of Christmas. Instead of loading up our plates on Christmas Day and stuffing ourselves until we make ourselves sick, we can spread the various culinary delights that we associate with Christmas over those twelve days.

I do not drink alcoholic beverages of any kind, having given up drinking them when I retired nineteen years ago. I figured that I had better uses for my time in my retirement. But I see no wrong in drinking an occasional glass of eggnog or spiced apple cider provided that the individual who is drinking it does not have a history of excess drinking in which case I recommend that they stick to alcohol-free eggnog and spiced apple cider. 

One of my former churches used to serve wine at its social gatherings until it learned that a number of its members had drinking problems. It then switched to serving sparkling apple cider. A church member who did not know about the change chided my mother and I for allowing my youngest niece to drink alcohol at one of these gatherings. What my niece was drinking was sparkling apple cider. She apologized when this fact was drawn to her attention.

Nowadays I drink spiced chai during the holiday season. Both the fragrance and the taste of the spiced chai are associated in my mind with Christmas. When I was at university, a friend of mine invited me to her home on Christmas Eve and introduced me to Constant Comment spiced tea.

Fragrances can not only bring back pleasant memories of past Christmases, they can also put us in the right frame of mind to celebrate this Christmas. Other fragrances that I personally associate with Christmas are burning frankincense, oranges, evergreen boughs, and baking mincemeat pies. While we may not be able to surround ourselves with people this Christmas, we can surround ourselves with the familiar fragrances of Christmas.

In The Country Parson the seventeenth century Anglican poet-priest George Herbert describes how his parish church was prepared for the celebration of Christmas. The church was decorated with evergreen boughs and knots of rosemary—yes, rosemary. 

Rosemary has a long history as a medicinal and culinary herb. It can also be burned as incense. In ancient times it was regarded as sacred. For English-speaking people rosemary has come to symbolize remembrance and twigs of rosemary may be thrown into the grave at a burial. An early reference to rosemary as a herb of remembrance is found in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Before the service Herbert’s church was perfumed with burning incense.

For Herbert’s parishioners the fragrance of evergreen, rosemary, and frankincense would set Christmas apart from other holy days. These fragrances would form a part of their memories of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and would be associated in their minds with the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord throughout their lifetimes.

Another way of marking Christmas as a special time of the year is to light candles every night. All four candles on the Advent wreath or candleholder may be lit. A fifth lighted candle, the Christ Candle, may be placed in the middle of the Advent wreath. The Irish have a custom of leaving a lit candle in their kitchen window on Christmas Eve to welcome the Christ Child.

A third way to make Christmas a special season is to listen to Christmas carols and hymns and to sing them. It is unfortunate that many stores have fallen into the practice of playing Christmas music from Thanksgiving on. In a number of stores Christmas music is played before Thanksgiving. I firmly believe that Christmas carols and hymns should not be sung until Christmas Eve and then they should sung throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas.The only exceptions are Services of Lessons and Carols like King's College, Cambridge's and Christmas cantatas, their American equivalent.

A fourth way to make Christmas a special season is to send Christmas cards and letters to family, friends, and others. The card or letter does not need to arrive before Christmas or during the Twelve Days of Christmas. What matters most us that we send it. It is an important expression of our caring. In these dark times it will be a ray of light to those to whom we send it.

A fifth way to make Christmas really special is to celebrate home communion on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. As the Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies in his pastoral letter of April 6, 2020 points to our attention, celebration of communion at home in the absence of an ordained minister while it may not be an Anglican celebration is nonetheless a Christian celebration. Archbishop Davies writes:

Of course, some people may be more isolated and have no access to the internet for live streaming. How can they be nourished in their Christian faith? My answer is to feed on God’s word. Keep reading, meditating and praying over God’s word that he may bring refreshment to your soul. As for observing our Lord’s command, your reading of 1 Corinthians 11 could easily be used with your own bread and wine in these times of extremity, though it would be preferable to share with one close Christian friend or some family members. It would not be an Anglican service, which requires the presence of an ordained minister, but it would be a Christian service, in accordance with Jesus’ invitation to ‘do this in remembrance of me.’ 

We can read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Matthew or Luke and then take bread and wine (or grape juice) and in obedience to Jesus’s command commemorate why God’s Son became human and lived among us. He came not only to teach us to love God and to love others, to love our fellow-Christians as he loved us, and to love even those who hate and despise us but also to reconcile us to God through his suffering and death on the cross and his rising to life again. The following simple eucharistic prayer which I drafted for online and in-person services is suitable for home communions.

The structure of this eucharistic prayer is based upon the structure of the eucharistic  prayers in The Books of Common Prayer of 1552, 1559, 1604, and 1662, and John Wesley’s Sunday Service of Methodists in North America of 1784. It is similar in structure to a number of eucharistic prayers in the Lutheran tradition, the most recent being Form II in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006). In their use of this particular structure for eucharistic prayers the three traditions—Anglican, Methodist, and Lutheran—converge.

In crafting this eucharistic prayer I incorporated textual material from A Prayer Book for Australia (1995) and Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006).

Among the advantages of this eucharistic prayer is its brevity and its simplicity—musts in both in-person and online services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lord be with you. 
 And also with you.

Lift up your hearts. 
We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right, our duty, and our joy, that we should at all times
and in all places give thanks and praise to you,
O Lord, holy Father, through Christ our Lord;
who by his death on the cross
and rising to new life
offered the one true sacrifice for sin
and obtained eternal deliverance for his people.

And so, with the Church on earth and the hosts of heaven,
we praise your name and join their unending hymn.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Hosanna in the highest.


And now, gracious God, we thank you
for these gifts of bread and wine,
and pray that we who receive them,
according to our Savior’s word,
in remembrance of his suffering and death,
may share his body and blood.

On the night before he died, Jesus took bread,
and when he had given you thanks
he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying,
‘Take and eat. This is my body which is given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.’

After supper, he took the cup,
and again, giving you thank
he gave it to his disciples, saying,
‘Drink from this, all of you.
This is my blood of the new covenant
which is shed for you and for many
for the forgiveness of this.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’

As our Savior has taught us, we are confident to pray,

Our Father who art in heaven….

One thing to remember this Christmas Season is that as believing followers of Jesus Christ we not alone. We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit—God’s presence dwelling in our hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are not only united to other believers but also to our Lord himself. We may be unable to gather with family and friends. However, God himself is with us—the same God who in the person of his Son Jesus became incarnate, embodied in human flesh; the same God who in the person of the Holy Spirit dwells within our innermost being, who is closer to us than the apple of our eye.

If you can find a video or audio recording of Christmas church bells on YouTube or another website, play that recording on Christmas Eve and herald the good news of our Saviour’s birth with the pealing of church bells. It is an old tradition to ring church bells on Christmas Eve. Let us keep that tradition alive and make it a part of our Christmas celebration. 

Monday's Catch: Post-Modern Pseudo Prophecy and More


How Postmodern Pseudo-Prophecy Dishonors God When does a prophet become a false prophet? Joe Carter explains.

In Texas, Evangelical Republicans Rally to Keep Trump: He’s Part of ‘the Divine Plan’ In permitting Trump's election God's plan may have been to expose our lack of faithfulness to the teachings of his Anointed, Jesus, his only begotten Son, and our willingness to make idols of political leaders who do not embody Jesus's teachings but speak and act in ways so antithetical to his teachings that they fit the description of an anti-Christ, the lawless man against whom Jesus warned. While Trump is often hailed as a pro-life champion, his withholding of health care and food stamp benefits from pregnant women and other vulnerable segments of the US population, his denial of the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, his inadequate and chaotic response to the pandemic, and his readiness to write off thousands of people, including unborn children, as expendable tells a different story.

Why Do They Hate Us? Here’s the common Christian answer, the one that’s conventional wisdom in most conservative churches: “Just as Jesus and the apostles promised, the world hates us because of our faith. We reject the world’s libertine sexual ethics and commitment to abortion, and thus the world rejects us.” But there’s also a less comforting—and also quite true—answer to the question, “Why do they hate us?” There is a growing cultural divide between white Evangelical America and much of the rest of the nation that has nothing to do with Christian faithfulness.

Pandemic Pop-Up Pantries: How Our Church Responded to Local Needs Whether a need arising from the pandemic and subsequent recession, or something else, churches can rise up to love their neighbors by following Jesus’s own example, compelled by grace.

Why We Keep Asking about the Christmas Star This week’s Jupiter-Saturn conjunction represents one of dozens of theories trying to explain the sign that pointed Magi to Jesus.

Magi, Wise Men, or Kings? It’s Complicated. Christian tradition finds meaning in each of these mysterious monikers.

Christianity Isn’t ‘Becoming’ Global. It Always Has Been. Why this misperception poses a stumbling block to the spread of the gospel.

Twelve Major Trends for Churches in 2021 While predicting future trends is never a precise effort, Thom Rainer and the Church Answers team do see enough data points to suggest these twelve trends are potentially powerful movements that will affect congregations, some for better and some for worse. They are not listed in any particular order.

Case Study: How to Start a Sermon Series Well So you’re about to start a sermon series, but how should you approach the first few minutes of the first sermon in that new sermon series?

'Online Is Not the Same': Children's Choirs Face Muted Festive Season Directors and young singers embrace the challenge of virtual events – despite not being able to hear each other.

Music in Wartime Music in wartime is an ancient tradition. Why? Why should something so beautiful, lively, and celebratory be laced with something so horrid, devastating, and grim? There is the simple explanation that music is a mood-booster. I think we can extract a deeper reason, though. Music declares victory before the battle. Music strengthens the heart with the promise of what could be the reward of valor: rest, peace, and jubilee. 

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! I would be up a gum tree if I had to pick one Christmas carol or hymn that encourages my heart. I am deeply moved by so many of them! For Dan Flynn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! has long been his favorite.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

All Hallows Evening Prayer for Sunday Evening (December 20, 2020) Is Now Online


Today is the Sunday before Christmas. It is the fourth and final Sunday of the Advent Season. As this season of preparation draws to a close and we eagerly await the celebration of our Saviour’s birth, let us not forget those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ but devote the remaining days of the Advent Season, praying for their souls that they too may call upon the name of the Lord and trust in him for their salvation, that they may this Christmas receive the greatest gift of all—Jesus Christ.

All Hallows Murray will be celebrating the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord with two services—one on Christmas Eve and the other on Christmas Day. The two services will be adaptations of Evensong and Matins from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the USA’s The Book of Common Prayer (1928) and will incorporate prayers from the Anglican Church of Canada’s The Book of Common Prayer (1962) and other sources. The two services will include the works of Tallis, Purcell, and other composers and hymn writers. I hope that they will be a blessing to you all.

The order of service for Sunday evening is taken from the Anglican Church of Canada’s The Book of Alternative Services (1985) and was chosen for its brevity, simplicity, and adaptability to online use. 

The Scripture reading for Sunday evening’s service is Mark 4: 30-32.

The title of the homily for Saturday evening’s service is "Sprung from a Tiny Seed.”

The link to Sunday evening’s service is:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-sunday_20.html#more

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service. 

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. 

Previous services are online at: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/ 

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Saturday Lagniappe: Compassionate Evangelism and More


Compassionate Evangelism: Being A Daily Witness for Christ As Christians, we are called to testify with compassion every day.

3 Keys to Digital Engagement Every Church Needs to Know Hope isn't a strategy, Tony Morgan and the team of Unstuck Group's team remind us. We cannot utilize the same content and strategies to reach outsiders as we do insiders.

Five Ways to Reignite an Outward Focus in a Church Needing Revitalization In this Church Answers podcast Thom Rainer and Kevin Dezell discuss five ways to reignite an outward focus in churches needing revitalization. Due to the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. I suspect that will be most churches in 2021.

Two Prominent Pastors Break With SBC After Critical Race Theory Statement Charlie Dates and Ralph D. West spoke out in response to a controversial statement released by seminary presidents.

Facts & Trends, Lifeway Pstors to Be a Part of Revamped LifeWayResearch.Com In an effort to provide pastors and church leaders with relevant insights, practical ministry advice, and timely research, Facts & Trends and LifeWay Pastors will become part of a redesigned and updated website for LifeWay Research in 2021.

7 Things That Disappeared in 2020 That Affect Your Leadership And 3 things that didn’t disappear.

Why Great Preachers Are Not Always Great Leaders Adrian Pei explains how the sermon of one preacher helped him to recognize the differences between a great preacher and a great leader. His article should give pause to those of us who preach and lead.

All hallows Evening Prayer for Saturday Evening (December 19, 2020) Is Now Online


Saturday evening is the first eve of the fourth and last Sunday of the Advent Season. The fourth candle on the Advent wreath or candleholder may be lit.  As we make our final preparations to celebrate the birth of God’s Promised One, let us not forget that he who became human and was born to a humble Jewish girl will one day come again with his angels in glory.  We should be ready and waiting for his return.

The order of service for Saturday evening is taken from the Anglican Church of Canada’s The Book of Alternative Services (1985) and was chosen for its brevity, simplicity, and adaptability to online use. 

The Scripture reading for Saturday evening’s service is Mark 4: 26-29. 

The title of the homily for Saturday evening’s service is "A Parable of the Kingdom."

The link to Saturday evening’s service is:

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/2020/12/all-hallows-evening-prayer-for-saturday_19.html#more

Please feel free to share this link with anyone whom you believe might benefit from the service. 

If an ad plays when you open a link to a video in a new tab, click the refresh icon of your browser until the song appears. 

Previous services are online at: 

https://allhallowsmurray.blogspot.com/