The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!

We successfully completed another great show for GCT over the weekend. Even though I didn't have too many responsibilities, it still wore me out. Not only was the show great (Sunday's crowd was really into it) but GCT's income exceeded expenses so we have seed money for the summer show, Bye Bye Birdie.

My official stance right now is that I'm NOT trying out for Bye Bye Birdie, at least not for anything major or minor for that matter, but who knows... I do love working with GCT, though. I'm so proud of our leadership and excited about GCT's future. The Christmas show being such a huge success demonstrates how good things are going right now with GCT.

It's interesting being on the leadership board of GCT without being the main leader, Dan Naden is our president. I believe in GCT but I don't have as much invested nor the same drive as Dan. I know there's a possibility for me to step up my leadership but I'm also a bit hesitant about over-comitting. Sometimes I'm content with letting other board members pull more weight than me. I'm not proud of that, just the way it is. I'm such a perfectionist that I always want to do everything with 100% and to the best of my ability, but the reality is that I can't give 100% to everything.

I'm actually pretty embarrassed by something I did yesterday. The whole cast sat around and ate pizza after the show. Over the next hour or so, most cast members left the PRMS cafeteria but a few of us sat around and kept talking. It was a good time. Franci (the director), Kevin (my fellow fireman) and Chris (the police officer and the dad of the about to be mentioned girls) were being thoroughly entertained by the Haag girls' story telling. A couple times I wondered, "where's my wife?" I thought maybe she had gone home.

Well, I didn't realize (though I should have) that my wife and the other board members were cleaning up. I had done some work right after the show but thought we were done. When I realized I was skipping out on work that needed to be done, I was pretty embarrassed. But I did pitch in for the final 1/2 hour of work.

And in more GCT news, we were advertising at all 3 shows this weekend the GCT/ TFC Variety Show on Saturday night, April 18th. Tryouts will be March 28th. Both will take place at PRMS. So, get your garage band, tap-dance act or your stand-up set ready because we're ready for this show. Franci Talamantez will be directing this show as well, so she makes the final decision as to who gets in the show. But as the main sponsor on the show, TFC's worshp band get an 'automatic birth' as the Variety's Show's house band.

Marriage lessons from "It's a Wonderful Life"

I can't believe I'm admitting this, but It's a Wonderful Life always makes me cry. I try to fight the urge, but I always lose. I want to live a life that impacts others, even in ways I can't see right now.

Anway, here'a great link on what we learn about marriage from that movie. Whether you're married or thinking about getting married, it's worth the read.

I also want a marriage like that! Thankfully, as the article talks about, I married person with amazing character, which helps keep our marriage thriving (even when I do stupid things!).

Going public with our dancing

On Monday night, Erin and I joined about a hundred elementary kids and their parents for a ballr00m dancing event at her school. The kids from several Olathe schools were able to show off their new moves while a live band provided the rythms.

The fun part for us was going 'public' with the swing moves we learned in our class this fall. The ballroom dancing class we took at Gardner Dance Studio was beneficial but since we learned a new dance every session, I don't feel comfortable in any of them. The exception being the West-Coast Swing, which we worked on in a few different sessions.

Here we are, showing off our moves. Not the most impressive pictures, I realize. I think we're just doing the basic steps of the fox trot in the first picture. In the second picture, we're actually swing dancing.

Here are a few more from the night. The couple dancing were some of the instructors, Erin went to High School with the lady.

While taking French and ballroom dancing classes at the same time, I've found that dance is a form of language, you learn a new dance in ways similar to learning a new language.

Christmas

There is so much good and so much bad that comes with Christmas. Giving = Good! Consumerism = Bad! Advent is second only to Easter for the Church calendar but as one of my favorite preachers said last week, "Christmas is the time of year in which it's most evident that we're living in rebellion to the Kingdom of God (referring to consumerism)".

Now, let me be clear about this (if it's even necessary), Erin and I buy gifts for ourselves and family members at Christmas. We set aside money each month into savings so Christmas doesn't "sneak up" on us. The gifts we buy are not necessary (they're extra things we want) nor is spending money on ourselves or family members the type of giving talked about in the Bible. Some years we budget to give away extra money to charities or have family members give to charities rather than buying us gifts, but (like this year) we don't always give extra at Christmas.
But the reality is that buying an ipod for someone who already has all they need is not Kingdom giving. Now, it's not bad, it's generous, it invests into the relationship, if how we spend our money reveals what we value it reveals we value our family members, but it's not the type of sacrificial giving taught by Jesus.

With that disclaimer done, I'm going to share some thoughts I had while listening to message this morning. But first - here's one more disclaimer: What I'm about to say may make you mad! We're so caught up in what Greg Boyd calls "the thin veneer of a civil religion" (juxtaposed against authentic Christianity) that we think saying "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays" or having a Christmas tree in a school classroom makes us Christian. That little bit of icing makes us feel good when the icing is really just covering a bunch of crap underneath; the crap of misplaced priorities during Christmas. But, since we're so immersed in our culture and have been lead to believe that all of our Christmas traditions are Christian, we NEED a serious shove out of our comfort zone to make us think. What I'm about to give is a serious shove.

Christmas is a giving frenzy, but does it really honor the greatest Gift ever given - Jesus? Does running up credit cards or buying stuff we don't need miss the point? The cultural practice of giving at Christmas gives us permission to spend money we don't have on things we don't need. A greedy consumer free-for-all is somehow supposed to honor Jesus? How?

But we hide behind the excuse we're alloted a year, "but it's Christmas - this is what we do! We buy ipods for each other!"

Folks, this is using Jesus as an excuse to consume and go into debt. This is breaking the 3rd of the 10 Commandments about misusing God's name.

But it's way too often the case, even for Christians. A national economy dependent upon out-of-control-consumerism has jacked up a wonderful time of year.

This Christmas, please think about how you're spending money. When buying gifts, please follow this advice:



If you're struggling financially right now, we've got some hope for you. TFC is parterning with King of Kings Lutheran to offer Financial Peace University. If you can't afford the cost of the class, we've got some scholarship money availabe; money donated by people who have gone through the class and want others to go through it as well. You can find out more info or sign up here - link.

If you want to give a gift to Jesus, try Compassion International or Heart-to-Heart International.

It's possible to give without loving but it's impossible to love without giving.

Hey, unto you a Child is born!

This weekend is Gardner Community Theatre's production of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It's a great show and I strongly recommend you catch one of the productions. I say that not as a GCT board member who needs to sell tickets but as pastor of a church during the Advent season.

The two main questions raised by the show are "what type of people are welcome in a church" and "for whom did Jesus come?" Both questions are answered in a way that brings tears to my eyes, both from the quality of the acting and the play itself. If you're looking for a unique and enjoyable way to focus upon the meaning of Advent, then come check out BCPE. A simple summary is that the local welfare family bullies their way into the 'proper' annual Christmas pageant and end up meeting Jesus and leading the church people to Jesus as well.

Show times are this Saturday at 2:00 and 7:00, and Sunday at 2:00. The shows will be at Pioneer Ridge Middle School and the cost is $5 per person. If you'd like to bring canned food to donate to the Gardner Food Pantry, you can do that as well.

To read a good summary of the play, click here.

I have a brief cameo of about 10 seconds as a fireman. After spending countless hours learning lines over the summer for Harold Hill, it's nice to just have this very easy part. In fact, my lines are actually ad-libbed, though I do read part of the Christmas story before the final curtain (I've gotta work on having a good "pastor" voice).

My left eye is twitching...

My left eye started twitching sometime late last week and it hasn't stopped since. It's the bottom part of my left eye, the muscle under my eye. This is making me a bit nervous. Erin wondered if it's stress related. I'm not sure...

I could use some prayer.

Christmas County Spelling Bee!

Yesterday was an amazing day for TFC! It was our first (annual?) TFC Kidz Christmas musical. Just from a personal perspective, as someone who loves musicals and goes to a lot of theme, the production was high-quality! With Heather Tinker being in charge, it was what I expected, though. But when you consider that this was our first ever musical and the kids were only able to practice on the stage once, the whole thing came together quite well. The kids delivered their humorous one-liners well and they belted out their songs, too. The baby angels and all the animals in the manger scene were a nice touch. Toward the end of the musical, I went and sat in the back of the auditorium. It was nice sitting back there watching everthing unfold. It's great to be in PRMS, we wouldn't have been able to pull that off in Madison Elementary.

But beyond the production, the message of the musical was quite moving. The kids spelled all the names for God, leading up to "Immanuel/ Emmanuel" - God with us. It's the whole point of Christmas; God isn't far-off but he now lives among us. I just about cried during the musical, but I toughed it out...

Way to go Heather, Melissa and Pastor Andy! Way to go TFC Kidz!

You can see all the pictures Erin and I took here and here.

The Prince of Peace

I just watched an amazing move, Joyeux Noel. It was made in France but it has Scottish and German actors as well. It's about the Christmas cease-fire along the front during the first year of WWI (1914). It brought tears to my eyes on several occasions. Watch this amazing scene for yourself.






Following the lead of Scottish bagpipe players and a German Opera singer who 'escaped' from performing at the German HQ to be back with his unit at the front line on Christmas Eve, the French, Scottish and German soldiers left their hostilities behind, acknowledged the
enemy's humanity and celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace. The following days, both lines found ways to serve each other as well as finding it difficult to kill each other.

Obviously, this infuriated the upper levels of management. The priest who lead the mass got in trouble by his superior. The priest responded, "Doesn't following our Lord and Savior mean we stray from the common path?" To which the superior responded, "you're asking the wrong question. You should ask why we decide to keep you in the church." The superior then preached a message about how Jesus came to "bring a sword, not peace" and how they were fighting a holy war against the demonic Germans for the good of freedom and humanity. If that sounds familiar, it's because a church with screwed up allegiances (to Cesar rather than Jesus) has been parroting that logic since Constantine's first holy wars in the 4th century.

Of course, the men who had fraternized with the enemy were then worthless. The Germans were sent to the Eastern front, shipped through Germany without being allowed to see their family. The French were sent to their deaths on the battlefields of Verdun. The German Kaiser and the King of England were both very angry.

The movie is based on actual events, even the soccer game was a historical event. The WWI history book in which I first read this explained the great lengths the commanders went through to make sure this never happened again. If soldiers see the enemy as human, the war is over.

Which is the whole point of the movie. 1) Jesus stops wars and 2) the Kingdom of the world hates what Jesus does. Jesus came to turn the world upside down, to turn our swords into plowshares, to humble the powerful and raise up the humble (read Mary's Magnificat prayer in Luke after she learns she's pregnant with the Messiah). Jesus came to jack up the world's value system. If the powers that be view the Church of Jesus supporting their agenda or a minor nuisance (rather than a threat) than the Church of Jesus Christ has been castrated!

Those living in the Kingdom of Jesus are to be 180 degrees different than those living in the Kingdom of the World! NOWHERE is this more clear than in our willingness to lay down our lives in service to those who would destroy our lives through violence; phsyical, emotional, economic, verbal, political or any type of violene. Followers of the Prince of Peace respond to violence with loving service even if it costs them everyything they have.

The first Advent has already happened. The second Advent is nearing. In which Kingdom will the Son of Man find us living?