During his sermon yesterday, my pastor related an experience he had recently. He quiero'ed some Taco Bell and made a run to a local restaurant. He happened upon a couple of guys who were eating in and asked them if and where they'd be going to church on Christmas Eve. One of the guys was a pastor's son and said he'd be going to the traditional 11:00 service at his church. The other man's answer was more telling. He said every time he went to church on Christmas Eve, all he got was the story of a baby in a manger. Nothing that told him that it would make a real difference in his life.
How many people go to church and leave thinking, "so, what?" Are our churches really hitting people where they live? I think Average Joe needs to know that the story of Christmas is more than a baby in a manager. That this One who was born was born to make a difference and can and will change their lives. It's called relevance and the modern-day church in America is rapidly losing it. Are we truly interested in reaching the lost or just preaching to the itchy ears of the average Christian?
This year, let's focus our message on the "why" of the story, not the "when, where, and how" of it.
By the way, my church is studying the Old Testament book of Ruth during this Christmas season. Wherein God began planning for the O Holy Night, using a poor widow and her widowed daughter-in-law, over 500 years before it happened.
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