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Did you know that there are only 115 shopping days left to Christmas? Yes I know summer is barely over and that leaves are yet to start turning colour on the trees. But if Oxford Street gets its way Christmas will begin each year in August while some shops intend to stock up on the “Glitz” of Christmas the whole year round. Yet it’s noteworthy that at a time when we’re facing the greatest austerity since the 1930’s, when many people won’t have two pennies to rub together let alone plan for Christmas, stores are advocating an escape into fantasy. For that’s what it is. For decades now Christmas, as far as the high street is concerned, has been little more than a godless excuse for money-making and it’s about time the Church stood up to it. To me it’s both offensive and a national disgrace that one of our most cherished Christian festivals has been robbed of all meaning in the name of frivolity and profits. Having Christmas the whole year round will merely render it completely meaningless.
By the time you read this I will be departing for Cambridge to attend the annual Lay Preachers and Worship Leaders training course at Westminster College. This year the theme is Evangelism in preparation for year three (next year) of Vision4life. So what is evangelism? Well, in 1974 the International Congress on World Evangelism held in Lausanne defined it as: ...to spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was raised from the dead according to the scriptures, and that as the reigning Lord he now offers the forgiveness of sins and the liberating gift of the Spirit to all who repent and believe. The late David Watson stated it more briefly: quite simply, [he wrote] “to evangelise” means to announce or proclaim or bring good news. That definition may have been fitting at a time when many people still had a loose connection with the Church but that is no longer the case. On top of this in recent years evangelism has attracted a bad name having more to do with “enthusiasm” and self-indulgence. So, if evangelism is to be reinstated to its rightful place within the mission of the whole Church it will need to encompass, proclamation, explanation, conversation, action and involvement. As a faith community of Christians in Brislington we have such a great message to deliver to those around us but we need to engage with that community sympathetically in new and varied ways. And so our task now is to work hard at finding those ways. Right now we are entering a new season of renewal and new beginnings. So let us look afresh at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Let us also look at the publicity we present to passers by and ask ourselves if we can improve on it. Let us also cast a critical eye over everything we do overlooking nothing. There should be no sacred cows. This is what contextual theology is all about in conjunction with its counterpart praxis (i.e. faith mirrored by action). Christmas is coming but its true meaning and message won’t be found amid the clatter of tills and the cheap trinkets of Broadmead and Oxford Street. They have their place but it is a minor one. The true meaning is found in the God who sent his son into the world to proclaim God’s Kingdom come in power to the powerless and those far away.
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