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LIQUIDTHINKING IS: Stephen Zedler Jimmy Doyle Andy Mullins Current Sountrack
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
 Santa can wait A lot has been made recently about the fact that certain very BIG churches in our country decided to... ahem... pre-empt their Sunday morning services this past week so that people could celebrate the holidays (GASP)... I mean, the ONLY holiday that anyone SHOULD or even DOES recognize during this time of year... which is Christmas for you pagan atheists out there who don't know the reason for the season (insert jingle music). Sorry about that, folks. The ol' sarcasm regulator blew a fuse. Now, as I was saying, a LOT has been made of this. One church here in town, right next to my house, nonetheless, put on its marquee "Yes, we WILL be here on Christmas Day" then listed the times of its services. Yes, they were proud of it. The decision has been lauded by pomo and anti-mega church types. The guys over at Stupid Church People went so far as to say that maybe, just maybe, people wouldn't go back. Of course, regular attenders are taking pride in the extra grace they're bringing on themselves by sacrificing family time around the tree to make sure God gets his two hours of the week. The funny thing is that I actually think we have the whole thing completely backwards. As one who takes the "two or more" description of Christian fellowship pretty literally a lot of the time, I find that informal gatherings with smaller numbers of believers are much more conducive to the practice and perpetuation of the values of the kingdom. However, I do believe that there are times when large, corporate gatherings are... well... good. Good in that they can be constructive to individuals, the body, and the kingdom of God on earth. I would think that one of those times when it would be good to have large gatherings of the body would be on the day of the celebration of Christ's birth. Another would be the weekend we remember his death and resurrection. Ideally, it would look like these small bands of people, commissioned to enact the words of Christ and embody his vision of reality on this earth, crawling out of the woodwork they normally function in to gather... to show themselves as the universal body. For a few spots on the calendar, debates and divisions would be laid aside. People would come in order to be recognized as part of a much larger body, then go back to their everyday functionings inside their small, intimate communities, where they live out their callings in the dirt and mess of life. I once looked down on those that only crawled out of their lives to get their butts into church on Christmas and Easter. Then, at one point, I felt guilt and shame for being in that group. Now, I'm not so sure that that isn't the way it should always be.
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Jimmy Doyle is a dad, husband,
teacher, friend, and other things. Currently he's just trying to figure out what it means to follow Christ and be in community with others. He enjoys having conversations with fellow pilgrims on the journey.
Stephen Zedler has a wife and three kids who he loves very much. He has been called by God to study and teach history, particularly U.S.
history. He also believes that God has called him to reform the way children are educated in America.