Couldn't Help Noticing

Christmas evangelism

Here's some ideas for how to use some of our new Christmas resources in the lead up to Christmas:

• send friends or family one of our Christmas cards, but slip a copy of Christmas WordWatch inside it as a little gift. (Interestingly, the sales rep of the printer who printed the WordWatch tract commented to me how good he thought it was; he took it home to show his wife. It's a very easy thing to give away and will be appreciated by Christians and non-Christians alike);
• if you are a minister, send a Christmas card to any church visitors or baptism/wedding contacts who you might have met during the year, but who haven't been back to church, and include details of your Christmas services;
• use Christmas WordWatch as a "Christmas gift" for all those who attend your Christmas services or carol service;
• hand out copies of Christmas WordWatch at a street stall, and as you do so, give people a warm invitation to come to church this Christmas;
• use the Hark! The Angel Harold Sings or While Shepherds Washed Their Socks ... leaflets as giveaways at local carols events;
• if your business has customers or clients, send them a Christmas card wishing them a happy Christmas, thanking them for their business throughout the year, and pointing them towards the meaning of Christmas. We can supply cards unfolded so that you can overprint them—just ask for unfolded cards

Have some other ideas? Send them through. We'll publish the best ideas over the next few days.

Christmas cards: a new spin

As you can see at left, our 2006 Christmas cards are now in stock. There's a bit of a new dimension to them this year. (No, they don't come with 3D glasses.) We've put a URL on the back of all the new cards pointing people to our “Is there more to Christmas?” web site.

Why have we done this? Well, every year we wrestle with how much of a Christian message to put in each card and how strong or subtle to make it. Will the message make the card too hard to give to a non-Christian friend or family member? Generally, we solve the problem by producing a range of cards that allows our card-sending customers to choose what card best suits the people they are sending to.

But what, we thought to ourselves, if the decision as to how much Christian message to receive was left to some extent in the hands of the card recipient. So if they are intrigued by the card, they have a choice to read a bit more. That's where a web page comes in really handy.

So we created a very short extra message on the web site, just prompting people, still quite gently, to consider the real meaning of Christmas. Perhaps even to read the Christmas story (and its ‘postscript’ of Jesus life, death and resurrection story) by downloading a free copy of Luke's Gospel.

We think that means we can say a bit less in some of the cards, but aim to intrigue people and arouse their curiosity—leaving the decision to find out more in their hands, rather than foisting a Christian message on them.

See what you think.

Tomorrow we present some ideas of how individuals and churches can use Christmas cards and the new Christmas WordWatch booklet to do some evangelism in the lead up to Christmas.

Christmas already

I know it's getting closer to Christmas because some of our Christmas resources start arriving from the printers.

If you are looking for a Christmas giveaway—either for Christmas church services or carol nights, or just for slipping inside a Christmas card or gift for a family member or friend—Kel Richards has come up with a beauty, and it has just arrived in our warehouse, and is available now. (For Australian Briefing subscribers, there will be a free sample in your November issue.)

Christmas WordWatch is a little dictionary of Christmas words and traditions. But Kel cleverly explains these in a way that is not only entertaining, but clearly communicates key points of the gospel. (Click here to go to this item in our online store, and you can view each page.)

At 50c or less a copy, place your orders early; I have a feeling this one's going to fly out the door.

Suffering III

Following on from my previous posts on this topic, I've been pondering the way we perceive suffering. We often hear these kinds of questions (from Christians and non-Christians alike):

• ‘Where was God on September 11 2001?’
• ‘How can a loving God allow innocent people to suffer so much?’
• “If God is so powerful, why doesn't he just get rid of all the terrible things in this world?”

... and so on.

But perhaps we ask these questions because of the way we think about suffering.

We tend to think of certain things—things like sickness, pain, natural disasters ... anything that causes human suffering—as being ‘bad’. We especially think of these things as ‘bad’ when they happen to us or to our loved ones. So we find it difficult to say that a good God actively brings these ‘bad’ things upon people, especially people who belong to him and are seeking to obey him. How can bad things come from a good God?

But when the same things are described in the Bible as God's judgement on people who are clearly the ‘baddies’ (like Pharaoh's army, who were drowned as they chased the Israelites through the Red Sea), we tend to cheer, and see it as God's justice.

What if we were to think of suffering as not necessarily ‘bad’, but something ‘neutral’ which comes from a good God who is bringing about his good purposes for the world?

We think suffering is ‘bad’ because it causes us pain, and we cannot see what God is achieving in the bigger picture. But if God gave me cancer, and if somehow through that cancer, certain members of my family came to know and trust God, then I would have to see that as a good thing.

Of course, ultimately all suffering is bad. We know this because God will do away with it in the New Creation where there “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore” (Rev 21:4). But in the meantime, God can and does bring good things out of our suffering. If we didn't suffer, we might very well miss out on some of God's greatest blessings (cf. Heb 12:1-11; Rev 3:19).

Making headlines

I receive regular emails from the Barnabas Fund which provide news about persecuted Christians around the world, particularly in Muslim countries. The most recent one (which you can read here) caught my attention with the provocative subject headline, “Cross defined as non-essential to Christian faith”.

As an evangelical, I was immediately alarmed: how could anyone suggest that the cross of Christ is anything other than central to Christian faith? So I was, in one sense, relieved to discover that the headline was really about the wearing of a cross as a piece of jewellery: a British Christian named Nadia Eweida was told by her employer, British Airways, to remove (or cover up) the cross she was wearing as a necklace because the wearing of religious symbols was against their staff dress code—unless that symbol is “an essential part” of the person's religious beliefs.

We ought to pray for Nadia and the Christians (the Barnabas Fund included) that are supporting her. In her attempts to have the airline allow her to express her faith in this way, she walks a very fine line. She should not be heard to be saying that the wearing of a cross is “an essential part” of her faith. Yet she should not be denied the right to express her faith in a visible way. (Whatever happened to religious tolerance?)

Even in the Barnabus Fund story, this fine line is dangerously apparent:

Many Christians wear the cross in order to publicly declare their faith. During the grievance hearing Miss Eweida quoted “Jesus said if you deny me on earth I will deny you before my Father in heaven”. Miss Eweida is of Anglo-Egyptian roots, and in her culture the cross is deeply important. Many Egyptian Christians will tattoo the cross on to their wrists, even though this will bring them increased persecution, as it defines them as a Christian. To Miss Eweida displaying her cross is as essentially part of her faith as the hijab and turban are to Muslims and Sikhs.

Yes, we should be allowed to declare our faith publicly—especially if the way in which we do so is low-key. But, no, I do not think that any Christian—regardless of their Christian culture or background—should be concerned that by not wearing a cross around their neck, they are “denying Jesus”. And I must admit I have concerns about any Christian saying that the wearing of a cross is “as essentially part of her faith as the hijab and turban are to Muslims and Sikhs”. I take it that Muslims and Sikhs wear those items because they believe they are essential to their being right with, or at one with, their god. This cannot be true for a Christian: nothing we do is essential for our salvation; it's only what Jesus has done.

I'm sure Nadia places her faith in what Christ has done for her, and I hope she is not in any doubt as to the fact that her salvation will remain assured, even if she loses her right to wear the cross at work. May the good news of the cross be upheld in all that transpires in this matter.