No matter how many times I hear the phrase “God’s all over this”, I’m always stunned when I see that phrase in action. People are uniting across denominations and oceans to do something different this Christmas through Advent Conspiracy. Thanks again to everyone who are spreading the word-be it by blog, phone, text or word of mouth. The writers of the following articles did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of this thing. The first is an article from the Leadership Network. The second is a beautiful expose written by Elizabeth Hovde of Columbian.com.

Hey everyone, hope your weekend was super fantastic and all shades of thumbs up. Today’s update features a great writeup in Collide Magazine, where Chris Seay and Rick McKinley talk about the roots of AC and why it’s so important to Christians. Click here now and read away. 

Here’s an interesting story that went down in Las Vegas this week about two churches from different denominations uniting to support Advent Conspiracy. Gang, this is what it’s all about. The kingdom of God isn’t about denominations, religion or whatever barriers we’ve placed on our faith. It’s about celebrating Jesus and loving others the way He does. Read the article here.

If you’re like me, you take more of a wham, bam, thank you Wal*Mart mentality when it comes to Christmas shopping. For me, the thought of making a birdhouse for my mom or a toy for my kids sounds like torture. And here I am, serving as one of the creatives behind a movement that encourages people to give relational gifts like these. But I’m not a builder. In fact, Bob The Builder intimidates me. The very term “arts and crafts” gives me nausea. I hate glitter. And to be honest, the thought of doing some online shopping sounds pretty sweet right about now.  But I know I can’t because I want to give people something that screams “YES! I LOVE YOU!” I want impact, substance. I want it to be real. So much of my day in and day out is surface living. Surface conversations about the weather. Surface intentions. I go to surface birthdays with a surface gift tucked under one arm, to which I receive a surface “thank you” card a few weeks later. Maybe one day this will change. And maybe this day begins this season, where I dig beneath my surface life to a life where the ol’ ticker is pumping loudly and passionately. Yes, it may happen--I just know a birdhouse isn’t going to get me there.

Last year a guy from church told us about a gift he gave his dad. It was a bag of coffee beans. A pretty sizable one too. He explained the puzzled look on his dad’s face when he opened the gift. Then he told his father he wanted to use this gift as an opportunity to know him more. He wanted to hear stories about this man’s life. His childhood. His wedding day. All of it. So, his plan was to call his dad up every Sunday night and hear a story about his life while sharing a cup of coffee made from the beans. Wow, right? See, I can do that, because I want that with my own dad. Now, maybe your relationship with your father isn’t like this. Maybe you don’t even have someone called “dad” in your life. But I’m willing to bet you have someone that you’d like to get to know more. And where glitter may not cut it, maybe something as simple as coffee beans will.

Tony

Hey all,

First off, an apology. As you can probably see, our blog site has been less than, how shall we say, fruitful. Truth is, I’m not an avid blogger, and neither are some of our co-conspirators. But the main reason why we haven’t blogged much on here is simply due to the fact that we have been SWAMPED with AC related stuff while at the same time keeping our full time jobs running on all cylinders. The primary worker bees for this site have the pleasure of working at two different churches, one in St. Louis and the other in Portland. We will definitely try to keep this blog updated especially now that we’re entering into the season.

So, since I stink at blogging I’ve been cruising around other blog sites lately to see what people actually chat about. And get this...I have found countless bloggers talking about AC.
I love stumbling upon a random blog to find people actively engaging in conversation about what AC means to them and how they plan to “conspire” this season. I also really love the honesty some are sharing on how doing this thing is going to challenge their own needs/wants. I mean, who DOESN’T want cool stuff for Christmas, right?

The first thing to remember is that this is a heart thing, not a numbers thing. We want people to do this not for the sake of pushing back on consumerism, but to give them a personal connection to what this season really means. I would much rather see someone buy one less gift and have it mean something deep and holy and true than someone who doesn’t buy one gift, gives all their money to charity and walks away feeling empty and isolated as the “scrooge” of the family. As you’ll read in our brochure and website we talk about the idea of just buying ONE LESS GIFT. Just one. Start there, and see where God takes you. Last year my family did just that. One less gift. This year we’re taking a bigger step by making relational gifts and buying things like board games that we can all do together. We are a consumer-driven culture, and it’s this creative’s opinion that cutting out the buy/spend mentality entirely from Christmas would be like going cold turkey to quit smoking. It would work for some but for many it would get them clawing at the walls.

On the flip side I know families who did go the cold turkey route and had wonderful results. I celebrate that with them! At the same time, I know that I am not them, and that my journey is just as unique, mysterious and wonderful as theirs. I want to encourage everyone to do the same. We are the beloved, my dear friends. Let’s enter this story the uniqueness that God has crafted for us.

Tony