Review: A Life-giving Christmas
Jeremy SteeleI will be honest. I am generally unimpressed by official UMC branded resources, and am committed to being part of the solution (this site is part of it). When I received the copy of the church-wide series "A Life-giving Christmas" I was skeptical. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.
This material is top-notch from start to finish. It's sermon starters are well written, concise, and incredibly tuned in with built in social media suggestions! The scripts are polished and the videos could air on any national news broadcast.
That is to say nothing of the stellar content. Keeping to the traditional advent themes of hope, peace, joy, and love, this refocuses Christmas on more than gift buying AND more than donating! From AIDS orphans in Africa to a nativity constructed by German POWs from World War II, it will interest and challenge you with stories that break every Advent mold I have seen. In addition, the RETHINK group provides downloadable companions for children and youth (that I wrote) that have helps for using the material in those settings including discussion questions, action steps, and more.
The only thing you might need to consider, especially if children are in your worship services, is the video that shows a local church member who dresses up like Santa. OK for youth, but may expose the Santa pretend thing and make some parents upset with children present.
This resource is a breath of fresh air for a person who wants to see the UMC producing quality materials that help the church be relevant in a transforming culture. Way to go UMCOM!
The sermon starters as well as the youth/children guides are free to download from umcom.org/advent. However, you will definitely want the media bundle which is incredibly inexpensive ($25!) as it has the scripts, videos, etc (did I mention all sorts of graphics and promotional pieces?). It's not easy to find the purchase link so just go ahead and click here to go to the site to purchase it.
