GCI Equipper

From Greg: Humanizing humanity

Dear fellow ministers of Christ,

Greg and Susan Williams
Greg and Susan Williams

In my many travels with Delta Air Lines I often read Delta’s Sky magazine (typically doing the crossword puzzle first in an attempt to exercise my mind!). On a recent flight, a particular article caught my attention. It highlighted the movie Born to Be Blue, in which actor Ethan Hawke portrays fabled blues trumpeter Chet Baker. Hawke is quoted as saying that Baker’s biggest struggle after a drug dealer knocked out his teeth was “to play and to play great again.” Noting the movie’s primary goal in telling Baker’s story, Hawke made this comment (emphasis added):

Some biographies paint [Baker] as the angelic-type figure, some have these deep-in-a-drain drug themes, and some paint him as a criminal. Everything about the guy, even his death, was mysterious. We’re just trying to humanize him.

In many ways, Baker’s story is the story of all humanity. We all were born into a fallen world, and yet, as noted by the apostle Paul, we all have hope:

You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Though the Born to Be Blue writers and actors were unable to fully humanize Chet Baker (or anyone else, for that matter), we need not be discouraged, for “humanizing humanity” is what Jesus has done because it is who Jesus is. Out of his deep love and rich mercy, Father God sent his Son to us when we were “dead” due to our “trespasses and sin”—walking around like living corpses (zombie fans will relate!). All of humanity was in this “living dead” state when the Son of God moved into our neighborhood by becoming one of us (John 1:14).

We refer to this astounding miracle and amazing gift of grace as the Incarnation. It’s the focus of our Advent-Christmas celebrations when we give thanks for Jesus’ birth, which heralds the coming of the Son of God into our state of death (alienation) to grant us true, everlasting life. Amazing grace!

Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds
Angels Announcing the Birth of Christ to the Shepherds
(public domain via Wikimedia Commons)

The grace “package” addressed by Paul in Ephesians 2:5 reminds us that we have been made alive by Christ. No longer are we lumbering corpses because Christ has redeemed us—Christ has re-created humanity by becoming one of us to unite us to his humanity. And Christ, in his now glorified humanity, is seated on the throne of heaven (and thus Paul can say that we are seated there with him—his union with our humanity is permanent). This grace “package” thus speaks to the humanization of humanity accomplished by the one who created us and saved us by sweeping us up into his very life. Jesus, the one truly “human” human, by grace, has humanized us all!

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When the second member of the Godhead willingly emptied himself to take on the form of a human being, a plan was set in motion established by the Triune God before the creatoin of the world. That plan was for the Son of God to become the Son of Man to enable us all, God’s created sons and daughters, to become the humanized, fully adopted children of God that now, in Christ, we truly are.

During the Thanksgiving-Advent-Christmas season, I hope you’ll join me in reflecting on the beauty and mystery of the Incarnation, including Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. As we do, let’s thank God for sending Jesus who, in redeeming us as one of us, made us truly human!

With love from my family to yours,

Greg Williams

PS: As we publish this issue of Equipper, Susan and I are preparing to travel to North Carolina (on Delta!) for one final journey of 2016. While there, we’ll be participating in the graduation ceremony of our son Garrett. He has completed his studies and he will earn his Masters of Business Administration. As stated in the old poster that some of you will recall, “MBA=BMW.” For Garrett, a BMW looks more like a Ford F150 4X4. We are proud of you, Garrett!

Advent-Christmas celebration resources

In the Western-Christian tradition, Advent and Christmas celebrate the coming (advent) of Jesus Christ into the world. Advent-themed worship services are held on the four Sundays leading up to Christmas (in 2017 the first Sunday of Advent is November 27). Advent celebrations often follow the progressive themes of Hope, Love, Joy and Peace (sometimes in a different order). By beginning with Hope, Advent looks forward to Jesus’ “second coming,” which then points back to his Incarnation, followed by the celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas.

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Source

Below are resources for celebrating Advent and Christmas. Up first are four short Advent-themed videos from GCI media. They would make excellent sermon-starters, or accompaniment for lighting the Advent candles. Following the videos are other resources you may find helpful.


Advent: Hope


Advent: Love


Advent: Joy


Advent: Peace

Use Christmas for outreach

In this article, Heber Ticas, CMM’s National Coordinator, discusses how the congregation he pastors uses the Christmas season as a prime opportunity to reach out to unchurched people in the area served by his church.

Heber and Xochilt Ticas
Heber and Xochilt Ticas

The congregation I pastor in Southern California, Comunion De Gracia, is constantly looking for ways to live out a “missional mindset.” A primary way we do that is by taking advantage of the annual holiday seasons to create missional environments within our congregation and, most importantly, to be present within the community that surrounds our church building. When it comes to reaching out to the community, one of the most important holiday seasons for us is Christmas. In this article I want to share some of the things we do during the Christmas season to connect with our community.

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One of the things I enjoy about Christmas is that it extends throughout the whole month of December (in the season we Christians call “Advent”). If you think about it, this season affords multiple opportunities to create spaces for missional living. Doing so does not have to be limited to a Christmas service. For us, it includes opening multiple “missional lanes” within our various ministries. Here are several examples:

  • “Operation Christmas Child”: I particularly like to have our church participate in this program because it awakens the missional heart of the church. Because we are predominantly a congregation of immigrants, this program connects well with the congregation as a whole—helping them to connect with the realities of what it was like growing up in Latin America. In particular we have our children’s ministry prepare gift boxes and pray over them. Those gift boxes don’t necessarily have to be sent out with the Operation Christmas Child ministry. In past years we have also been able to express the love of Christmas with kids in our community by giving them gift boxes.

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  • Women’s ministry Christmas dinner: This has been a great way to get the women at the church in community and at the same time create a space for them to invite their friends and family to an event that fosters relationship-building. It’s also a good opportunity to take a look at our visitor database and invite previous visitors to an event that is not religious in nature. Youth ministry also puts together a similar dinner event that opens similar lanes for community connection. The idea here is to make sure that we are not a closed group but rather a welcoming and engaging group.
  • “Back to Bethlehem” community event: This is not an event that we do every Christmas, but we have conducted it several times in past years. I gauge the budget and the appetite of the church on this one since it takes a lot of energy and effort to put it together. The idea is to turn the parking lot of our church into a mini village and invite the community to participate in the event. The key here is to get outside the walls of the church and invite folks in. In that regard, it’s vital to be intentional during the event in befriending those who visit from the community. We typically schedule this event for a day near our Sunday Christmas service. In that way we use our Christmas service as a “comeback” event.

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  • Christmas worship service: We hold this special worship service on the Sunday before Christmas (though this year, Christmas falls on Sunday). We never have a Christmas Eve service because it generally is not well attended because it is not a common occurrence in the Latino culture. Even if it were well attended, we would have several out-of-town visitors (visiting family members) and thus we would not be able to intentionally connect with these non-local folks. For this service, we put together both adult and children’s Christmas choirs. Doing so creates movement and excitement within the church, and motivates members to invite local friends and family. This service is another good opportunity to go through our visitor database and send invitations to our friends.

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Yes, December for us is a busy month, but it’s “good busy.” I consistently have to ask myself and my leadership team if what we are doing is moving forward the vision and mission of our church and if it reflects what we value as a church. This is important because it’s easy to get caught up in doing things that sound cool but don’t do much to move us forward, on mission with Christ.

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Editor’s note: for some additional ideas from LifeWay on using Christmas to reach unchurched people, click here.