"Christmas is our event and we need to milk it for God's glory rather than passively accept the materialistic money spinner it has become," says the children's minister at St Paul's, Menai, the Rev Stephen Shearsby. Here is how one Sydney Anglican minister and his church are creatively taking up that challenge.
For this year's Christmas carols service I have written a play called Hugh's for you? The Great Christmas Verdict. It is really a show about choices. Choosing leaders. It's about viewing Christmas day from a political vantage point. Some people consider politics a taboo subject and especially something to avoid mentioning over the Christmas crackling.
Most people would not normally consider Christmas day in terms of politics. But we want to say that Christmas day is about politics. Christmas is about leaders. Christmas is about accepting God as king again, through the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Christmas day is perhaps the most politically charged event in the history of our world. This is because on Christmas day, God chose to re-assert his proper and loving leadership over humanity. He did this by sending his son, Jesus Christ into our world as a baby. Jesus grew up just like any person, took our interests upon himself and represented those interests before God on our behalf. Jesus stood in our shoes and put all our wrong right again. This means that in Jesus, God performed the essence of government, delivering justice.
In Hugh's for You? we don't want to leave the impression that ordinary human politics are unimportant either. However, people coming can be assured we won't be disparaging Rudd or Howard, nor pushing any preferences toward Labor or Liberal policy. We will be observing the failure of human politics and exploring how God's decision to send his Son provides the determinative political act for our world.
Kids might gain a better understanding of what all the big people were doing in their school halls at the end of last month. But more importantly, everyone will be left with a choice: Who is for you? Will you accept the leadership of Jesus who has put all your wrong right again, saving you from your sins, or will you choose to stand on our own before God?
The focus of our concerts is to evangelise children and their parents/carers by taking a fresh look at Christmas. I might be educationally naieve, but my ambition is to present the gospel through the eyes of a child, working with media that will appeal to a child, containing content that is both simple enough for most children to get the main idea, but without loosing the barb that will hook the adults.
I try and incorporate as many elements as I can that will appeal to preschoolers, primary schoolers, mums, dads and grandparents. This is a tough challenge. I think this year the songs and our puppet, Hugh, will appeal mostly to younger children. On the other hand, the style and content of the script will be appreciated by older kids and their parents. At the end of the day, the content of the script is probably too complex for the younger children (preschool to year two), but should be reasonably clear to those above that age. It's a difficult juggle.
As our Christmas services grow, some years from now, I can envisage two Children's Christmas Eve's: one for the young kids, another for the older, primary school kids. This way, we can focus on proclaiming Christ better, but "one size fits all' is the best we can do for now. We have also given ourselves a new challenge this year: a fledgling puppet ministry.
I've always been drawn to drama. Growing up in my parent's church I would often participate in church skits. Currently I write a lot of drama scripts to teach the Bible to kids at our church, but this is more out of necessity. I'm just not very good at anything else. I can't draw, I can't do puppetry, and I can't do computer animation or graphics.
So, in order to survive under pressure, I turn to what I know best. It's not a bad thing to work within your limitations. On the positive side, drama can really attract magnet-like attention from your audience. Drama can also be enhanced through musical items and dance if included in a disciplined way.
So, if you do your homework on the Scriptures, write a solid script, find a good cast and rehearse like mad, it can be an electric mechanism for communicating the gospel on a big scale.
Of course there are many more people other than myself and the cast who are involved in pulling off a production such as Hugh's for You? While the cast is a fairly tight crew of eight or nine, the entire production will involve about 70 people. We are very blessed with a bunch of talented, key people who can make the production sound and look great. On top of this we have many other labourers who bake food, letter box drop, do welcoming, run bookstalls, prepare costumes, assist with car parking and the list goes on.
Last year's Children's Christmas Eve (titled Freedom to the Max and .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)) had about 1300 people (450 kids) attend across three shows. It's always hard to measure the "success' of these kind of events but we did follow each play with a short talk where the adults could complete a response card.
An Introducing God course was offered in the new year and as a result we had small groups meet regularly together in February 2007. It is a hard time of year to "follow up' people, but because it is such an easy event to get people to come along to I think it is worth doing. Even more importantly we need to recognise three truths about children.
First, children are precious to Jesus. He showed the disciples that children were the most likely candidates to enter the kingdom of God. So that gives us great encouragement to put a fair bit of energy and commitment into ministering the gospel to them. Second, kids love Christmas so we should recognise its value for reaching them with the gospel. Third, children represent an opportunity for ministering the gospel beyond themselves to their parents and siblings. With our Hugh's for You? parents grandparents, neighbours and friends will attend because a child they know wants to come or is even involved in the play.
Below is a sample of the script from Hugh's for you? The Great Christmas Verdict
Act 2, Scene 4: Hugh discovers the truth about human kings
Hugh: Wow Mr Clayton, did any of Israel's kings listen to God? Or did they just look after themselves?
Mr Clayton: good question Hugh. A few did listen to God, but not many. Most did evil to get what they wanted and this hurt many people. Eventually things got so bad that God took away the kings, took away the kingdom and gave it to others
Hugh: ohhh that's very sad. So I guess that's it then, no more kings"
Mr Clayton: Hugh, God was still king and he promised to come and save them" he promised a day when God himself would come and put all wrong things right again
Hugh: but Mr Clayton, if God is going to come and do all that, does that mean we shouldn't be looking for leaders to stand in our place?
Mr Clayton: No, its still Ok to look for a leader. But just remember that the person you are looking for should be on about what God is on about- doing what is best for their people, not what is best for themselves. Look for a person who will put wrong things right again.
Hugh: ohh right, yeah. Mr Clayton, so when is the big day when God will come and save Israel and put wrong things right again?
Mr Clayton: the Big day has already come Hugh and when it happened God didn't just save Israel but the whole world!
Hugh: save the whole world! Its already come?! How?
Mr Clayton: Christmas Day. Christmas day is the day God came and stood in our place.
Hugh: Christmas Day? God in our place?
Mr Clayton: yep!
Hugh:- But How can God who is up there and so huge come down here and be so small like one of us
Mr Clayton: look over there"
Act 3, Scene 1: The Birth of Jesus, God's forever leader - Mary and Joseph scene
Joseph: well its not much of a place to stay babe but its all they had. The whole town is chockas, its cheap too.
Mary: No worries darl, we'll make do, babies don't need much stuff just a lot of love and care
Joseph: - you know what? The owner of this fine place said we could sleep in the dog kennels if we wanted for even bit less than this garage, but"
Mary: how much did he want us to pay for it?
Joseph: 50 bucks a night.
Mary: what did you say?
Joseph: told him he was dreamin'!
Mary: rockabye baby from the treetops, shhh, shhshshsh, shhhh, shhh and you
Joseph: Mary, I still can't get over how that messenger from God said that our little boy would be God's forever king
Mary: yeah, ain't it amazing- our little fella's gonna sort out everything for everyone. Sleep tight little Jesus, leader of the world.
