In depth | Evangelicals Now

Festive stress: an opportunity for grace?

Jason Roach

Every year, as Christmas approaches, I find myself navigating the festive family diplomacy of our intercultural marriage. It's a delicate dance that starts with a seemingly simple question: 'So, where are we spending Christmas Day?'

My wife pulls out her diary. 'Right,' she says, 'let's work out the logistics.' For her family, it's straightforward - maximise the number of people, find the most convenient time, get everyone together. My family, though? Completely different story.

the ENd word

Incarnation – then and now

Jeremy McQuoid

‘God spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son. His final Word was Jesus, He needed no other one. Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way divine. And so was born the baby, who would die to make it mine.’ (Michael Card, The Final Word )

The Incarnation is both a glorious mystery that leaves the greatest scholar scratching her head, and the most practical, earthy motivation for all our local church ministry. Scripture teaches that Mary was the ‘envelope’ in which the Holy Spirit placed the foetus of Jesus of Nazareth, the ‘Word made flesh’.

Books for kids this Christmas: Heroes and glorifying Jesus

Catherine MacKenzie

Book Review There are a few days left until Christmas so I’ll first add a nativity story book to the other children’s books that I’d like to recommend to you this month.

Read review

Debunking 3 myths about the origins of Christmas

Ryan Burton King

Christmas. 'It's the most wonderful time of the year,' Andy Williams croons. Or, as a cast of characters from Jim Henson's Creature Shop sang in The Muppet Christmas Carol, it is 'the summer of the soul in December'.

But for others, it is a season of woe, an opportunity to blow a cold frost wind over the festivities with assorted dubious claims, doubtless well-intentioned but badly thought through and poorly communicated.

everyday evangelism

How to get to the heart of Christmas in conversation

Mike Hood

Here’s some good news: this month, for one month only, conversation about the incarnation of Jesus is socially acceptable with pretty much anyone!

Of course it’s not quite that simple, but it’s a huge opportunity that throughout December it’s normal to talk about Christmas. Let me offer two questions and one story that might help those conversations go a little deeper.

everyday evangelism

Four mistakes to avoid in your Christmas message

Glen Scrivener

As a preacher, I’m always trying to subvert expectations. I hate the kind of familiarity that might breed contempt or, worse, boredom! To a speaker, boredom is kryptonite. So I’ll often try to defamiliarise people with topics they think they understand. I find myself using the word ‘actually’ a lot.

But there’s a problem with this (actually)! Sometimes, in trying to offer fresh insights, we end up over-complicating or even undermining truths that are already profound. We subvert, but we subvert the wrong thing, or in the wrong way. This happens a lot at Christmas. We’ll consider four examples. First, the ‘Debunking The Nativity’ sermon.

Why is our Christmas crackers?

Gary Clayton

As we approach Christmas, our minds turn again to images of a baby in a manger, an undisclosed number of Magi, sheep, shepherds and heavenly messengers, Jesus’ faith-filled mother Mary and his selfless father Joseph.

But is the season as simple and straightforward as it at first appears?

Sowing gospel seeds at Christmas

Anne Cockram

How will you use the opportunity this Christmas to tell others about Jesus?

In all the busyness and excitement of the season, as Christians we have good news to share, and many ways in which we can engage with those around us to bring them the life changing gospel.

How can Advent calendars boost your Bible reading habits?

Rachel Jones

I don’t know when we reached peak Advent calendar. Maybe it was 2021, in a fit of post-Covid desperation.

Whenever it was, it doesn’t seem to show any signs of abating. They are, as one newspaper round-up put it, ‘as much a staple in the run-up to Christmas as drinking too much and listening to Last Christmas for the 1,237th time.’ A cursory look at the John Lewis website reveals a wealth of options – you can, among other things, spend £160 on a ‘Dazzle and Glow’ beauty Advent calendar, or £25 on one with a month’s worth of pork scratchings. Take your pick.

letter from America

Christmas is more than an evangelistic opportunity

Josh Moody

The origins of Christmas celebrations as we tend to experience them are fraught with controversy – and ignorance, too.

It may be that the purported pagan roots of Christmas trees are arguable, but the actual celebration of Christmas goes back much further than Albert’s love for the German Christmas tree. Some say that December 25th was chosen by the early church because it is roughly nine months after the virginal conception. That may well be, but it’s also the case that the date falls on a time when ancient Roman imperial customs celebrated in pagan ways.