![\"Recapture](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/IMG_0080.jpg\")
<\/a>Recapture the wonder of Christmas — become part of the Advent Conspiracy<\/p><\/div>\n
If the crass commercialization of the season has\u00a0tempted you to hate Christmas like a certain Dr. Seuss character<\/a>, I’d like to share with you a practice that has helped us get back to the heart of Christmas.<\/p>\n I first heard Pastor Rick McKinley<\/a> several years ago on a podcast, talking about an initiative he had started at the church he leads — Imago Dei Community<\/a> in Portland, Oregon. \u00a0He called it “The Advent Conspiracy<\/a>,” and it was designed to be an antidote to the consumerism that had overtaken the original message of Christmas.<\/p>\n Stated simply, The Advent Conspiracy consists of four ideas:<\/p>\n Worship Fully But what if we were to think about the significance of Jesus more deeply? \u00a0Consider that God made a perfect world and set humanity at the top of \u00a0the created order. \u00a0Not long after this, humanity rebelled and rejected God’s authority, bringing about God’s righteous judgment. \u00a0Sickness, death and every kind of heartache resulted from this betrayal on our part.<\/p>\n God could have scrapped the whole project, but since his very nature is love, He chose a people for Himself and made them a great nation. \u00a0He gave them His law to indicate they were His people, and he sent them prophets, leaders and teachers to communicate His will to them. \u00a0And when the time was right, this loving God took on human flesh\u00a0—\u00a0leaving the splendor of Heaven — and chose to be born into the world he created as a helpless baby. \u00a0The coming near of God and the establishment of His kingdom on earth — the hope for all humanity — is what we celebrate at Christmas. \u00a0This is why we worship for all we’re worth.<\/p>\n Spend Less Give more The gift of presence is, more than anything, taking the time to give a gift that says, “I get<\/em> you. \u00a0I know<\/em> you.” \u00a0In this case, it really is the thought that counts.<\/p>\n Love All The subtitle of the book The Advent Conspiracy is “Can Christmas Still Change The World?” I believe it can — and it starts with you and me. \u00a0A joyous Advent to you.<\/p>\n So how about you?<\/strong>\u00a0 In what ways are you recovering the\u00a0joy and meaning of Christmas? Add your comments below.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Christmas is just around the corner. \u00a0Despite the holiday-themed tv ads that began in early November and the radio stations that started playing Christmas music around the same time, it’s possible you may have missed it. \u00a0As a friend of mine observed, “Christmas seems to come earlier every year.” If the crass commercialization of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[82,81,83,13,19,44,8,46,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-advent-conspiracy","category-christmas","category-faith","category-god","category-grace","category-inspiration","category-jesus-christ","category-wisdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions\/417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n<\/strong>The true meaning of Christmas — the inescapable origin of the season — is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. \u00a0Where we’ve gone wrong is that we’ve allowed ourselves to become dull, relegating Jesus to the category of ancient history.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>From the time our sons were babies, we’ve always had a budget for Christmas and stuck to it. Even so, since\u00a0we’ve adopted the Advent Conspiracy, we’ve sought to spend less for gifts while increasing the value of each one. \u00a0Part of this is to designate ten percent of our Christmas budget to benevolence — that is, making it a point to do a kindness to those who have less. \u00a0Another part is to manage our expectations and intentionally limit the size of our Christmas budget.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>It seems like an oxymoron to spend less and give more, but there is a way. \u00a0McKinley calls it giving presence<\/em>, rather than presents. \u00a0With this idea, our gifts to family members and each other are more thoughtful and involve an experience more than an object. \u00a0For example, a few Christmases ago, my younger son gave me a deep-winter backpacking weekend. \u00a0What a splendid gift! \u00a0We shared a weekend of father-son time and made great memories.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>In the same way God showed His love for the whole world in sending His son,\u00a0\u00a0we look for ways to make Christmas — and life — \u00a0better for others. \u00a0Our church helps sponsor a Christmas Village Toy Store<\/a> that sells new, donated toys at a steep discount to disadvantaged families so they can have the dignity of giving gifts to their own children. \u00a0The church also takes up a special Christmas Eve offering to help spread the Good News of Jesus around the world. \u00a0If you’re not affiliated with a church, you can contribute to the Salvation Army<\/a>, or send Christmas cheer to kids via Operation Christmas Child<\/a>.<\/p>\n