SBCRC and the Advent Conspiracy
Each Sunday in Advent this year we will be looking at one of the concepts of the Advent Conspiracy– worship fully, spend less, give more, love all. The Advent Conspiracy is a resource seeking to enrich the church’s preparation for and celebration of Christmas. One of the suggestions they promote is this: take money that would have been spent on gifts and buy wells for those lacking a clear water source.
Toward that end, this Sunday we’ll have available specially designated envelopes for any contributions you’d like to make. There will be similarly designated receptacles where you can place them. After Christmas, we will send that money to The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee for the purchase of wells.
Since we’ve not done this before, I thought I might anticipate and address some questions this might raise for people.
1. “What about the Giving Tree and other things that the church is promoting related to Christmas and year-end giving? Won’t this just take away from those things?”
It shouldn’t. This is specifically for money that would have otherwise gone to purchase gifts– either gifts that others would have given to you or you would have given others. We hope that you will give to the other things as you would have normally.
2. “I find our celebration of Christmas deeply meaningful already. Should I feel guilty for not participating in this?”
Definitely not. We’re doing this for people who, for example, feel like Christmas has become too much about consumerism and want to change their celebration of it in a way that helps make Christ central. It’s certainly not the only way to do that. Giving and receiving gifts is, for many people, another. In fact, I hope that, as a result of our use of Advent Conspiracy materials, you’ll engage one another in conversation about your own Christmas traditions. The goal here is to enable us all to have a more meaningful holiday.
3. “Do you have to commit to giving all the money or can you just spend less on a gift and give away the rest?”
You don’t have to commit to anything. Whatever amount or percentage is great. The whole idea of this is to help us celebrate Christmas, not add an addition obligation or burden. This congregation has been very generous in its giving this year. You certainly have nothing to prove on that account.
4. What about kids? Are they participating?
Parents and grandparents love giving kids gifts. Kids love receiving gifts. My recommendation is that you simply ask them. I asked mine. They weren’t interested. We left it at that. While it would have been great for them to chose to give, I don’t want them to do so because they feel guilty. What applies with adults applies to them as well– it’s to help them celebrate Christmas. If it doesn’t do that, don’t do it.
5. “Why wells?”
Jesus refers to himself as “living water.” The metaphor is appropriate. The lack of a clean water source can be deadly. The organization Living Water states that “every 15 seconds a child dies from contaminated water.” Building wells seems like a good way of showing gratitude for having received Jesus, our Living Water.
6. “What’s meant by ‘give more’?”
There’s two answers to that. The first is rather obvious. It refers to the giving of money to purchase wells. But the other thing that the Advent Conspiracy emphasizes is the fact that often the gifts we give one another aren’t all that meaningful. Or that there meaning is determined by their cost. This isn’t the only way in which measure meaning. In fact, it’s a pretty crummy way of doing it. A handmade gift, for example, can also be meaningful because it reflect someone’s investment of time and energy. There’s a personal investment. The Advent Conspiracy encourages us to give one another gifts like that.