The Christmas Challenge

By Khen Lim



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For every Christian, the single most exciting time of the year will always be Christmas. The birth of Jesus brings with it, hope for mankind and peace upon earth. It is an opportune time to reflect and be really grateful for glad tidings.

It has been two years since the remarkable day of deep uncertainty at Hosanna EFC but to be honest, we have not looked back with trepidation. We didn’t count the days to doom. Even when the coffers looked dry, we believed that if we did our part, God would complete the rest. And when we last checked our accounts, we certainly don’t look bad at all! Praise the Lord!

Through all that time, we had worked very hard, staying focused on what were necessary to do and had persistently placed our trust in Jesus. We did hit dry times. We did come across rocky roads. We had moments of doubt and our faith was tested more than once. Sometimes we fell but there was always a hand to pick us up. It was never the end because God’s presence made sure we knew that.

Gradually the results began to look good but only if you choose to look for them. Hidden amidst the many distractions of what constitute success in church were nuggets of potential that God had worked in some of us. The results proved encouraging when we realise that despite the gloomy outlook, Hosanna EFC is still standing and very much alive!

And right now, some of us feel that this Christmas will be momentous and historical. Why? Because there is a strong feeling that we’ve just turned a big corner. We’ve proven that when God is big, all our problems are small and when God moves, everyone gets out of the way! We are on target to celebrate the birth of Christ in a way unlike ever before!

For some of us, it took a long time to realise the meaning of Christmas in church. We understood that it’s not about pouring huge sums of money to put up an extravaganza. It’s not about making it as glitzy as you can. You don’t have to bring the TV stations in to cover the event. And you certainly don’t need any big-name celebrity to find the meaning of Christmas for you.

Christmas is personal. It’s a time to truly understand why God brought His Begotten Son to walk among us and why His life meant so much for mankind. Christmas begins from within our hearts. We stir the passion to do the things for Christ that we otherwise could never and would never do. Somewhere inside each of us, there is a kindling ready to catch aflame for God.

This is a new Christmas for a church renewed with life and it only takes a few to move mountains here. While others might want to remind us that we have plentiful pew warmers who maintain a stone-walled resistance to do anything, much less to change. But rather than being preoccupied by the unchanging, some of us have understood to look to the light that inspires the change in us; the very light that brings praiseworthy harvest in our lives.

This Christmas, we have a baptism but there’s a whole lot more. We have a great blockbuster faith movie that will move and shake many of us. It’s so powerful that we’re encouraging you to bring along unbelieving friends who want to know who this great God of ours is. We’re also introducing two new songs (‘new’ to us anyway) that have been specially developed into music videos for the occasion of Christmas. We promise they’ll be worth your while.

We have our traditional Christmas lunch after the service is over but in 2014, we’re creating another new tradition – we’re going to build our ‘Christmas Tree’ as a family. We’re going to ask you to bring along your ornaments, trinkets, baubles and knick-knacks to decorate the church’s Christmas tree. They don’t have to cost an arm and a leg.

The principle behind this new tradition is to garner a new sense of togetherness in our church, to bring people back into the Hosanna nucleus, to build love, to build trust and to be involved with each other. By building the tree together, we foster lovingkindness among ourselves. And we have fun doing it as well.

‘Build The Tree’ is one part of how we’re putting the meaning of Christ back into Christmas. We hope you’re around to join us as well.

Note: A shorter and slightly different version of this article appeared in the Dec 7 2014 edition of Lux Mundi Sunday Weekly