hello friends.

(”hello joshua.”)

i thoroughly enjoy christmas. two of many reasons are eh.) at christmas time you need only the excuse of it’s christmas! to get together for a feast/party and bee.) i get to drink eggnog. actually, i drink eggnog all year ’round because it’s stinking christmas in a cup, it’s just that at christmas time people don’t look at me the same way as they do in july when i’m partaking in a nice glass of chilled goodness.

this particular year christmas eve happens to fall on a sunday. we had a staff meeting at my local church gathering where i work to decide what we are going to do this year. staff meetings are fun because we discuss various topics and ideas concerning church function and gatherings. i sit in the room quietly most of the time because typically my ideas are ridiculous. in general. for instance, this party i’m about to explain to you, when we were first discussing it we were trying to come up with a name. i suggested Hooray for Christmas! And Other Festivities That We Shall All Partake In With Joy In Our Hearts And Eggnog In Our Stomachs.

blank stares around the room.

grown ups. whatever. i’m used to it by now.

back to the topic at hand. as i said, christmas eve is on a sunday, so we were discussing whether or not we were going to have a christmas eve service and what it might look like. we decided that yes, we would do something extra for christmas eve. it was suggested that we do a typical service with music and a message and such, and that seemed well and fine, but there seemed to be something more that we had to do. admittedly, we are decent at programs. we knew we could plan out a very decent christmas eve service and have people invite all of their friends who aren’t followers of Jesus and it would be fine and dandy. no feathers ruffled. hour and fifteen minutes. done. success! we did it!

but can’t there be more?

there’s this text that’s always fascinated me in luke. Jesus said when you throw a party (and we all know that Jesus knew how to throw a good party. water into wine? very swank Jesus. very swank…) not to invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors, but rather to invite those who may be down and out on their luck. invite those who might be grateful for a meal at a party. invite those who might not be able to pay you back in any way at all. Jesus said to invite both those who might be in financial need and also those with physical needs.

you know who practically fulfills this passage really well? not us. that’s who.

so we’re doing it, and you’re not invited.

on the 23rd of december (eve squared, because saturday worked better for numerous reasons) we, along with another church gathering called the crossing that meets in our building on saturday nights, are throwing a huge party at grace gathering. my friend brad made neat flyers which we’ve passed out to local communities around our area to people who might not typically get to have a huge party at christmas. we’ve sent out flyers to goverment agencies, soup kitchens, assisted living communities, and other various places that we think would appreciate a feast. we’ve asked our family at grace to pitch in by providing tons of glorious food, set up, tear down, clean up, music (3 bands throughout the night), bonfires, and plenty of eggnog so that this will be a $0 cost to the attendees.

and there’s no agenda.

we’re not having a message from the stage. we’re not handing out tracks. we’re not singing worship songs. we’re not presenting the gospel (at least not in the way that it’s typically defined). we’re simply throwing a party. maybe you could say that the agenda is love. yes.

like i said, you’re not invited….

unless you want to come help.

if you’re reading this from your own personal computer in your home or at a coffee shop where you bought your triple decaf soy no whip grande venti supersize me latte with sprinkles, then chances are that you’re not the person that we’re throwing this party for, in general. this party isn’t specifically for our local family to invite their “unsaved” friends to either, but rather it’s for our family to invite their friends that they think might be struggling a bit this holiday season and might appreciate a good, free meal. it’s for the communities i’ve described above. we think that this is what Jesus might want for His birthday. we think He’d be thrilled with a huge party.

we could be wrong, but we think we’re right. booya.

if you happen to be in the midwest general area (indiana, ohio, illinois, michigan, kentucky, canada, france. wherever), then you are welcome to come and volunteer your time/food/juggling abilities/eggnog. we would love to have you. i can even arrange for you a place to stay with a family in our gathering. it would be splendid. but like i said, if you want to come, then we’d like you to volunteer in one of a few possible areas. email me (thelongbrake@gmail.com) if you are interested. it will be fun. promise.

*disclaimer: please don’t get me wrong if you think i’m saying that a traditional christmas eve service is wrong in any way. it is not. it is good. i’m just saying that it’s not what we’re doing. if you’re upset or disappointed that we aren’t having a traditional service then i would be more than happy to draw you a map to various other gatherings who are having a service that sunday evening (as far as i know). i would even go with you, since i appreciate them as well.

in fact, here you go:
(click to biggify)

Tags: self