by Jay Therrell, Conference Superintendent

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

It’s well known that Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year. I can always tell you how many days there are until Christmas – 41 as of today. I have an app on my phone that helps me keep track. In fact, if you want to know, as I type this, there are 978 hours or 58,684 minutes or 3,521,032 seconds or 4,694,691 heartbeats or 880,251 breaths until Christmas. Yes, I’m that guy! 

I start playing Christmas music on November 1. (As an aside, please don’t send me any emails about Thanksgiving deserving to be celebrated.) I truly love Thanksgiving as well! We don’t decorate for Christmas until the Friday after Thanksgiving. That said, I don’t have any problem with people putting their decorations up early. To each his own!

The “Magic” of Christmas

Since I was a little boy, Christmas has always seemed magical to me. It was a time of wonder, beauty, family, friends, and possibility. The older I grow, that’s still true. It’s just for a much different reason.

It’s still awe-inspiring to me that our God – Creator of the Universe – loves us so much that He left heaven to be born in a smelly, dirty stable. He did it just so He could be in relationship with you and me and offer us salvation. The vast depth of that kind of love is mindboggling to me. It still brings wonder, beauty, family, friends, and possibility. In fact, it’s the possibility that I love most.

At Christmas, it seems people are very open to hearing the Gospel message that God so loved the world that He gave us His only Son. I think the thing I miss most about ministry in the local church is sharing that message on Christmas Eve and inviting people to say “yes” to following Jesus.

Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

When I served in the local church, we did everything we could to help people remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas. We used the Advent Conspiracy materials. One year, we used Mike Slaughter’s book It’s Not YOUR Birthday as our sermon series. Our children’s ministry worked hard to instill in our kids what Christmas is truly about. The same was true for youth ministry.

One of the main ways we kept Jesus at the center of His birthday was through something we called the March to the Manger. I didn’t invent it. My spiritual dad, the Rev. Paul Dickinson, gave me the idea for it when he was my pastor many years ago.

March to the Manger

Every year, I would send out a snail-mailed letter to the congregation the week of Thanksgiving (before Advent began) and our church family to keep Jesus at the center of Christmas. We did that by making sure He received the biggest birthday gift. My charge was to make sure that families gave a gift to Jesus that was equal to or greater than the most expensive gift they gave to someone else. 

If the most expensive gift a person gave was an item of jewelry for their spouse, then give the same amount or more to Jesus. If it was a new gaming system for your children, then give more to the work of Christ in our world. You get the idea.

Each year, the leadership of our church would choose one or two ministries to support with the March to the Manger. Our church helped found a Christian medical clinic in our community for the underinsured and uninsured. Many years the March to the Manger supported that. Sometimes, the March money went to disaster relief. In other years, it helped support World Vision or Compassion International. We gave 100% of it away. Additionally, whatever we received in our Christmas Eve offerings was added to it. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to share on Christmas Eve, when our churches are full, that when people give, everything will be given away to those in need – and so really to Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46).

It was a definite act of faith. We weren’t a wealthy church. Our congregation was made up of school teachers, firefighters, police officers, and government employees. Yet every year we often collected $30,000+.

We took the March to the Manger as a separate offering in addition to the normal offering of tithes during worship. We took the March to the Manger offering all four Sundays of Advent. We’d set out a real manger in the front of the sanctuary. After the sermon, we’d invite people to come forward and bring their Jesus gift. When we sent the letter out before Thanksgiving, we included a decorative envelope they could use, but we also encouraged people to wrap their checks or cash in a small box like a Christmas present. It was always amazing how many people did that. Yes, it was extra work to open the gifts, but it was so beautiful to see and made a great point about what Christmas is all about.

My Challenge to You

I want to challenge our Florida Conference family to consider adding the March to the Manger to your church’s Christmas traditions this year. There’s still time to write a letter and get it mailed out. I’ve included a copy of one of my letters so you’ll have something to work from. There’s no magic in my wording, however. Make it your own.

Christmas truly is the most wonderful time of the year, and if we lead well, we can help people understand the real reason behind that is because Jesus is the center of it. 

After all, there are only six weekends left until Jesus’ birthday!

All God’s love,

Jay 
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                                                                              Sample March to the Manger Letter

Dear Church Family,

In our home, we say the Advent/Christmas season officially begins when Santa’s sleigh makes its way into Herald Square in New York City as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As I write this letter, that’s only five days away! 

During this most wonderful and magical of all seasons, our Advent/Christmas worship series has an intriguing name: The Scandal of Christmas! When you think about it, there was scandal throughout the Christmas story. Mary was a young, unwed mother, pregnant with a child…scandalous! God, Himself, left the perfection of heaven to live among us in the broken and fallen world we’ve caused…scandalous! The Lord of the Cosmos was born in a cave used to keep barn animals with only a manger of hay for a bed…scandalous! We deserve nothing, yet God so loved us that He gave us His only Son so that we might find grace…scandalous! 

Something else that strikes me as scandalous is that every year we celebrate the birthday of the most non-material Person ever born with a gift-giving-extravaganza that rivals every other day of the entire year. It’s Jesus’ birthday, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the birth of the Savior of humankind than by giving a gift that will help all of us to be a part of Jesus’ “Plan A” to save and transform our community.

I challenge each of you to make your gift to Jesus equal to or larger in financial value than the most expensive gift you give your wife, husband, child, parent, or friend.  For example, if you buy your spouse a piece of jewelry, keep Jesus at the center of your gift-giving by making a gift to further His work that is of equal or greater value.  If an electronic item for a child is the most expensive item on your list, make a gift to Christ’s Kingdom work that is at least the same amount.  Let us keep Jesus as the center of Christmas by giving Him the main gift!

Our mission focus for the March to the Manger will be Samaritan Health and Wellness Center. As you probably know, our wonderful church helped to create Samaritan. In its first year, it saw 1,900 distinct patients who were either under-insured or uninsured. Those 1,900 people accounted for 3,500 office visits. Without Samaritan, our community would be hurting…scandalous! Samaritan is already considering expanding, including purchasing a permanent facility on Del Prado Boulevard. We hope our giving will help further that mission. 

How to respond:

Each Sunday during Advent, there will be a manger in the chancel, and we will encourage you during that special time to bring forward your gift to Jesus. Checks should be made out to Cape Coral First with “March to the Manger” written on the memo line.  Please place your financial gift in the enclosed envelope or even wrap it in a small box if you like.  Please remember this is to be a sacrificial gift that is not part of your ordinary tithing and offering to the church.  Please pray and ask God how He might be leading you to help further His salvation mission through our church.

Together, we can further the work of Jesus by letting the world know that He is at the top of our Christmas lists – in this day and age, that’s scandalous, too!  May God give you the most blessed Christmas you have ever had!

All God’s love,Jay Therrell

Senior Pastor