Mike Edmisten Follower of Jesus. Husband of Nicki. Father of Ryan & Brock. Communicator of the Word.

Christmas Gems

Ok, I admit it. So far, my Christmas posts have been pretty negative. I've complained about bad Christmas music here and here.

This morning I'm thinking that I need to stop the negativity and keep it positive. So here are a few Christmas tunes that make my holiday holly and jolly.

-Let It Be Christmas by Alan Jackson (He is the true country poet. I love his songwriting ability.)

-Christmas to Remember by Amy Grant (I wonder if someone is going to want to revoke my man card because I admitted that I like an Amy Grant song??? Trust me. This is the only one. Ok, I may have jammed to Baby, Baby once or twice back in the day.)

-The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole (a classic in every way)

-The Little Drummer Boy by Bob Seger

-Anything by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra

-The entire soundtrack from A Charlie Brown Christmas by Vince Guaraldi (not just great Christmas music; possibly the best jazz album ever!)

-And as for the traditional hymns of Christmas…O Come, O Come Emmanuel might just be my fav. I love the lyrics and the haunting melody.

Did I miss any?

Songs Yule Love to Hate

After taking in a steady diet of Christmas music lately, I've got a couple more terrible holiday songs to add to my previous post.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

Let There Be Peace on Earth (and Let It Begin with Me)

I love Christmas, but these songs make me want to punch an elf.

Variety

Read this line in a recent blog post from Craig Groeschel. It's so simple, but it explains so much.

"If you’re going to reach people that others aren’t, you’ll have to do things that others won’t."

If every church is a cookie cutter copy of every other church, there will be a huge number of people who will miss the gospel. Variety is a great thing in the kingdom of God. The more churches vary in styles and approach, the more people will be reached with the message of Jesus.

I'm not suggesting that there should be a variety in the message. There is one message conveyed through many methods. That should go without saying, but I wanted to be sure it's crystal clear. You'd be surprised how things get misconstrued and taken out of context in the blogosphere.

Just like every person is unique, every church is unique as well. Every church has a unique personality. A unique way of doing of things. Or at least that's the way it should be. Learning from other churches is a great idea, but trying to be a carbon copy of another church is not.

One thing I'm noticing more and more at ACC is exactly who we're reaching. We're not just reaching the unchurched. We're also reaching the de-churched. People who were burned by a bad church experience earlier in their lives. I'm convinced that if we tried to conform and operate like other churches, we would not be reaching these people. And that would be an eternal tragedy.

Monday Ramblings

I'm taking the day off today. Our son, Ryan, has been sick and we're giving him one more day at home to heal up. In the meantime, here are a few things rattling around in my mind today.

-I predicted the Steelers would beat the Bengals by 10. I was pretty close. They won by 14.

-The "Brock Clock" is ticking. Our son is due 10 days from today. Ready or not, here he comes.

-Ryan is really into superheroes, so I rented a video for him last night: The Challenge of the Superfriends. It's kind of weird that our three-year-old son loved watching cartoons that were produced the year after I was born. I remember watching them as a kid, but I didn't remember them being so corny.

-I'm digging the new Reds acquisition: reliever Francisco Cordero. Maybe they are going to be serious about winning now instead of five years from now. There are still a few missing pieces from the puzzle. We'll see if anything happens at baseball's winter meetings this week. But however you slice it, the Cordero deal is a huge step forward.

-I had so many people at church offer to help us out if we need it. We've been dealing with a lot of sickness in our family, along with Nicki's very advanced pregnancy. I appreciate the prayers for healing and all the offers to help out. Don't be surprised if we take you up on your offers. One thing I've learned is that pride is stupid. I know my limits and I'm not too proud to ask for help if I need it. There's a lot of freedom in that philosophy. It means that I don't have to know everything and I don't have to be able to do everything. I allow myself to have weaknesses…which is a good thing since I have so many.

That about covers it. Happy Monday.

Great Day

This was a stellar day at ACC! Our Tangled in the Tinsel series got off to a roaring start with a message on gluttony. That's right, I said gluttony.

You'd be hard pressed to find a more ignored biblical teaching in the American church than gluttony. The reason is simple: we live in the most gluttonous, most excessive, most out-of-control culture on the planet. But we're not called to take our cues from our culture. We're called to allow the Scripture to shape our lives. And according to the Bible, gluttony is sinful.

Our Christmas Feast drama was great! Big props to everyone who worked so hard at making it fly. Can't wait to see the rest of the dramas as this series unfolds.

Our annual congregational meeting was also today. So good to celebrate all the victories that we've had in 2007. I was ecstatic to see our church support all the members of the leadership team that were up for re-election. I was also thrilled that the update to our bylaws was approved. That may sound like a small thing, but it's not. It's a big step toward a more biblical model of leadership in our church.

I'm completely worn out. But all in all it was just a great day.

Now I just have a little bit of time to kill until the Bengals/Steelers game tonight.

My fearless prediction…Steelers win by 10. As a Bengals fan, I'd love to be wrong about that!

The Golden Compass

With the movie, The Golden Compass, opening on Friday, lots of people are asking questions about it. Lots of Christians are hearing mixed messages and they're unsure what to make of them. Lots of Christ-following parents will have to make a decision whether or not to let their children see the movie, but they feel too uninformed to make that call.

I found a post written by Matthew Winslow that is pretty reasonable and balanced concerning the film. He doesn't come out and tell you whether or not you should let your kids see the movie. In fact, he admits that he hasn't decided what to do with his own kids. But he does a good job of laying out some of the problems presented in the story. It's worth a read.

Check it out here.