Are Churches Preaching an Irrelevant Christmas Message?

Now that’s a provocative title! It’s coming up to Christmas, and tonight is the start of the spectacular New Christmas Town live nativity and lights (and incredible food) at the Creation Museum.

But what is the real message of Christmas?

AiG writer and speaker Bodie Hodge has written an article titled “Christmas Sermons—Are Churches Preaching an Irrelevant Message?”

I thought it would be good to publish an excerpt of this on my blog and encourage you all to read it. The article begins as follows:

If you think that the average “Christmas message” doesn’t move non-believers, you’re not alone. The goal of this article is to help pastors and churches reach more.

It’s that time of year! During this season over the years, I have heard several Christmas sermons on the birth of Jesus. Now, in our Western culture that is rapidly losing its once-Christian worldview, Christians and Christian leaders need to use this time, more than ever, to challenge non-Christians. But will they give the vital message people need to hear at this time of history?

I was thrilled to be able to bring a friend who has struggled with the Christian faith for his entire life to church this Christmas season. Just before we arrived, he asked me a question that has been troubling him. I was fascinated to note that he didn’t ask about Jesus and the manger, or about the shepherds or the angels who proclaimed the birth of Jesus on earth—instead, he asked, “Why do many Christians use organ transplants to prolong their life or try to prolong the lives of their children when they’re born with problems when God has deemed it was their time to die?” He continued, “Why wouldn’t a Christian accept their death that comes from God? Shouldn’t they just accept it if they are true Christians and want to go to heaven instead of trying to survive on this earth?”

Now, why would he ask questions like that? The answer is that the culture is increasingly losing the true meaning of Christmas because the education system and the media continue to indoctrinate people to reject the Bible as absolute truth. Instead, the Christian faith and the Bible is attacked and ridiculed and condemned as a “book of stories” because so-called science has supposedly proved it cannot be true—particularly in its history in Genesis.

Also, we continue to proclaim the true meaning of Christmas with a large video board in Times Square in downtown New York City, where millions of people will see it through Christmas Day. Here is a video that an AiG supporter, Joy, shot of our 30-second board while she was in Times Square last week:

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken