Page 1820 – Christianity Today (2024)

Christmas Day was marred for Nigerian Christians after a series of church bombings killed at least 35 and wounded dozens more. In a suburb of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, more than 30 worshipers died at St. Theresa Catholic Church as they left Christmas mass.

Analysts largely agree that the bombings were an attempt by Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group in northern Nigeria, to stoke simmering tensions between Muslims and Christians, which evenly divide Africa's most populous nation of 160 million. Last year, dozens died in Christmas Eve bombings around Jos.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) warned that such attacks might provoke a "religious war."

"Enough is enough," said CAN secretary general Saidu Dogo. "We shall henceforth in the midst of these provocations and wanton destruction of innocent lives and property be compelled to make our own efforts and arrangements to protect the lives of innocent Christians and peace-loving citizens of this country."

CT reported on more Nigerian Christians abandoning the practice of "turning the other cheek" earlier this December, and has extensively covered Nigeria's long-standing religious conflict.

Gracie: Standing with HopeGracie Rosenberger, as told to Peter W. Rosenberger (Liberty University Press)

Every day at the office, I receive unsolicited books in the category known as “inspirational.” I glance at them all, but almost invariably they end up in the giveaway bin. No disrespect: we simply can’t cover everything. This book was an exception. A terrible car accident as a freshman in college. Many surgeries. Unrelenting pain. Out of this suffering came a deepened faith—and a desire to help others. Formulaic? Yes and no. (We’re all born, we all die: pretty formulaic, isn’t it?) Read Gracie Rosenberger’s story yourself. And keep some Kleenex handy.

Destiny Of The Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a PresidentCandice Millard (Doubleday)

At the center of this riveting narrative is James Garfield. Inaugurated as President of the United States in March 1881, he was shot by a self-deluded assassin in July and died in September. In addition to restoring to public memory the admirable Garfield (a man of deep faith, an ardent abolitionist, and a natural leader who knew grinding poverty firsthand), Candice Millard deftly handles several story lines connected with Garfield’s fate. The result is one of the year’s best pieces of history writing.

The Best American Poetry 2011 Kevin Young, Guest Editor, David Lehman, Series Editor (Scribner)

As the former editor of a series with “Best” in the title, I’m not inclined to be huffy about this annual gathering. Why quibble? I rejoice at the continuing existence of this series, and I’m particularly happy when—as this year—the guest editor is a poet whose work I enjoy. Not that I like all the poems Kevin Young has picked. Who could expect that? But keep this volume by your bed for a few weeks, and you’ll be amply rewarded.

Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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Gracie, Destiny of the Republic and The Best American Poetry 2011 are available from Barnes and Noble and other retailers.

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture, a Christianity Today sister publication.

Find other “Bookmarks” and reviews in our books section.

A seminarian recently told me about the time he was chatting with a high-achieving classmate after they had both completed a difficult final exam. "You know that question on humility?" his friend asked. "I nailed it!"

The irony got me thinking about my friend Jimmy.

Jimmy is an usher at a church I used to attend; he takes his duties seriously. Every Sunday, Jimmy is a reliably warm, bespectacled, suspendered presence in the church foyer, handing out bulletins, clasping hands, and sneaking candy to the kids. Knowing my interest in music, Jimmy is always keen to report to me (even now, when I come to visit) which gospel quartets he recorded off the radio over the past week. Once, he gave my young son a wristwatch he no longer needed, out of the blue, much to their mutual delight.

There is something unusual about Jimmy. I know nothing of his background—there may have been an accident in the past or simply a genetic quirk. I only know that he is what some people call "a little different."

At a New Year's Eve service several years ago, I discovered that Jimmy is different from most of us in the best possible way. The church congregation traditionally celebrates Communion together just before midnight, and then invites people to share some of the past year's triumphs and trials. That particular year, there was a moving mix of thankfulness and heartache—cancer healed and cancer raging, jobs found and lost, relationships mended and some still up for prayer. Eventually, Jimmy stood up and asked if he could tell us about a praise item.

When growth or change happens, it is only in humility that we can identify God's care and provision for us.

"This year," Jimmy started, with tears in his eyes, "I learned how much I can count on God. See, I promised him I would pray for a list of people every day. But when I started, I couldn't remember who I was supposed to pray for, and I got frustrated. So I asked God to help me remember. After that, all the names came to mind, every time. And I never could have remembered on my own, so I knew it was God!" And then Jimmy sat down.

That night, Jimmy taught me something important about humility. Richard Foster defines humility not as a "less-than" type of self-abasem*nt, but as an ability to "live as close to the truth as possible: the truth about ourselves, the truth about others, the truth about the world in which we live." When we are humble, we are un-fussily realistic about our strengths and weaknesses—about what we are capable of, and what we are not. We are also clear on the fact that we are not God, and that we cannot heal or transform ourselves on our own. Thus, when growth or change happens, it is only in humility that we can identify God's care and provision for us.

When we are proud, we don't have an accurate picture of the way things really are, and we end up believing we are engineering our own progress. And then we wonder why we don't see God moving in our lives. This phenomenon might be another layer of what the apostle Paul meant when he told us we would best know God's strength in our own weakness.

A few weeks after that New Year's Eve, I found myself praying about a financial shortfall my husband and I were facing at the end of the month. Three days later, an unexpected check arrived in the mail, matching almost to the penny the amount we needed. My skeptical mind knew the money could have been purely coincidental, but in that instance I had the unprovable but resolute sense that it was God's answer to my prayer. I was of course flooded with immediate gratitude, but within minutes I was undergoing mental gymnastics. What if I hadn't prayed? I wondered. Would God have provided anyway? Do I really have to ask when he knows our needs before we do?

I don't generally hear the audible voice of God. But that particular afternoon, I could have sworn I heard a chuckle. Of course I would have provided, it seemed God was saying. But you wouldn't have had the joy of knowing it was me.

Jimmy has the kind of humility that allows him to recognize God doing what only God can do in his life. He may never go to seminary, but he has a rather advanced understanding of what James and Peter might have meant when they told us to "humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord." I have known for a long time that humility is required in order to acknowledge God's supremacy. But what Jimmy has taught me is that humility not only helps us in the offering of our prayers. It is also essential to recognizing their answers.

Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous columns by Carolyn Arends include:

Power Washed by God | The blessings—and danger—of divine proximity. (October 17, 2011)

A Both/And Path to Truth| Why the narrow way to faith is also expansive. (August 15, 2011)

Carolyn Arends Contemplates Her Own Death, and Yours| Going down singing: Why we should remember that we will die. (April 18, 2011)

Relationship That Leads to Life | Why God's law is good news. (August 11, 2010)

See Also

JORDAN, MITCHELL Et Al v. CASSIDAY, BRYAN, EXECUTOR OF THE ESTATE OF DORIS G Et Al, FST-CV24-6064412-S, 102.00 (Conn. Super. Ct. Jan. 9, 2024)

To complement our annual list of the year’s best albums in popular music, Christianity Today also offers a selection of notable sacred music recordings, primarily in the choral and classical genres.

We again asked Jane Holstein, an editor with Hope Publishing Company and an arranger, choral clinician, organist, worship planner, and concert artist, to compile this list of fine albums.

Bob Jones University Singers and Orchestra Beyond All Praising [Soundforth]

This easy-listening presentation of 15 choral anthems begins ginning with a festive setting by Richard Nichols based on “All Creatures of Our God and King.” There’s a splendid melody from Gustav Holst’s symphonic work “Jupiter” (from The Planets) that was later adapted into hymn form by Ralph Vaughan Williams [sung in Britain to “I Vow to Thee, My Country”]. Here, the tune is set to a 1982 text by another British writer, Michael Perry, for which the CD is named: “O God beyond all praising, we worship you today.” Dan Forrest shows his adept ability to take this majestic hymn and arrange and orchestrate it with the grandeur due. In contrast, he sets the Isaac Watts text “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” in a compelling Celtic ballad, complete with the sweet, melodious sound of uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes), featuring the traditional English melody, “O Waly Waly.” An original anthem by Molly Ijames, “A Triune Prayer,” provides a meditative reflection based on a poignant intercession to the Trinity with poetic text by Chris Anderson. Mary McDonald sets Samuel Wesley’s words “O for a thousand tongues to sing” in the dynamic, original work, “His Glorious Praise in Song.” Overall, it’s a solid listening experience of church anthems, with each selection tastefully orchestrated and performed with dignity.

Charles Callahan All Glory Be to God on High (Triune Music)

American organist-composer Charles Callahan, who has spent a career in church music with hundreds of compositions in print, recently completed this project featuring the organ at St. Michael Church in Wheaton, Illinois. The album represents literature that uplifts and reminds one that the organ is still a force in church music. The versatile tone pallet takes the listener from dramatic and full sounds to gentle and warm, featuring twenty musical jewels from Handel and Bach through selections from the late 19th and early 20th century. Callahan completes the recording with four of his own hymn reflections including “Jesus Loves Me,” a tender rendition that features rich strings with the melody rising above on a single, pure flute stop. Similarly, “Prelude on Three Hymntunes” conveys Callahan’s ability to write with simple color and clarity, allowing the listener to reflect on the meaningful texts associated with these tunes. Completing the recording, a joyous fanfare based on “Now Thank We All Our God” allows the cathedral to really shine with acoustics that are not often found in American churches.

Canadian Brass Brahms on Brass (Opening Day)

Chances are if you’ve ever heard brass music, you’ve heard the Canadian Brass—five guys acclaimed for their remarkable abilities, who over the last four decades have recorded 90 albums with millions of sales. Brahms on Brass displays a variety of moods and styles in the transcriptions of keyboard music written by Johannes Brahms. Starting with his Sixteen Waltzes, Opus 39, the ensemble gives a spirited performance of these lighter pieces that were originally written for piano duet. Displaying their unquestionable agility and lyricism, you sense the entertaining quality of these little gems with their folk-like melodies. But it’s the second half of the CD that really explores the sacred, with music from near the end of Brahms’ life. His Eleven Chorale Preludes for Organ, Op. 122, are full of depth and reflective spirituality. I’ve performed these works as a church organist, but here heard nuances and expressive melodic lines as if for the first time. The lovely Christmas chorale “Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen” (Lo, how a rose e’er blooming) is a fine example of exemplary tone from these renowned showmen.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass Live in Concert (CSO Resound)

The CSO, home to the world’s most legendary brass section, here showcases six horn players, four trumpeters, three trombonists, and a tuba. The variety, recorded in Chicago’s Symphony Center, opens with the entire ensemble performing a mighty rendition of William Walton’s “Crown Imperial” (heard at the Royal Wedding). Three sacred works follow, showcasing a powerful display of music dating back to Venetian composer Giovanni Gabrieli. Two antiphonal groups, standing stage right and stage left, create an overall dialogue effect that is captured through adept engineering. Especially noteworthy is J. S. Bach’s famous organ work, “Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor,” with its marvelous, contrapuntal lines that create unique demands from every section with an end result of pure lucidity. Drawing from music written for wind ensemble, the charming “Lincolnshire Posy” by Percy Grainger adds lightness. Two extensive symphonic transcriptions scored for brass and percussion round out the concert.

The Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge Beyond All Mortal Dreams (Hyperion)

If you’ve seen the videos of Eric Whitacre’s VirtualChoir, you’ll quickly get a sense for current American choral literature and the impact it’s having around the world. That may explain the release of this project, in which the Choir of Trinity College explores a cappella music written in England, primarily by living composers. This highly regarded choir demonstrates what the human voice can do with masterful poetic texts and easy-to-listen-to tonal and harmonic structure. A text by H. W. Longfellow is the basis for “The Day Is Done” by Stephen Paulus, perhaps the most-recognized composer on the disc. The album’s title comes from Paulus’s spiritual side, with his setting of “Pilgrims’ Hymn”: “Even with darkness sealing us in, we breathe your name / And through all the days that follow so fast, we trust in you / Endless your grace, beyond all mortal dream.” Newer to the scene is Juilliard graduate Ola Gjeilo, who has become extremely popular with American choirs; he demonstrates his fresh style in the closing selection “Phoenix” (written for the Phoenix Chorale), using the “Agnus Dei” from the Latin Mass. If the range of dynamics tells you anything, expect to hear this prayer for peace build to full intensity and conclude in a hush—a broad spectrum of choral sound.

Conspirare Sing Freedom! African-American Spirituals (Harmonia Mundi)

Founded in 1991 by director Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare, a professional choral ensemble from Austin, Texas, derives its name from the Latin “con” and “spirare” meaning “to breathe together.” These 17 diverse titles, totaling 72 minutes, showcase the scope of their capable singing. The songs of the slaves remind us of the past and link us to the present, speaking with a message of immediacy under personal circ*mstance, perhaps explaining their universal appeal. Classic settings include William Dawson’s timeless “Soon Ah Will Be Done” and “Ain’t-a-that Good News,” along with three dynamic Moses Hogan arrangements, “I Got a Home in-a Dat Rock,” “Walk Together, Children,” and his engaging “Hold On!” These uplifting spirituals are especially gratifying to hear alongside newer arrangements. For instance, “Soon Ah Will Be Done” is preceded by a modern day version of the same spiritual as arranged by director, Craig Johnson, which he juxtaposes with “I Wanna Be Done.” Hearing these settings back to back demonstrates the spiritual’s relevancy for today, along with reverence for its earlier predecessor. Johnson also delivers an impressive rendition of the sorrowful “Motherless Child,” with first-rate solo work. If music gives us a glimpse of heaven, then the depth of humanity found within these spirituals offers clearer vision of amazing hope amid our struggles, easing our earthly burdens.

Jackie Evancho Dream with Me (Integrity)

Since wowing viewers on America’s Got Talent as a 10-year-old, Evancho, now 11, has earned merited reputation as a budding soprano prodigy who sings with exquisite pitch and effortless vibrato while taking the stage with the confidence and the ease of someone way beyond in years. Produced and orchestrated by David Foster, Dream with Me showcases real conviction by this young artist, with songs that demonstrate both vocal delicacy and strength, mixing light classical repertoire right alongside popularly-recognized songs like “Somewhere” and “When You Wish upon a Star.” Her rendition of the Sarah McLachlan ballad, “Angel,” demonstrates that she’s knowledgeable about the impact music can evoke, giving a tenderhearted performance. Her sacred side is heard in “The Lord’s Prayer,” soaring on a high A-flat at its pinnacle moment. Two noteworthy collaborations include “A Mother’s Prayer” sung with another contest winner, Susan Boyle, and the phenomenal arrangement of “Somewhere” sung with one of her biggest supporters, Barbra Streisand.

Gloria Dei Cantores Schola The Chants of the Angels (Gloria Dei Cantores)

For those who enjoy exploring the historical roots of sacred music, this compilation of expertly sung Gregorian chant is definitely worth consideration. Even before Christ’s birth, chant was used in sacred worship, and it’s conceivable that the songs that Jesus sang were based on melodies that have survived through the centuries. Through hymns, antiphons, alleluias, and other liturgical responses, here is an opportunity to listen and slow the inner spirit down with purity of unison singing that allows for meditation and peace. Great detail was given to this compilation, all centering on the significance of angels—as messengers, protectors, warriors, guardians. The vocalists, male and female, demonstrate rhythmic integrity and sensitive musical phrasing, and through the singing of chant express the wonder and mystery of the Christian faith with purity of tone. An exquisitely designed CD booklet serves as a guide to learning more about angels; it’s filled with art renderings, Scripture, and translations of each of the Latin texts.

Stanton Lanier A Thousand Years (Music to Light the World)

The Atlanta-based pianist and composer Stanton Lanier learned the power of music after leaving the corporate world to pursue a career in music ministry. His seventh solo recording, A Thousand Years delivers the message of God’s hope and peace with soothing hymn melodies wrapped around familiar classical tunes. Through his innovative Get Music Give Hope initiative, part of Lanier’s Music to Light The World ministry, these CDs will find their way into countless hospitals and cancer centers, offering comfort through mesmerizing, gentle compositions. The title track forms the thematic foundation stemming from the Psalmist’s words, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night,” and here Lanier combines an original melody with “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “It Is Well with My Soul.” Every selection is inspired by Scripture and incorporates something familiar with something new. “For a Lifetime of Blessing” centers on The Doxology, while “Across the Skies” features Pachelbel’s Canon in D. A touch of English horn, guitar and vocals gives the sensation of beauty and inspiration, allowing for meditation, reflection and quiet worship.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir This Is the Christ (MTC)

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra deliver another glorious recording in this compilation focusing on the attributes of Jesus Christ. This inspirational CD is a mix of tastefully arranged, nostalgic hymnody, like the rarely-heard “Sunshine in My Soul” and the uplifting “Softly and Tenderly Jesus Is Calling” featuring the women of the chorus. Mack Wilberg’s setting of the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord My Pasture Will Prepare,” borrows from a Russian Christmas carol creating a quaint, pastoral moment with spirited, lilting rhythms. The unsurpassed orchestral accompaniment perfectly complements the choral richness, as in the title track, a dramatic portrayal centering on the Apostle Peter’s words from the Gospel of Matthew. Classic choral works round out the treasury, giving listeners another great experience from an American mainstay.

The St. Olaf Choir Great Hymns of Faith, Vol. III (St. Olaf Records)

Coming from one of America’s most preeminent choral institutions, the St. Olaf Choir models a superior sound featuring 75 mixed voices under the well-respected leadership of Anton Armstrong. With this third volume of Great Hymns of Faith, listeners are rewarded with something unique in a playlist of hymnody that will stand the test of time. Using a wide selection of hymns both classic and new, the arrangements give expression to the melodies and texts in a fresh, yet straightforward approach, as in “Rock of Ages,” unaccompanied and performed at a tempo and mood that allows for deeper reflection. The festive “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” arranged by St. Olaf’s acclaimed organist, John Ferguson, includes a splendid fanfare for organ and brass which leads into a choral proclamation: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord; come into God’s presence with a song.” The choir showcases its ability to sing with skillful inflections in a handful of global pieces, including a setting of the traditional Cameroon song, “Praise, Praise the Lord!” (known by the tune name (African Processional”).

James Whitbourn Living Voices (Naxos)

Loss and remembrance provide the framework for the newest release from the gifted young British composer, James Whitbourn. The album features his breathtaking “Son of God Mass” scored for choir, organ, and an astonishing display of soprano saxophone. This powerful music calls for an expansive pallet of otherworldly colors and sounds encased within the Latin words of the Mass, and through them a mesmerizing, spiritual journey ensues. With piercing intensity, the emotion-filled saxophone solo moves in and around the score with sweeping melodies—all accompanied by the pipe organ and expansive choral writing. The title track, written in response to 9/11, incorporates spoken word poetry and possesses a mood of reverence, underscored by sustained choral voices and solo saxophone. The performers are the pristine voices of the Westminster Williamson Voices from Westminster Choir College of Princeton, New Jersey, masterfully conducted by James Jordan.

Jane Holstein, an editor with Hope Publishing Company, is an arranger, choral clinician, organist, worship planner, and concert artist, residing in Wheaton, Illinois, with her husband, David L. Weck. She is also Director of Music Ministries at First Presbyterian Church in River Forest, Illinois.

Copyright © 2011 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Good news and bad news from the academy.

Catholics who have pushed back against a White House policy that would require many religious insurers to cover contraception are getting a high-profile assist from dozens of evangelical leaders.

“We write in solidarity, but separately – to stress that religious organizations and leaders of other faiths are also deeply troubled by and opposed to the mandate and the narrow exemption,” the leaders wrote Wednesday (Dec. 21) in a letter to President Obama.

Like Catholic officials, the evangelicals object to a mandate under the health care reform law that would require employers to offer insurance coverage for contraception to employees, including treatments that some equate with abortions.

“It is not only Catholics who object to the narrow exemption that protects only seminaries and a few churches, but not churches with a social outreach and other faith-based organizations that serve the poor and needy,” they wrote.

Signatories include National Association of Evangelicals President Leith Anderson; Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land; Focus on the Family Senior Vice President Tom Minnery; and Stanley Carlson-Thies, president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance.

The letter to Obama was sent the same day that evangelical Colorado Christian University joined Belmont Abbey College, a Catholic school, in suing the Department of Health and Human Services over the rule, which is scheduled to take effect in August.

An HHS official said the department is reviewing public comments on the proposed religious exemption on contraceptives.

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, voiced his concerns to Obama in a meeting, and said the president promised to “look long and hard” at the issue.

After the economic collapse and street-fighting of the early 1930s, the Nazis made it a big point to restore family values to a holiday they perceived as over-commercialized and wanting in community spirit. And yet, as Joe Perry carefully shows in his Christmas in Germany, complaints about the shallow materialism of Christmas predated Hitler’s Christmas by a good century. This is not the story of how the Nazis stole Christmas. Perry manages to resist such low-hanging fruit, even as he documents patriotic and jingoistic holiday celebrations. He has a bigger story to tell: of the very creation of a modern space.

Christmas, as a middle-class holiday, has been hotly contested for generations. Over the course of the 19th century, national unification, secularism, urbanization, poverty, and the industrial revolution’s transformation of daily life combined to break many Germans’ connections with the past. For a variety of reasons, including wartime outbursts of patriotic fever, Christmas became Germans’ favorite holiday. The Christmas tree was thus present at the birth of a modern nation, and was accordingly a space of contestation over the limits and character of that nation. Consumer domesticity and bourgeois tastes were to be fostered, complete with frilly dresses, cozy sing-alongs, baked goods, and gift-packages sent to the troops. These were appropriate Christmas practices, and were from the beginning pitched as deeply “traditional.”

Equally traditional drunken carousing, however, needed to be quashed. Christmas in Germany is set against the background of a society experiencing breakneck industrialization and social convulsions. An entire old order was passing away. The new country was understood as Protestant, bourgeois, and somewhat Prussian, and Christmas was an opportunity to imagine Catholics and stubbornly particular regions into the national fabric.

A new cultural space had been created, one which built upon a past that had never really existed (“Germanness”) while simultaneously banishing that past in the name of community-building. Christmas was the collision of these antagonistic and emotionally fraught aspirations. Christmas could, accordingly, never satisfy. It could only leave celebrants wishing for something more.

In his novel Descent into Hell, Charles Williams tells of a jealous English academic reading about a knighthood awarded to his bitter rival. A knighthood for a historian? “Till that moment he had never thought of such a thing. The possibility had been created and withdrawn simultaneously, leaving the present fact to mock him.”

This tension characterized the German churches’ response to the emergence of Christmas as a national holiday. There had never before existed a national space in Germany. It took form during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and matured matured during World War I, when German regional and confessional diversities were seen as dangerous and un-patriotic. German churches found themselves defending cultural space simultaneous to its creation. It could never have been a fair fight, because it was conducted on grounds contradictory to the message of the manger.

Instead, Christmas became a knot of contradictions: a celebration of muscular militarism and feminine domesticity; coarse commercialism alongside mythologies of bygone days; the birth of Christ and anti-Semitism and xenophobia in general. These tensions, Perry argues, are the single-most enduring German Christmas tradition, having outlasted Bismarck, Hitler, and Communism. The postwar recovery years; the youth rebellions of the Sixties; the collapse of the GDR—all were accompanied by Christmas battles over the place of religion, the place of consumerism, and the place of women.

The Nazi Christmas is particularly galling, yet Perry manages to understate for great effect. 1934’s Christmas market, celebrated outside the Berlin Cathedral, combined speeches by Goebbels and others; “the crowd joined in with collective renditions of ‘Silent Night,’ … the German national anthem, and countless ‘Sieg Heils.’ ” It made perfect sense at the time.

As Perry subtly points out, the Nazi Christmas “complicates assumptions that all National Socialists were avowed anti-Christians.” In fact, even Nazi attempts at resurrecting ancient German paganism made room for the (blond) Christ-child. This was a careful exercise in grafting invented racist traditions into consumerist traditions of recent provenance.

To this day, Perry concludes, German pollsters “continue to express surprise at the secularization of the holiday.” An ever-shrinking fraction of Germans think of Christmas primarily in religious terms; more than anything else, Christmas for 21st-century Germans is “a celebration of family.” Roughly half of the German population attended church on a recent Christmas day—more than the proportion believing in God. Non-believers celebrating the birth of Christ? It is hardly as strange as it sounds: “Germans may no longer believe,” Perry says, “but Christmas is the time when they act as if they do by demonstrating an enduring attachment to religious tradition.”

Paul Grant is pursuing a PhD in history at the University of Wisconsin.

Copyright © 2011 Books & Culture. Click for reprint information.

A Letter from Nazareth

Arab Christians approach Christmas this year with feelings of intense fear just like the shepherds were as the angel appeared to them 2000 years ago.

Christmas intersects this year with the first anniversary of the Arab spring that swept the Arab world, bringing enormous change across North Africa and the Middle East.

Only one of the Arab countries, where regime changed occurred, has regained substantial stability and some measure of freedom after elections (Tunisia). Others are in the labor of the change (Egypt, Libya, and Yemen) and another is struggling with a bloody conflict with daily killings (Syria).

Are there any signs of joy that will cast out fear for Arab Christians living in the Middle East?

In the short term, fear has the upper hand.

The term “Arab Christian” is viewed by some as an enigma. However, Arabs were represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11). Arabs accepted the new faith from the beginning and Arab Christian tribes thrived in the Middle East from the earliest days of Christianity.

What about Christians today in the city of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Jerusalem), the land of his refuge as a baby (Egypt), the place of Paul’s conversion (Damascus), or the land from where the Israelites’ passed to the promised land (Jordan)?

Arab Christians have been living in the Middle East among Muslims and Jews as a struggling minority of second class citizens for generations.

The new Pew survey of global Christianity reveals what Arab Christians experience every day. North Africa and the Middle East, a region that was once majority Christian, now has 1 percent of the world’s 2.18 billion Christians. The survey counts 12.8 million Christians in total, 4 percent of the overall regional population.

The Arab Spring has not changed this basic fact of life for Christians here.

The struggle has led multitudes of Arab Christians to migrate from the troubled region to the four corners of the earth, bringing the cradle of Christianity to the brink of being emptied of Christians.

Initially, the Arab spring promised positive change for all. Arab Christians cautiously supported the upheavals hoping for genuine democracy to establish justice, equality, and bring an end to persecution and oppression.

What Christian would not support freedom for deprived human beings since the desire for freedom is biblical and divinely given?

The problem was a perception that democracy is merely free elections. But important elements of democracy, such as the rule of law and basic human rights, including religious freedom, are essential.

Unfortunately, one election cannot fully institute democracy in these Arab countries, or any country, overnight.

In light of this political reality, Arab Christians have become even more vulnerable to attacks or caught in the crossfire.

Under the old regimes, stability brought status quo and a certain degree of freedom. The transition period brought uncertainty. Minorities were exposed to becoming targets of violent mobs, frustrated army forces, or fanatic Islamic groups.

The power vacuum that emerged as a result of the fall of dictators had to be filled. The only political parties that could get organized in the transition were Islamic groups (Muslim Brotherhood, for example).

They had the infrastructure of the Muslim community life surrounding the mosques. They had their dream of retrieval of the great Islamic empire. They also had the inspiration of Muslim fundamental parties in other countries.

As a result, we have seen success for the Islamist movements in the Arab countries, first in Tunisia and recently in Egypt. This development overshadows any evaluation of the Arab spring.

But the good news is that the democratic process is still gathering momentum in the Arab world. This will in time lead to reform across the board. It will also lead to evolving secular parties that will call for freedom of religion.

I believe a new culture of democracy and freedom will eventually arrive. But the questions remain: What will the cost to Arab Christians be? Will they have the strength to stand steadfast as living witnesses until the Arab countries exercise true democracy?

In the midst of the darkness, the angel asked the shepherds not to fear. After meeting the baby Jesus in the manger, the shepherds who had feared earlier rejoiced and glorified God.

Will Arab Christians do the same and by focusing on Jesus so their fear be transformed to joy?

They will, but hopefully not alone. At Christmas, the whole earth rejoices.

Botrus Mansour, author of “When Your Neighbor is The Savior,” is general director of the Nazareth Baptist School.

A few days ago, I attended a Christmas pageant at the Saint Paul’s School here in Concord, New Hampshire. The evening was replete with nativity scenes, exceptional choral music, and the sounds of a magnificent pipe organ. Mixed in were gospel readings that offered a full account of the birth of Jesus, each selection presented with great care and clarity. It was obvious that the readers had rehearsed their parts as much as the musicians and vocalists had prepared theirs.

The architecture (English Gothic) and the acoustics of the St. Paul’s chapel are breath-taking, and, as the pageant progressed, I reflected on how much the beauty of it all added to my ability to appreciate the grandeur of the Christmas story. Everything that evening—the music, the readings, the physical splendor—drew me to a powerful sense of worship: that occasion when people and God enter into a closer proximity with one another … and something within changes.

I’d like to add that in the chapel we sat, stiff-backed, in ornately hand-carved pews that were more than a hundred years old. But who noticed?

I have visited other places where worship was equally as moving.

I recall the large University of Illinois basketball arena when, years ago, I was privileged to join 18,000 students at the Urbana Missionary Convention. There was the unforgettable New Year’s Eve communion service, the robust singing of great hymns such as Wesley’s “And Can It Be,” and the daily Bible expositions of John Stott. These were amazing, awe-arousing experiences that, even now, years later, powerfully move me. Something within me changes each time I remember those moments.

I’m also reminded that, in the U of I arena, we sat uncomfortably scrunched in bleacher seats that are typical for athletic events. But no one minded.

Then there was once a time in Ecuador when I climbed a steep and dangerous trail up an Andean mountain for two (plus) hours in order to worship with about 30 Quechua Indians in a windowless, lantern-illuminated hut. After the singing and the praying, I was invited to offer a brief Bible talk that was crudely translated from English to Spanish and into the Quechua tongue. Then there followed the Lord’s Supper served from a battered tin tray. When we were finished, no one wished to leave. Everyone, including me, simply wanted to remain in the afterglow of our experience.

In that hut we sat cross legged on a dirt floor, which for me was almost physical torture. But who cared?

So a magnificent chapel, a sports arena, and a damp stone hut all offered places for a transcendent moment when one discovers “again for the first time” grace, hope, spiritual sturdiness, community, and a freshened sense of direction. These: some of the gifts of Jesus to his people.

The operational word for places where God and his people meet for a connective moment is sanctuary. Sanctuary usually means safe place, holy place, beautiful place. Some think that such a place has to be uniquely designed with religious forms and ornamentation. Like St. Paul’s, for example. I understand this. Thus my appreciation for cathedrals. But other places can also serve as a sanctuary when the space is purposely consecrated and declared to be set apart for meeting and exalting God. Abraham did this with his altars as did Solomon with his temple.

When I was a pastor in New York City, I once pushed this idea of holy space to its limit. On an early morning, my wife, Gail, and I hosted four city bus drivers for breakfast in our apartment. We’d met each of them in the course of using public transportation each day and became aware that they were Christ-followers. As we ate, one of our guests commented on my work as a pastor and how much more exciting that must be in contrast to his perception of his (“boring, stressful, and occasionally dangerous”) bus-driving work.

His observation could not go unchallenged.

“I have a thought for you that might spiff up your view of your jobs,” I said to the four. “Why don’t you start up your buses each morning and, while the engine is warming, walk down the aisle of the bus and shout, ‘In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, I declare this bus to be a sanctuary where passengers will experience something of the love of Christ through me.’ You can be a pastor in your own sanctuary.”

I suggested that a bus (like a chapel, an arena, and a mountain hut) could be consecrated, “made holy,” for higher purposes than just public transport. And I added that any job can be elevated into a form of pastoral Christ-serving if we start the day in such a way. I concluded, “See if Jesus honors your daily effort.”

One of the drivers muttered, “I supposed we could try that.”

In the weeks that followed, Gail and I would occasionally get on a bus operated by one of the four drivers. We’d quietly say—hoping that no one else would hear—”are you driving a bus or a sanctuary today?” Always, they’d answer, “It’s a sanctuary, man, a sanctuary.” Sometimes one of them would say when they saw either of us stepping on the bus, “Welcome to my sanctuary.”

A few months later, one of the four drivers said he wanted a word with me.

“This sanctuary thing,” he told me, “has changed my day. Yesterday, a guy got on the bus, and he began to curse at me when I wouldn’t let him off at a corner where it’s not legal to stop. Know something? There was a day when I would have invited someone like him to step off the bus and discuss things with our fists. But I stayed quiet, and when I finally let him off at the right place, I said, “Have a nice day, sir; glad you were aboard.”

When I affirmed the driver for his patience, he said, “Oh, it’s not really that difficult when you’re driving a sanctuary instead of a bus.”

Having told this story about our bus driver friends many times, I now have people who tell me that they’ve learned to declare their offices, their classrooms, their operating rooms into sanctuaries.

This morning I read once again (Mark 1) where Jesus, after a busy day, got up early the next morning and went off to “a solitary place where he prayed.” I think Jesus would have thought of that place—quiet, beautiful, bereft of crowds—as a sanctuary.

We’re not told what Jesus did in that outdoor sanctuary, but it’s clear that when the time ended, he was committed to his mission of proclaiming his gospel more than ever.

A sanctuary, no matter what form it takes, is a place where one should experience interior change. Among the changes? A reminder of the beauty and love of God, a fresh realization of one’s brokenness, a host of things to be thankful for, a chance to give from the fruits of one’s labor, an experience of deep prayer and the sense that God has heard, and a time to hear the reading of Holy Scripture and feel it planting its powerful content in one’s soul.

Many of us enter sanctuaries tired or disappointed or angry or fearful or lonely. Others enter with appreciations for loving relationships, life-blessings, and a desire to deepen or grow. But the thing of greatest importance is how do we leave? Redirected, newly focused? Having experienced grace and forgiveness? Appreciative of the people we’ve been with? Freshly committed to Jesus?

Then, whether we sat on pews, arena seats, a dirt floor, or a crowded bus, makes little difference. We have worshiped and God himself has been with us.

Gordon MacDonald is editor at large of Leadership Journal and chancellor of Denver Seminary.

Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Does your church have cribs in the nursery? Do you operate a childcare center that has cribs? If you answered “yes” to either question, there are new federal regulations that apply to you—and unfamiliarity with them could lead to substantial penalties and civil lawsuits for your church.

Beginning June 28, 2011, traditional drop-side cribs may not be sold in the United States, nor can repair kits or other remedies be used in an attempt to make them safer. Under new guidelines, cribs with wood slats must be made of stronger wood, crib hardware must have anti-loosening devices, crib mattress supports must be more durable, and safety testing must be more rigorous. These regulations apply to churches if they sell or otherwise dispose of noncompliant cribs on or after June 28, 2011.

Another key requirement of the new regulations takes effect on December 28, 2012. On and after that date, any crib that is used by a childcare facility must meet the new safety standards. The law does not define “childcare facility,” but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has clarified that “we consider a childcare facility to mean a nonresidential setting that provides childcare services … for a fee.” This means any church operating a childcare facility for a fee must comply with the new standards.

The CPSC says a church nursery that operates during worship services, that does not charge a fee for its services, and that does not compensate workers, is not a childcare facility subject to the new regulations. It is not clear whether a church that decides to compensate its nursery workers would be considered a childcare facility. Church leaders should play it safe and regard such a nursery as a covered childcare facility given the many consequences that may result from assuming the church is exempt.

Also, the continued use of noncompliant cribs still may expose a church and members of the church board to a civil lawsuit—even if the church does not meet the definition of a “childcare facility.”

—Excerpted from “Securing Cribs in Your Church’s Nursery,” by Richard R. Hammar (Church Law & Tax Report, September/October 2011).

Casting out Cyber Crime

Computer hackers stole $680,000 this summer from a church in Iowa. During the National Association of Church Business Administration’s annual conference, author and CPA Verne Hargrave offered these six tips to help churches ward off cyber criminals:

Establish dual controls. Have at least two people involved in every account, every cash collection, and every cash payment system. With electronic funds transfers, separate the three processes (bill approval, bill preparation, and bill transfer).

Dedicate a stand-alone computer. Use it only for electronic funds activity. It shouldn’t be tied to an individual and it shouldn’t have access to other financial databases. Limit its online activity. Keep its antivirus and firewall protection updated.

Limit administrative rights. Only those with specific needs for accessing electronic financial activity should have access to the computer used to do it.

Reconcile your church’s bank accounts daily.

Change passwords. Regularly change them, preferably with a new password that combines upper- and lower-case letters, one numeral, and one symbol.

Don’t e-mail files. Use secure connections for any electronic file transfers.

Fees-Fi-Fo-Fum

Q: The electronic giving services we looked into for our church charge a fee plus a percentage of the gift. How does that work for accounting purposes?

A: “The administrative fees are an expense to the organization,” says Michael Batts, an editorial advisor for Church Law & Tax Report and a nonprofit CPA based in Florida. “The gross contribution amount is revenue to the organization and is also the amount deductible by the donor. The contribution acknowledgment should reflect the gross amount of the gift.”

Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.