Time to play...

OK, the holidays are here. Time for a little playful competition.
Click on the link below to go to the Desktop Defense Game.
http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp

Click the "Medium" option when you get to skill level.

At the end of the game (assuming you make it through), you'll see your final score.
First, enter your name in the box as prompted. Then press send.
Next, type "scottblog" into the group name box.
Then it will post your score on our own personal high score board.
We'll see who's the best at this totally pointless game!

Good luck and happy holidays.

Latest Advent Conspiracy sermon is up

It's on the right side of this page, scroll down to the sermon mp3 links.
Sorry about the delay.
We had a technical issue on the the 14th so we lost that one.

Good googalie moogalie, that's cold

If you look close, just below the needle, you can see the temperature.

It says: "1F"

As in ONE degree. This pic was taken AFTER the church set-up crew finished unloading the trailer. The wind chill at 7:30am when we started unloading the trailer was -24. As in 24 degrees BELOW zero (according to weather.com).

Mucho thanks to Tim Born, Drew MacGregor, and Bruce Holloway who bore the brunt of the the wind and the cold to get the cafeteria all set up for worship this morning. It was actually kind of fun. A bonding experience of sorts. That was quite literally the coldest I've ever been in my life, but I couldn't pick a better group of guys to be that cold with.

Let Tim know if you'd like to get a taste of how awesome Set-Up crew can be!!! I'm sure he can get you on the schedule.

The Advent Conspiracy Offering

Just a reminder that this Sunday at both campuses of FirstChurch, we'll be taking up a special offering for the Advent Conspiracy Fund.

100% of the funds collected will go to support 2 causes. We will be providing support to some of the local agencies that feed the hungry right here in Champaign and we will be digging wells to provide clean drinking water in the village of Lisinjala in Malawi. You may designate your giving if you wish it to go specifically to either hunger or thirst. Otherwise we will split that offering in half in support of those 2 causes.

Thanks to everyone who has taken simple steps this Christmas to Worship Fully by rethinking the way we use our resources this Christmas so that we can make a life changing impact on the world.

Another Advent Conspiracy Hero

Today's hero: Nate and Kendall Biehl.
I'm gonna let them tell it in their own words:

Hi Scott,Nate and Kendall here...The video of the dirty water in Malawi made us want to help. We don't want people to get sick and die because that is sad. We have a bank that we get coins for from our dad and from our grandpa and stuff and then we put it in our savings accounts. But this time we took a little out for Malawi and for people that might die. We took out $25 and mom and dad added 25 more. So that equals $50 so far. Our grandpa gave us $30 and our grandma gave us $20. We told them we needed the money for kids in Malawi to have clean water. They said that was a great idea. We collected $100 all together. Woo hoo!

And from their mom, Kim:

"Nathan wanted to make sure you knew that the "I" in the message you sent should be capitalized. Also the "S" in your name and the first letter of the 4th sentence. He says you would get that wrong if you were at school. I assured him you knew."

Thanks Nate and Kendall. You guys are awesome. I'm really proud of the way you are thinking about others over yourselves. That's the spirit of Christmas in full bloom! I am quite sure that Jesus LOVES the way you are celebrating his birthday.

My Advent Conspiracy Hero of the day

I want to give some serious advent conspiracy props to Evan Scott.

Evan's class was having a party and was making plans for everyone to buy a gift for one other person in his class. Evan thought it would be a better idea for them to all buy one present and give it, not to each other, but to someone who was really in need. Evan stood up in front of his entire class and made a speech asking them to not think about themselves but to think about others. The class voted and they didn't vote in favor of Evan's idea.

But what a wonderful act of selflessness and humility on Evan's part! What a great act of spiritual leadership!

I'm awfully proud of Evan. Way to go buddy!

How are you doing the Advent Conspiracy?

We've heard lots of great stories about how some of our church families are rethinking the way they celebrate Christmas.

We'd love to start sharing those ideas with one another. Let's encourage one another by sharing the ways God is moving us to deeper worship and a more Christ-centered expression of Christmas.

If you want to leave a comment or an idea, just click on the word "Comments" just below this post. If you don't have a google account, just choose the anonymous option.

I look forward to hearing your stories...

Alternative Christmas Listening

We're spending alot of time rethinking the way we celebrate Christmas. I stumbled across this quote from a musician, Sufjan Stephens, who is rethinking the way we sing at Christmas. You can hear some samples of his music below. Here's what he has to say about it:

"It's a sacred form and yet it's also incredibly annoying and profane because it's the soundtrack in shopping malls across the country. I'm interested in reconciling this phenomenal event -- the incarnation of God -- with Santa Claus and blue-light specials at Kmart and the weird preoccupation we have with buying a lot of junk and giving it to each other."

-- Recording Artist Sufjan Stevens in the magazine, Rolling Stone, on his new album, "Hark! Songs for Christmas"

The blog got a face lift...

The Advent Conspiracy sermons are now posted here. Scroll down to the bottom of the right column on this page. Click on the date / title you want to listen to. It takes a little while to load.

Remember to check out our Advent Conspiracy Champaign blog. Lots of resources, articles, and also the daily Advent Devotion gets posted there! There is a link on the top right of this page or you can click here: clicky clicky

Lastly, hope you enjoy the modifications to the blog. Especially the music. Just some tunes to groove to.

One mom's blog on Christmas giving - AWESOME

Click on Calling for Justice to read about one mom's journey to faithfully follow Jesus in caring for the world at Christmas.

Scroll down her blog for some great gift ideas.

Not kidding: this is really inspiring stuff.

What are you doing?

Its Not Easy Being Santa

An article by Rick Reilly, from Sports Illustrated; December 27, 2004
(Props to Drew M for the find)

It's that time of year again, when our thoughts turn to that lovable plus-sized elf with the ruddy red cheeks, the white hair and the belly of jelly, the one who never needs an airplane.

John Madden.

No, actually, Santa Claus.

This holiday season the morals of a lot of athletes are lower than flounder droppings. The other day I heard a worried announcer say, "What must kids think of the way we adults are behaving?" But you really can't ask kids because when a kid is asked a question by an adult, the only thing the kid thinks is, How huge are this man's nostrils?

Kids trust Santa, though. They'll tell Santa anything. So I set out to conduct the Santa Sports Survey. Disguised as Saint Nick, I would spend 90 minutes at each of three Boys & Girls Clubs in metro Denver. I loaded the trunk with toys and trinkets, borrowed a Santa suit from the Cherry Creek Mall and called Susen Mesco of Amerevents.com, which runs one of the best Santa Schools in the country.

"Don't play Santa," she advised. "Be Santa."

She also said something odd. "Never ask what the children want for Christmas." Huh? "Ask, What would you like to tell Santa? Because a lot of times, what they want has nothing to do with toys. For instance, what will you do if a child says, 'Santa, I want you to bring my mommy back to life'?"

(Silence)

"You say, 'Sorry, Santa can't do that. But you know what? Sometimes our sleigh flies so high, we pass right by heaven. What do you want to tell your mom, and I'll give her a message.'"

I wasn't sure I was ready for this.

The clubs were all in poor sections of the city. At each club I was given a room and about 70 squirmy kids, ages six to 10. And right away I learned something -- I make a lousy Santa.

"Who are you?" one girl asked.

"Since when does Santa drive a sedan?" a boy said, suspiciously.

"Uh, that hurts," another girl said as I tried to tickle her.

One kid wanted to know how old I was. "Just turned 1,310," I said. He went Frisbee-eyed. I said, "I know, I don't look that old."

"No, you do," he said.

One little girl wanted to know where Rudolph was. "Rudolph pulled a hammy,"
I said. "This year the sleigh is going to be guided by Sylvester, from the temp agency."

(Blank stare)

I kept trying to ask my state-of-sports questions, but I might as well have been asking about pork-belly futures. Not one of them knew about Barry Bonds's BALCO connection. In fact, if I were running baseball, I'd be worried. Not one kid had a favorite ballplayer. Not one of them wanted a bat or glove. Few of them even had favorite pros in any sport: Local hero Carmelo Anthony of the Nuggets was mentioned the most, followed by two Philadelphia stars, Terrell Owens of the Eagles and Allen Iverson of the Sixers. The athletes the kids most wanted to spend time with were their dads.

"Could you bring me a fishing pole so my daddy will take me fishing with him?" one little girl asked. Another wanted a soccer ball, "'cause I think my dad would play soccer with me then."
I kept trying to hit them with survey questions like, "Do you view athletes as role models in this age of ...," and they kept hitting me with real life.

"Santa, for Christmas could you make the bill collectors stop coming?" one boy said. "It makes my mom cry."

A little girl said, "Santa, could you bring us a new house? The one we have now leaks all the time."

Lots of kids wanted hats and shoes and coats. "I want clothes," said one boy. What kind? "The warm kind," he said.

Another kid wanted to be an NBA star and make "a million dollars."
"What would you spend it on?" I asked.
"Doctors," she said, "for my cousin. She's four. She has cancer."

I told one seven-year-old boy, "Last year I came by and you were still awake, so I had to go do Dallas first until you fell asleep. So this year I want you to go right to sleep."
And he said, "That's not true, Santa. Last year you forgot my house."

I learned nothing new about sports, but plenty about how spoiled my life was, how Scroogish my spirit, how narrow my vision.

One somber eight-year-old girl was making her first visit to the club.
She'd been sent from another state to live with her uncles because there were "issues" at home. She looked as if somebody had just sat on her birthday cake.
"What can Santa make you this Christmas?" I asked her.
She turned and looked at me with huge, hopeful eyes.
"Happy?" she asked.

Be Santa.

Daily Advent Devotions

If you aren't getting them via email, the daily devotions are also accessible on the FirstChurch Advent Conspiracy Blog: Click Here to go there
There is also a link to the blog on the right side of this page.

The Advent Conspiracy blog also has numerous links to resources that will help you and your family re-think Christmas.

We'd love to hear your ideas and experiences for how you are "conspiring" this Christmas.