Back Then
PLYMOUTH – One-color aluminum Christmas trees were the rage when I grew up in the mid-1900s! After Thanksgiving, smudged boxes filled with stainless steel rods wrapped in aluminum curled and twisted, make-believe pine tree needles were brought from the attic into the living room. Printed directions explained how to insert the tree’s limbs into a single vertical pole with the long limbs at the bottom and the short limbs at the top to copy a typical pine tree in the forest. Looking back, I remember my cousins and I inserting the limbs randomly, trying to create a monster of a tree with no symmetry. Our parents would allow the Frankenstein creation for a few minutes before forcing us to follow the recommended pattern written on the box. Only after the limbs were correct were we allowed to hang ornaments.
Glass Balls
My mother and my aunts circulated among themselves single-color collections of glass ornaments. The exchange added an annual pinch of variety to each home. One year, my mother would have us suspend clear balls; the second would be red, and the third would be blue until the rotation started again. Back then, uniformity was a shared and relentless obligation when it came to trimming the tree!
Color Wheel
The most exciting moment would arrive after the one-color tree and one-color ornaments were displayed. Our parents would pull out the famously loved, motorized, spinning color wheel of red, green, gold, and blue from another grungy box. They would carefully place the color wheel far enough from the tree and paper-covered gifts not to melt the aluminum tinsel or scorch the gift wrapping. The 150-watt bulb provided enough heat that I think I can recall one of my sisters and me laying near the radiating heat, oohing over the four-color changes until we felt ourselves falling into a tired trance, after which we would stagger to bed to fall asleep with dreams of Christmas Day.
Now
Today, decorating for Christmas is much different in most homes than in the 1960s. The season is filled with endless color, texture, and self-expression! For example, one of the annual traditions we started after our marriage, and especially when each of our children was born, was for each family member to buy a unique ornament representing a milestone, an interest, or a moment of personal history in that person’s life. Our tree was filled with the stories of five individuals from one family. The number of new ornaments grew by five each year until our three children reached adulthood. Upon leaving our home for careers, university, or marriage, our children would take their boxes of ornaments into their new adventure. Strikingly, our Christmas tree would be 18-20 ornaments emptier because a new tree elsewhere told the history of someone we loved, which brought us joy.
Current Trends
Good news worth mentioning at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s is that church planting now resembles the diversity of today’s Christmas trees more than ever. As the language/ethnic church planting catalyst for the Send Network assigned to Michigan, I want to share three exciting trends we can share with one another over the holidays.
Increasing diversity
Cross-cultural opportunities
Next generation progress
Increasing Diversity
This year, the Send Network announced that in 2023, Southern Baptist churches planted 652 new churches across Canada, the United States, and its territories. Of the church plants, 61% identified as non-Anglo, meaning their language or ethnic expression is something other than American or English.
In 2023, Send Network also reported that 122 existing churches opted to affiliate with Southern Baptists, and 66 new church campuses were started for a grand total of 840 new congregations in the SBC in 2023, some of which were also non-Anglo. A new trend!
We are experiencing the fulfillment of what the Lord promised thousands of years ago to a ninety-nine-year-old Abraham in Genesis 17:4-5. “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.”
As people from other nations continue to move to the United States for security, education, and advancement, we can expect an increasing diversity in our neighborhoods and churches.
A Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s Prayer: Let’s celebrate the Lord’s promises and his passion for the nations because it includes us, those we love, and those we don’t yet know.
Cross-cultural Opportunities
Church members in North America no longer need passports to share in cross-cultural experiences. Occasional one-day road trips or regular incursions into ministries of another language or ethnic group are just around the corner from our homes. Passports and airline tickets are not required; however, behaving like Jesus, Peter, or Paul is needed.
John 4:4 describes Jesus Christ before he meets with the Samaritan woman at the well: “And he had to pass through Samaria.” Christ’s obligation was not a logistical arrangement but a divine compulsion. We must let that divine compulsion take hold of us, moving us as the Lord desires.
Acts 10:34-35 reveals how the Lord radically rearranged Peter’s convictions when he looked upon a gathering of strangers with backgrounds different from his own as they took their next step toward the Lord. In the unfamiliar situation, Peter said, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
Acts 17 contrasts two ways Paul shared one Gospel among two groups: the Bereans researched and reflected on Scripture after hearing Paul, whereas the Athenians reclined in the shadows of idols that cluttered the city while having never-ending conversations after listening to Paul’s message.
School classrooms, friendly connections, sporting contests, and workplace conversations are daily occasions to exchange ideas and deepen relationships.
A Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s Prayer: Let’s rejoice because the Lord inserts divine appointments to express his love to others who we think stumbled into our lives.
Next Generation Progress
As the youngest adults explore careers, universities, and marriage, they are often interested in mingling with others from different backgrounds. The distinctions between language and ethnicity appear to be minor or even irrelevant considerations to newcomers into adulthood. What were once considered barriers to relationships have become bridges for exploration.
Diversity has become the new norm. Adults work online with corporate teammates on the other side of the world through one shared language. University students can research materials from other countries because translation apps on devices instantly unlock documents, websites, videos, and audio recordings. Sources of knowledge and opinion have exponentially grown!
We are living in the greatest revolution of change that has ever existed. Previous generations must support the new adults who are spiritually stretching and leaning into their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nostalgia over the past must not keep God-driven endeavors out of reach from this new revival generation.
The closing words in the unexpected prayer found in Ephesians 3:20-21 describe the holy anticipation I feel each morning when I rise to pray for myself, my family, my friends, my ministry, and those I do not know throughout the world who need Jesus. That expectation grows with each word like a crescendo saying,
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Do you see and hear the phrase “all generations?”
We have a lot for which we can give thanks.
A Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year’s Prayer: Let’s praise the Lord because he uses each new generation to do far more than we could ask or think.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Tony L. Lynn is the Send Network Director for Michigan and the Language/Ethnic Church Planting Catalyst. Before coming on staff at the BSCM, Tony served as a lead pastor in Michigan churches and as an international missionary, along with his wife Jamie, in the Niger Republic, France, and Canada.
Comments