Halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, many people are wondering how they’re going to make it through the holiday season. On one side we have the preparations for our Christmas celebrations-shopping, baking, cleaning, decorating-and on the other we have the pressures of everyday life-work, bills, health, family. We’re overbooked, overworked, and overextended, and we’re wondering where we are going to get the strength to get it all done.
The temptation for many is to cut back at church, and if we’re honest the sheer number of programs and events that we have at the church may be contributing to the stress. However, one of the blessings of being connected within the church is the strength we gain from it.
In Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth, he addressed many issues that we’re causing chaos within the church. Some of the issues were bad doctrine, but others were practical issues of how they were “doing church.” In 1 Corinthians 14:26 Paul wrote: “When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” Regardless of the specific issues that Paul was addressing, he wanted the church to understand that whatever it was they were doing should have been done for the purpose of strengthening the church.
While there are probably too many programs and events for everyone to participate in all the time, we must not lose sight of the fact that we should be doing these things to strengthen each other. Christmas programs, Bible studies, worship services, and other events take up time and resources we’re not sure we have enough to spare, but we should not forget that they are meant to build us up, to give us strength to handle all of the other things life is throwing at us. As Christmas approaches remember Hebrews 10:25: “Let us not give up meeting together… but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”