Reinterpreted Christianity may appeal to the deconstructing, but it does not win the hearts and minds of the lost. We have no guarantee that faithful churches will thrive. But after almost 60 years of constant mainline decline, we have a pretty good idea of how churches die.

I grew up in the mainline church, and it won’t be until I’m nearly 80 years old that I will have spent more of my life outside the mainline church than inside it. I was born, baptized, confirmed, and ordained in the Reformed Church in America, a smallish (originally) Dutch denomination that, with its roots dating back to 1628 in New Amsterdam, boasts of being the oldest Protestant denomination with a continuing ministry in the United States. I am thankful for the many good people, good churches, and good pastors in the RCA. I met Jesus in the RCA, so there will always be reasons for gratitude.

But somewhere in my college years (at an RCA school), I realized that the denomination I grew up in was considered a part of the mainline tradition. So named for the affluent suburbs along Philadelphia’s main railroad line, the term “mainline Protestant” came to be synonymous with the old denominations that broke toward modernism (instead of fundamentalism) and often wore the label ecumenical (even if some of them still claimed to be evangelical).
If you aren’t a baby boomer or a student of religious history, it can be hard to fathom the cultural influence and social cohesion that once resided in mainline Protestantism. At its height in 1965, mainline Protestant churches counted 31 million members out of a U.S. population of less than 200 million. Most Protestants were in the mainline denominations, and the country’s cultural norms were set, for better or for worse, by the old school Protestant establishment.
Almost 60 years later, all of that has changed. In its recently released demographic report, the Presbyterian Church (USA) announced it lost another 51,584 members. From a membership peak of 4.25 million in 1965, the PCUSA rolls are now down to 1.19 million. And that membership decline hardly conveys the severity of the situation. In the last reporting year, the denomination dissolved 104 congregations and dropped four presbyteries. More than 40 percent of the congregations have fewer than 50 members. Almost a third of the denomination is more than 70 years old, and another 26 percent are older than 55. Keep in mind that only 16 percent of Americans are 65 or older. The PCUSA is literally dying.
Relevant Christianity doesn’t stay relevant for long.

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The imprint of Jesus coming not only remains at Christmas but is all around us today. As we follow this Jesus we gain the greatest gift that no Christmas tree can hold or no toy factory manufacture: Peace with God, the forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. 

I admit it. I’m a bit of a fan of Christmas movies. It doesn’t fall as low Hallmark, but put on a classic Christmas show I’ll make the popcorn.  As a kid and now with children of my own I love sitting down and watching the snowfall and a Christmas tune and trying to take in the smell of pine and fir trees through the tv screen.
“Home Alone,” “The Grinch,” and “A Christmas Carol” are perennial favourites in our house. Even a Harry Potter Christmas scene is enough to take me in.
At this time of year, everyone is churning out new seasonal Christmas movies. Among the most anticipated Christmas movies for 2021 is “A Boy Called Christmas.” The movie features a lineup of British actors including Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent and Toby Jones.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but the trailer certainly caught my attention. First of all, “A Boy Called Christmas” has all the hallmarks of another half-decent, fun viewing, film for families. It has the right amount of snow and pretty lights and elves and Christmas jargon to draw us into the story being told.
But if the movie is anything like the messaging that’s promoted in the trailer, “A Boy Called Christmas” deserves an eye roll the size of Hollywood.
Covered with enough sugar dusted on top to make it all sweet, the story projects a couple of myths about Christmas.
Before I dare follow the well-trodden path of the Grinch and criticise anything connected with Christmas, let’s keep in mind that this new version of the origins of Christmas is fantasy and fiction; the producers and writers aren’t pretending otherwise. Nevertheless, “A Boy Called Christmas”, reinforces (as truth) two myths that are perpetually bouncing around our culture today.
First of all, Maggie Smith’s character makes a claim as she tells a group of children the story of Christmas,
“Long ago nobody knew about Christmas. It started with a boy called Nicholas.”
Ummm…no. There was once a man named Nicholas. He lived in the 4th Century AD and served as a Christian Bishop in the city of Myra (located in what is today, Turkey). But Christmas didn’t start with him, nor was it about him. In fact, one can pretty much guarantee that Nicholas would be appalled by any suggestion that he invented Christmas.
The event that we know as Christmas today certainly started with a boy, but his name wasn’t Nicholas; it was Jesus.
It’s worthwhile separating the day on the calendar called Christmas and the original event it is honouring. By Christmas, I’m not referring to the public holiday or to December 25th, but to the event that changed the world and which the world has sought fit to mark with a celebration every year in December. In fact, while Christians have always believed and held onto the birth of Jesus as a crucial step in God’s plan of redemption, no one celebrated a day called Christmas for hundreds of years.
I realise the name kind of gives it away, but in case we’re unsure, Christmas has something to do with Christ. Indeed, it has everything to do with the Christ. Christ of course is the Greek noun for the Hebrew name, Messiah. It’s a title that denotes ruler and anointed King. Christ is God’s promised ruler who will receive a Kingdom that will never end, fade, or perish.
“The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” (John 4:25—26)
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” (1 John 5:1)
This first faux pas from “A Boy Called Christmas” is forgivable, in the same way, Narnia and Dr Seuss aren’t given to us as history or sacred writ, but please make sure our kids realise this is the case. It is this next line from the movie trailer (which presumably features as a motif) that is nothing short of inane. A young Nicholas is given this advice,
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A competitive steward is a strategic investor. He seeks to do the greatest (not least) amount of work, for the greatest number of people, in order to bring them the greatest good both now and for eternity! This goal maintains a clear view towards heaven and reminds us that Jesus’ eternally-incentivized plan is for each of us to make His heaven our bank. No investment could possibly be more safe and secure, or come with a stronger guarantee.

Have you ever thought about stewardship as competitive? By competitive, I mean that it is a virtue to strive to be as generous as possible with your time, talents, and money. Competitive stewardship is applying the discipline of an athlete to excel in stewardship.
Competitive stewardship starts with asking probing questions. How does God desire me to live? What limit should my lifestyle have in order to prepare people for eternity? What does it mean to “use the world” but not make “full use” of it, as Paul commanded believers in 1 Cor 7:31? What does it look like to own but not possess, as Paul commanded us in 1 Cor 7:30? What does it mean to not claim anything one owns as “one’s own,” as the early church modeled for us in Acts 4:34? Further, how are we to live as pilgrims just passing through in a culture aggressively insistent on indulgence, record-high consumer debt, and competitive consumption? What impact should the fact that this confused world is literally passing away (1 Cor 7:31) have on a person?
Here are seven convictions of a Competitive Steward:
1. A competitive steward understands what the world doesn’t. Blind sinners have always been slavishly bent on destroying themselves through the empty pursuit of “more and better” things (1 Tim 6:6-8, Lk 12:18), thanks to endless advertising and easy credit. But of what benefit is the unnecessary excess of this world’s goods to a pilgrim Christian living for a mission greater than competitive consumption? As a believer, I am right now headed to a lasting city and a far nicer home than any home in any city in this world (Jn 14:1-3; 1 Jn 2:15-17; Heb 11:10,13:14).
2. A competitive steward owns his theology, not his things. A competitive steward knows he is owned by God (1 Cor 6:19-20) and that what he “owns” is not actually his own, not really (Acts 4:34). But what he does own temporarily he will gladly give to another, if in giving he is successfully meeting a physical or spiritual need, thus bringing delight to the Lord (Acts 4:34, 20:35; 2 Cor 8:5).
3. A competitive steward understands that stewardship is not optional, it’s essential. Following Jesus’ mission is radical and repentance from competitive consumption must take place in order to follow Him (Col 3:5, Lk 14:23).
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