A Christ-Centered Christmas

What kind of childhood Christmas memories do you have?  A favorite gift?  Christmas concerts at church?  Watching the annual Christmas parade?  Racing down the hall on Christmas morning to tear into the presents under the tree?  Eating a holiday meal at Grandma and Grandpa's house?

Regardless of your Christmas memories, it is safe to say that your parents shaped your holiday experiences.  And the same will be true for your children.  The way you lead your children to celebrate Christmas will create memories which they will take into adulthood.

Kids do not need mixed messages about Christmas from their parents.  Children deserve caring, clear, and pointed parenting, especially during the holiday season.

Think about it.  Confusing signals abound for kids during the holidays.  Children in today's world already have a difficult time distinguishing between fantasy and reality.  However, Christmastime often blurs even further the line between what is real and what is not real.  Multiple manger scenes may grace the landscape of your home, but until you start celebrating Christmas like a Christian, your children may have difficulty understanding the significance of the holiday.

Excessive materialism, frenzied activity, gluttonous gatherings, and yielding to society's expectations may cause your child to wonder if you really believe what you say you believe about Christmas.

We all have seen the front yard manger scenes where Santa Claus is standing around Baby Jesus along with Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, the wise men, and the animals.  Could it be that such an image does more harm than good in the mind of a child?

We certainly do not need to jettison all the cultural traditions of Christmas.  Kids need the experiences of roasting chestnuts over an open fire, and riding in a one-horse open sleigh would be the dream of a lifetime.  But your kids need to realize that Christmas is not primarily about trees, ornaments, stockings, lights, presents, or parades.  Kids need to know that Christmas is about Christ.  And kids will not realize that Christmas is about Christ unless they see that your Christmas is about Christ.

Do not allow mixed messages about the meaning of Christmas to get into your kids' heads.  In everything you do, make sure that your kids know that Christmas is about Christ.

Pastor Todd

Heart Training

As a pastor of a bunch of folks, a husband of one woman, and a father of four boys, I am realizing with each passing day the profound importance of the heart.  I am convinced that in a family, in a church, and in a society, nothing is more important than the heart of a man. 

This fall, our church has been focusing on The Heart of the Matter http://www.fbcpaducah.org/resources-audio-video.html.  In addition, Tony Woodlief's recent work, Somewhere More Holy has been used by God to encourage, challenge and refine me.  Here is another excerpt:

I guess in all this homeschooling and training and handwringing over whether we're getting it right is a desire not just for our children to be well-educated, but to have good hearts.  We are working out how best to train them--in our classroom and in every other room as well--not only to help their intellects flourish, but because part of building a home, we are learning, is training our hearts and the hearts of our children to seek God where he will be found.  Wendell Berry argues that schools ought not to focus just on imparting skills, but on cultivating humanity.  "For human beings the spiritual and the practical are, and should be, inseperable."  Training up the heart is more important than teaching the mind, adn this is what we are wrestling out each day, on the battlegrounds of our own hearts as well as theirs.  "I would rather have a boy of mine stand high in his studies than high in athletics," wrote Teddy Roosevelt to his son, "but I could a great deal rather have him show true manliness of character than show either intellectual or physical prowess."

Pastor Todd

Joy in Marriage

Marriage is a daily dying to self, which is hard to recognize with popular images of lifelong romance and mutual satisfaction.  Endurance has been the way of man since the Fall--finding joy not in the absence of suffering, but in the midst of it.  When Christ said, "Take up your cross and follow Me," he wasn't talking about a cute little gold cross that some people dangle from their chests as a signifier of their spirituality.  Christ was talking about the sort of cross with weight and jagged splinters to which each of us nails his pride, his self pity, his selfish wants, his dreams of how the world ought to treat him.  Marriage is, for many of us, an essential part of our sanctification.  In it we die, every day, for other people--for our spouses, for our children.  Can joy be born in this?  I can tell you that the answer, miraculously, is Yes.  But not unless you endure.

Somewhere More Holy, Tony Woodlief

Faithful Friends and a Great Bible Teacher

We had lunch today with Olin and Joyce Bryant--dear servants of God.  The boys love the Bryants--and Isaac is especially fond of Mrs. Joyce

This afternoon, I am thankful for Joyce's diligence, creativity, eagerness, and faithfulness as one of FBC's Sunday morning Bible teachers.  Joyce went to great lengths this past Sunday to teach from Ephesians 6 about the Christian's armor.

Pastor Todd

loving God, loving people...measuring our love

Our love of God

will never be greater

than the love we have

for the person we love the least.



Pastor Todd

To Santa or Not to Santa?...that is the question.

‘Tis near the season to be jolly, and with the season comes Christian parents who are doing some high-energy theological, cultural and semantic gymnastics concerning “What to do about Santa Claus?”  It seems that a lot of people make a bigger deal out of the whole question than they should. 

I have one word for those who refer to Santa as "Satan Claus" –RELAX!  Have fun with Santa Claus, or have fun without Santa Claus.  Just make sure you are loving your kids and being honest with them.

Walking with your children through the Christmas holidays is your responsibility.  What you decide to do about Santa Claus goes right along with what you decide to do about having a Christmas tree, sending out Christmas cards, going to Christmas parties, buying Christmas presents, and more—it’s your choice and you’ll want to make decisions which are best for your family.

Each year Amy and I have folks ask us if we “do Santa Claus.”  Well the answer is “kind of.”  Of course, on Christmas morning we video the boys coming down the stairs and rushing to open their presents under the tree from Santa.  But they know that the presents are really from mommy and daddy.  Santa Claus is not real.  He’s not bad either.  He’s just “pretend.”  It sure is fun to pretend.

This Christmas season—and in every Christmas season, we want our kids to understand the pretend part of Christmas, and we want them to understand the reality part of Christmas. 

Santa Claus is pretend.  Jesus is real.

Each day in December, we’ll read The Advent Book, by Jack and Kathy Stockman.  We’ll decorate the Christmas tree.  We’ll bake cookies.  We’ll wrap special presents for mommy.  We’ll make sure our boys know we are giving to others this Christmas.  We’ll tell the story of Jesus’ birth over and over and over.  We’ll spend time with friends, family, and of course with those who are a part of our faith fellowship.  We’ll make memories that I hope the boys will look back on and remember with warm hearts.

Whatever you “do” with Santa Claus…or whatever you do this Christmas season, make sure you do it in the name of the Lord Jesus (Colossians 3:17).

Merry Christmas!

Pastor Todd

Portraits of Thanksgiving at FBC this Tuesday

One of my favorite gatherings of our faith fellowship each year is our annual Portraits of Thanksgiving service.  Tuesday night at 5:00 we gather together in the Great Room for a traditional turkey and dressing dinner and to hear from three special folks in our family.


It's going to be great to see hundreds of folks gathered around tables fellowshipping and eating together.  It's truly a picture of family.  There will be folks of all shapes and sizes and ages.  Come early and get your seat.  Parents, come early and get your high chairs!


A highlight of our time together will be hearing from three in our body who will share testimonies of God's grace and their gratitude.  You certainly don't want to miss out as we hear from Elena Breeden, Mike Ezell, and Leah Rogers.  Elena is a freshman at UK and is the younger daughter of Robin and Melissa Breeden.  Mike is Glenda's husband, Penny Wilson and Joy Beth McGough's father, and the grandfather to a beautiful army of grandkids.  Leah is Michael's wife, and they have four precious girls.


What a great faith family we have.  I'm thankful to be the pastor of such great people.

Looking forward to seeing YOU there!


Pastor Todd