Christmas is over ... NOW WHAT?!?

As December winds down, you can hear it all across the fruited plain. A big sigh of relief. December is almost over.

What is supposed to be the month when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ has become a month filled with stress and an endless stream of parties, programs and family gatherings.

It's nice to get together with friends and family, but it would seem that the stress to buy gifts, to meet schedules and beat the deadlines in December is bringing us to the breaking point. Someday, we'll tip that scale, and all our over-scheduling for the holidays will come crashing down.

Here's a suggestion: make plans today to build some margin into your schedule next December. You have eleven months to prepare your "can't make that event" speech.

Monday Ten

1. Christmas is over. I'm both glad and sad.

2. This was one of the best Christmas seasons ever for my wife and kids. We just had a good time all month long.

3. This Christmas season also had some sad moments. One of Rebekah's aunt's passed away earlier this year. The woman's husband dropped by for a visit a couple of weeks ago. You could see the pain in his eyes.

4. Christmas seems to get busier each year. I think we're at a tipping point in society. It's time to start scaling things back. Fewer presents. Less debt. Fewer parties. Lighter schedules. Too many people are stressed to the breaking point during December. Jesus didn't come to this planet to serve as the founder of the most stressful time of the year.

5. My family and I went to see the new Narnia movie on Christmas Day. "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" was very good, but having read the book, I noticed areas where the filmmakers left out parts of the book, combined others, and added stuff that wasn't in the novel. Even still, it was a good, exciting movie.

6. I hope they keep making the Narnia movies. There are still four books to go. I especially want to see movies for "The Silver Chair" and "The Last Battle."

7. With Christmas behind us, we've now returned to our normal playlist at KWFC. The change of pace is nice each December.

8. Christmas was almost ruined by ice this year. At 8 a.m. Christmas morning, the KWFC transmitter went off because of ice build up. We were fine by noon, though.

9. This week is a number crunching week at KWFC. Each year, I tabulate the top songs for our year-end countdown New Year's Eve night.

10. Next week's TEN will contain a list of goals I have for 2011. Goals are good to have. We should all take time to plan out our futures as best we can.

Making an ImpACT

Monday Ten

1. Today is my baby's birthday. He is growing up so fast.

2. What a fantastic weekend, albeit tiring, in our household. Our two oldest boys were part of a children's choir that sang "Christmas Time Is Here" in all six services at North Point Church. It was a great experience.

3. During the Christmas season, North Point goes to great lengths to get people into the church, so they can experience the love and message of Jesus. More on this in a moment.

4. We began the weekend with North Point's 2nd Saturday event. We hosted over 1,500 people (parents and their kids) who came through the church to receive food for Christmas dinner, toys for the kids, medical checkups, haircuts and photos with Santa, all for free.

5. My wife, my oldest son and I served as "hosts" for the 2nd Saturday families that had registered for the event. This was my wife's first 2nd Saturday she has been able to attend. She loved it.

6. After finishing up, we took some of the leftover food and gave it away in our neighborhood. That was fun, too.

7. Rebekah's uncle came from three hours away to visit in between 2nd Saturday and the evening church services. It was good to see him. We sent him on his way with some homemade cookies.

8. Christmas is in full swing everywhere we turn. I am very excited about this time of year. At KWFC, we have made the switch to all-Christmas music until December 26 (outside of our preaching/teaching programming).

9. Referencing #3, I know some folks who have been in church a long time may not care for the high entertainment value our church places in the services at Christmas. Our goal is to draw people into a church service and tell them the exciting news of Jesus' birth.

10. Last thought on this for now, Perry Noble of NewSpring Church in Anderson, South Carolina, is fond of saying that Jesus didn't come to this earth to hang from a cross and rise three days later so we could have boring church services. I'm glad North Point puts life, energy and fun into church. By the way, to date, our Christmas Unplugged series (three weeks worth) has seen over 200 people commit their lives to Jesus. That is AWESOME!

Monday Ten

1. It's the MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR. Just had to get that off my chest. I'm lovin' the Christmas season right now.

2. Mizzou will play Iowa in the Insight Bowl. It's the football rivalry that could've been ... had the Big Ten offered expansion to Missouri. Instead, for Tiger fans it will be the "hey, at least this ain't the Holiday Bowl" bowl.

3. My fantasy football team will finish the regular season as the #3 team. Sadly, my team is currently playing like #2.

4. My wife and I have the majority of our Christmas shopping completed. Now, it's time for the wrapping.

5. I have three vacation days remaining in the year. So, I'm going to turn the next two weekends into extended ones.

6. One of the best things about this time of the year is what we do at our church. We go ALL OUT to make our Christmas services extra special and a lot of fun.

7. This year's Christmas Unplugged series (through two weeks) at North Point Church has already had 169 people declare their faith in Jesus. Christmas will be extra special for those folks this year.

8. I love my church, and really enjoy the people I get to volunteer with in the kids area and ushering.

9. This coming weekend will be awesome, again. The services at NPC will have our kids singing, and lasers lighting up the auditorium. Plus, 2nd Saturday is the annual Christmas extravaganza. We'll be giving out stuff to help needy families.

10. If you ever wandered if your church could tackle the problems in your community, the answer is "YES!" You should come check out some of NPC's community outreach activities, and see if you can make them your own.

Wednesday Ten

1. I took a couple of extra days off from work, and today am just getting back to the blog.

2. I got to spend some extra time with my bride. That was awesome!

3. Had a great Thanksgiving visiting my folks and the in-laws.

4. Our church kicked off the Christmas season this past weekend. Over 4,800 people came out on the holiday weekend to hear the first message.

5. Our church makes a huge deal out of Christmas. It's like a month-long celebration with great things each weekend.

6. I know some folks, especially those who grew up in church, would take issue with some of the special bits that our church does, but people come out to see what we do, and they hear great preaching at the same time.

7. 49 people gave their lives to Jesus. That makes the extra effort worth it.

8. Today is World AIDS Day.

9. HIV/AIDS is destroying many countries, especially those in the third world. It is also on the verge of destroying population on the African continent.

10. The Church can help fix this problem.