Merry Christmas to All at Springfield!

Marnie, the kids and I are on the way to Missouri and Michigan to see our extended families, so we won't be with you today or next Sunday. After taking the year off from traveling last Christmas, we are off in the minivan this year to drive the roads! (Hope Clint Propst and I don't have to make another trip to Ohio like we did two years ago to retrieve a broken down van.)

What a year it has been at Springfield! We have had some very sad times, like the loss of Agnes Bennett, one our longest standing members. The departure of Agnes is truly a milestone of a faithful generation passing onward. She lived a long and faithful life, so it was possible to celebrate that life and share joys in the midst of the normal sorrow at her funeral. It was much harder to see the silver lining in the passing of Kyle Mack, who tragically lost his life in a car wreck this fall. It was a difficult and terrible thing to see a young life cut short.

But we have also had many times of great joy. We welcomed Kenneth's family from Ghana! (One sure way to grow your church is to import members from afar;-) We have added so many new people that I hate to mention names for fear of leaving some out. We had a great retreat with Randy Harris that inspired us and will serve as the first of an annual tradition for years to come. We have welcomed Gene Kraft home from Afghanistan (but Ray Gibson was shortly sent off in his place). We have seen baptisms of our young people and many inspiring stories of service and devotion.

I think we will all look back on 2007 as a great year... a milestone where we grew and began a pattern of growth that will carry on for years to come.

Please join with me in praying this holiday season for our church. Pray that we will have the vision and leadership to go forward in 2008. Pray that God will send us new people to join with us in our mission to serve God in our community. Pray that our hopes and dreams will be one with God's hopes and dreams for what we should be doing in Springfield.

Love and Peace to all,
Mark, Marnie, and the Kids

‘Tis the Season to Reciprocate!

"Thanks for the gift!” We will all be saying that a few times in the coming weeks. A few weeks ago we paused for “Thanksgiving” as we thanked God for his bounty. Now the season is upon us where gifts abound, and we find ourselves thanking others for their kind gifts to us. It’s tough, isn’t it, to accept a gift without your mind immediately racing to the thought, “Oh, I did not get them something this good!” or maybe, “I got them something way better than this!” or worse yet, “I did not get them anything at all.”

Many times this season of giving and receiving is overshadowed by the desire to keep it all even. It’s not really about “giving” so much as “reciprocating”. We work hard to give others something equal to what they gave us. If we don’t pull this off we feel horrible. In fact, it’s actually sort of unacceptable, awkward (can I say even rude?) in our culture to give someone something really nice if you know they could never match it. That’s why we often make rules for giving … “Let’s set a $20 limit,” we say. That’s partly because we want to limit spending, but it’s also a way to ensure no one shows anyone up by getting something nicer than the next guy or gal.

With all this reciprocating going on, it’s hard to remember our relationship with God this Christmas is nothing like that. He gives this gigantic, extravagant, priceless gift of His son, and we stand there with nothing to give back! It’s embarrassing when you think about it. Humiliating. Makes you want to run and get Him something just as nice…then you realize you can’t afford it and you’re not as creative, and you’d just fall short.

One group of people in our culture is not bothered by the unspoken law of reciprocation. Children. Before we get too tied up in the burden of reciprocal gift giving, we need to pause and look at kids this Christmas. Kids, especially younger ones, aren’t affected by the whole “equality-in-gift-giving-fear” that grips the rest of us. They know that they can’t match the wealth and giving power of adults so they don’t get burdened by it.

What’s the best thing your kids can do when they open a gift? I’d say it is to smile and genuinely love it. To squeal and say, “Just what I wanted! Thank you! Thank you!” It’s nice, very touching, when they take their money (money you gave them) and buy you something in return…but the very best thing they can do is just love the gift…and be filled with Joy!

Mark

From God our Heavenly Father / A blessed Angel came; / And unto certain Shepherds / Brought tidings of the same: / How that in Bethlehem was born / The Son of God by Name / O tidings of comfort and joy, / Comfort and joy / O tidings of comfort and joy

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”