This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 18, 2009 - Call it E-vangelism. Thousands of churches and other Christian groups are signing on to a movement called Advent Conspiracy that most of the participants first heard about online. The 4-year-old movement has grown from five churches -- in St. Louis County, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Houston and the Bahamas -- to thousands of churches in more than 17 countries around the world.
"It has spread relationally, person-to-person, just like the Early Church," says Greg Holder, pastor of Windsor Crossing Community Church in Chesterfield and one of the founders.
Word-of-mouth has expanded to mass media. This month alone, Holder has been interviewed by CNN twice, and his colleague in Portland, Rick McKinley, has been interviewed by Time Magazine. Local news organizations across the country have featured this radical-sounding movement that has participants conspiring to restore the meaning of Christmas for their friends, families and themselves.
"We liked the message," explains Matt Miofsky, pastor of the Gathering, a United Methodist Church, 2105 McCausland Ave. on the western edge of the Dogtown neighborhood, which joined the movement this year.
Advent Conspiracy's message "is consistent with the Gathering's message," Miofsky said. "When we are able to step away from consumerism, we are able to step toward generosity."
The secularization of Christmas usually brings out "a couple of traditional responses," Miofsky said. "You can get upset with the secular celebration, or you can accommodate to the culture and try to add a little bit of God to how we're celebrating. Advent Conspiracy gives us a third way, to show that Christmas can be more meaningful if you come together in community. It's not about restraint (in spending) as much as it's giving in different ways."
David Hawkins, pastor of Living the Word Church, 515 North 80th Street in East St. Louis, says Advent Conspiracy "lets us reclaim Christmas. It's not about how much is under the tree. We're in an impoverished, inner-city community. It's important for us to press the buttons for the gospel to go into the world -- not necessarily in a preaching forum, but in an action forum."
In the beginning
In the fall of 2006, Holder, McKinley and three other clergy friends were talking about how exhausted they felt after Christmas. They bemoaned the frenzied pursuit of "holiday cheer" that they felt has taken over one of the most important observances in Christendom.
They lamented that the story of the gospel gets lost in the glitter.
"In Matthew, Jesus is born on the underside of a powerful Roman Empire, under the nose of an evil king named Herod," Holder said. "The revolution that God began through Christmas happened by a person-to-person, quiet revolution of grace."
The five friends discussed the "hyperconsumerism" saturating American culture and asked, "How can we conspire together to push back on that?" Holder said. They wanted to find "some way that isn't Christians standing with picket signs in front of Walmart. That's not our style. So we began in a personal, quiet way. We decided, we'll do it differently."
So that first year, the five pastors unveiled a four-part message on the four Sundays of Advent, the liturgical season leading up to Christmas:
- Worship fully: "We're celebrating the birth of Jesus," Holder said. "We're convinced we matter to God, and we're convinced others matter to him. To worship fully is to say 'yes' to Jesus and 'no' to other things that seem to demand our loyalty. This could lead to beautiful moments of worship all through the month, not just on Christmas Eve."
- Spend less: "We're not saying don't buy anything," Miofsky said. "But don't make money the currency of showing love to others. This is not a recession approach to Christmas; we're going to ask you to give more. It's easier to buy that cheap, impersonal gift that nobody cares about than to give a gift that really matters."
- Give more: Give more time and attention to loved ones and more money and resources to the needy around the world.
- Love all: "Jesus was constantly giving his attention and love to all people," Holder said. "He grieved with people; he allowed himself to be interrupted by kids; he listened to old ladies; he healed outcast lepers."
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Spreading the word
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By 2007, three of the five pastors had gotten together to spread the word outside their individual churches. They set up a website, developed a curriculum for Bible study and sermons and made a video. Within a year, "it resonated so deeply with people that last year in December, it was the fastest growing video on YouTube," Holder said. "It's been growing at a viral rate. We've been getting hundreds of thousands of hits in the months leading up to Christmas."
Zondervan, a leading publisher of Christian books, noticed the activity online and approached the founders last year. Holder, McKinley and Chris Seay, another founder, recently released a book, "Advent Conspiracy: Can Christmas Still Change the World?", and this month an accompanying DVD.
"We are well aware of the irony" that one of the Advent Conspiracy precepts is "spend less," Holder said. "So we tried to keep the cost down. And we agreed, and Zondervan agreed, to give a portion of the profits to water projects."
From the beginning, Advent Conspiracy has urged participants to take some of the savings of "spend less" and give to a project benefiting "the least of these," a reference to Matthew 25:35-40, in which Jesus urges his followers to give to those who are hungry, thirsty or in need of shelter or comfort.
The first and succeeding videos point out that the leading cause of death around the world is a lack of safe drinking water, a problem that would cost about $10 billion to $15 billion to solve. The Advent Conspirators also note that even in this year's recession, Americans are expected to spend about $400 billion on Christmas.
So take the money you would spend on that sweater she won't wear, the video says, and give it to keep a child from dying. The founders of Advent Conspiracy give all of their Christmas Eve offerings to Living Water International and link to its website from the Advent Conspiracy site.
The spirit of giving
The Advent Conspiracy does not keep track of donations or activities or even which churches are participating. But from the donations that the organizers are aware of, about $2.5 million has been donated so far to dig wells in Third World countries. Holder expects that amount to increase exponentially as more churches sign on.
In Living the Word Church, children collect "change for a change," Hawkins said, filling jars and bottles with pennies, nickels and dimes for Living Water International.
"Our children may not have enough school supplies or other essentials," Hawkins said. "But at least we have clean water. They want to do this."
Advent Conspiracy is more than a charity appeal. It's about sharing God's love with others. Hawkins said this has been liberating for his congregation.
"Parents have come to us saying, 'This is powerful. It's meaningful. It has helped me to take lot of worry off my shoulders, knowing my child won't be a serial killer if he doesn't get plastic stuff for Christmas,' " Hawkins said
Instead of being on the receiving end of charity at Christmas, Hawkins says, the children in his congregation collect pennies to save a child's life in drought-stricken Africa. And they realize, "I can be a blessing and a world changer in someone else's life."
Sharing gifts doesn't have to mean spending money, the Advent Conspirators say.
"The central gift of Christmas," Miofsky said in his sermon last Sunday, "is God's greatest relational gift to mankind: His Son."
Virginia Gilbert is a retired journalist and volunteer in urban ministry. She is a 2007 graduate of Eden Theological Seminary.