All our annual festival occasions must serve to draw us into a closer walk with Christ. They are opportunities to preach Christ, celebrate Christ and drink deeply of the living waters.
The next festival season for many of us is the Advent season. Since our goal with festivals as a denomination is to provide spiritual leadership while allowing members to observe festivals from two traditions, pastors need to provide spiritual leadership for those members who choose to observe the Advent season.
Many people will be thinking about the birth of Jesus, and pastors can build on those thoughts and direct members to the spiritual significance of his birth.
Whether his birth actually happened in December is not important--what is important is that we can build on the thoughts that are seasonally common in December, just as we usually use Thanksgiving Day as an opportunity to discuss thanksgiving.
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