Pastors look for new ways to convey messages of Christmas

By CAMDEN EASTERLING

The Daily Inter Lake

Along with the challenge of coordinating Christmas programs and extra services, pastors are also faced every holiday season with the task of delivering a fresh take on a story everyone knows.

"Everybody's heard the baby story," says the Rev. Brad Brittsan, pastor at Christian Life Fellowship in Whitefish.

Brittsan and other local pastors say the tale of Jesus' birth is a beautiful one, but it's one that's been told many times, many ways. Pastors have to look for creative ways to convey the messages of Christ and Christmas, they say.

"Bringing a fresh expression of a very traditional message can be very challenging," says the Rev. Don Burleson of New Covenant Fellowship in Kalispell.

But on Christmas, people still expect to hear about the birth of Jesus, Burleson said.

"So on Christmas Eve, I'm not going to talk about, 'How's your finances?'"

How, then, do pastors come up with their fresh twists?

"I can't say that there's any single way of approaching Christmas," said the Rev. Vic Langhans of St. Matthew's Catholic Church in Kalispell.

Langhans said he prepares his Christmas-season sermons in the same way that he prepares any others. He looks to the liturgy readings assigned for that service and then bases his sermon on the readings' themes. Langhans said he listens for the voice of God for guidance on what he wants to convey to the congregation.

The Rev. Paul Ogle, pastor at Foursquare Church in Whitefish, says he typically plans his sermons a week in advance. Sometimes he has in mind an idea of what he wants to address, other times he is less clear. Either way, he says he looks to God for a little help with his sermon outline.

"I ask God for him to give me something to say that's relevant and inspirational to where people are at."

Brittsan has a similar process of waiting for a little divine intervention before he delivers a sermon.

He likens the process to ripening tomatoes. Sometimes he has concepts he thinks would make for good sermons. But, like a green tomato, they need a little time to ripen before they're ready for the congregation's consumption.

Local pastors say they often pray and meditate to bring maturity to their ideas. During those quiet times, God reveals to them the message they've been seeking, they say. Other times the ripening moments occur unexpectedly, such as when, Brittsan says, he finds a piece of music that perfectly expresses his message.

Waiting for such guidance can be nerve-wracking when approaching an impending service.

"That makes it kind of fun, but kind of scary," Burleson says. "It's kind of like live television."

Pastors rely on divine inspiration to help them put a fresh twist on their Christmas messages each year, they say. It's easy enough to dredge up past sermons or to put a spin on someone else's idea, but pastors prefer to keep their sermons original.

"I'd rather be a voice than an echo," Brittsan says.

An example of a unique take on a traditional story is Burleson's "This Doesn't Smell Like Heaven" sermon he delivered one year. The premise of the sermon was that God chose a manger as Jesus' birthplace, even though a manger is hardly sweet smelling. The message was to remind people that life might stink sometimes but it still can be beautiful.

Some pastors feel pressure to speak directly to the people who only attend church at Christmas.

"There's always a temptation to preach at them," Langhans says. "But if you preach at them, they tend to turn off pretty quickly. At least I know I tend to turn off when people do that to me."

Langhans and others say they reflect on the meaning of the season to help them create a meaningful, emotionally stirring Christmas sermon.

"Mainly it's about getting people to think about how they celebrate the coming of Christ in their own lives," Langhans says.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com