A few years ago, I accidentally started a nationwide debate. Well, a minor one, anyway. You see, I collect old coins—really old ones, mostly from the years 100 BCE to 100 CE. After winning on eBay what I believed to be a coin of Herod the Great (the King Herod who sends the “wise men” out to find the one born “King of the Jews”), I started to doubt I had correctly identified it. So, I posted a message to a biblical coins discussion forum online asking for help.

So, you've got that Amazon/Borders/eBay/B&N/independent bookseller gift certificate in your hand, and you're wondering what to spend it on. Here's a look back at ten of my favorite books of 2009, along with a list of the ten books I most wish I'd gotten around to reading, all especially selected with progressive Christian educators in mind. Hope you find some extra time in the coming days to curl up with a great book!

The Arrival

Economic woes, global warming,
war, make that wars, poverty,
homelessness, human trafficking,
domestic violence, cancer,
unemployment, mental illness,
AIDS, gangs, illiteracy…and more.

Amidst all of the stuff of life,
with the flip of the calendar page,
arrives Christmas Day. Christmas.
Once again, 365 days after the last one,
Christmas.

In the past three weeks, I've been to three churches that had three different approaches to Advent. (Perhaps one of them is like your congregation!)

On the first week of the start of the church year, I saw the "Recognition-Avoidance" approach. The nondenominational church's worship leader made a passing reference to the fact that it was the "start of the Christmas season in the church. (Pause) Or, actually, it's the start of Advent." He then went on to read a "traditional Advent scripture," (which he immediately tied to Easter!) and thus end-eth the Advent/Christmas references for the rest of the hour. On Sunday 2, I saw the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" approach when I attended a United Methodist Church that sings Christmas carols during a pre-service hymn-sing but faithfully sticks to Advent themes within the service itself. And last Sunday, I witnessed the "Chris-adven-tmas" approach when I visited a Baptist church where we read a brief Advent liturgy, sang a few Christmas carols, heard a long sermon that was vaguely Advent-ish, and closed with "Go Tell it On the Mountain."

Did you catch the common theme? Like a child that can't avoid poking the presents under the tree, all three had a hard time with waiting to celebrate Christmas.

Imagine a party where the guests in attendance include Buddha, Mohammed, Abraham and Jesus. The occasion: a birthday party for Jesus. Now imagine a song about such a party. If your imagination is feeling stretched, there is no need to tax it any longer. Get yourself a copy of the CD, Behold by The River’s Voice, and listen to “The Birthday Party”. This song is just one of the fifteen musical gems you will find on the Christmas CD, Behold.

According to retail stores, Christmas is over on December 26. After December 25, it is time to return unwanted gifts, shop the after-Christmas sales and begin thinking about Valentine’s Day. Of course, if you take your cues from the retail world, you began celebrating Christmas in mid-October. As a church, we have been celebrating Advent since November 29, preparing and waiting to remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas. Isn’t the birth of Jesus is deserving of more than one day of recognition? Indeed, Christmas is a season that lasts from December 25 through Epiphany on January 6. There really are twelve days of Christmas! In our curriculum co-op, you will find a resource that will help you and/or members of your congregation acknowledge and celebrate the twelve days of Christmas (even if you take your Christmas tree down).

Two of the biggest challenges many Christian educators have are a) staying on top of the latest news and b) keeping on top of their To-Do lists. Tech-based solutions abound for both of them, but many people find the solutions overwhelming or too feature-packed for their needs. For example, RSS readers are a marvelous tool for following multiple blogs and getting the latest news, but they tend to work best for those who have a more serious need to follow lots of blogs for professional purposes. Applications and strategies abound for managing to-do lists and projects, ranging from the popular paper-based daily planners to various GTD (Getting Things Done) systems that take more time to figure out than they're worth for many people. 

So, here are two terrific tools (Alltop and TeuxDeux) that simplify both of those tasks. Perhaps they'll help you to get organized in the new year!

Most Christian educators understand that the members of their congregations do not learn in the same way, have the same developmental and spiritual needs, or have the same level of moral reasoning. Stage theories of development are useful tools for tailoring teaching methods and making sure you offer a variety of different kinds of activities. I have also found that in progressive congregations, there are frequently several groups of adults, each with their own familiarity with and acceptance of progressive spirituality, and their educational needs or interests vary as well. Here are 7 of them...

Although he wasn’t born in a stable, the circumstances surrounding the birth of John the Baptist were certainly unusual. Elizabeth was old, and considered to be barren, when she became pregnant. Zechariah was struck mute until the baby was named. And his parents went against tradition and named him John instead of Zechariah! Is it any wonder that people asked, “What, then will this child become?” (Luke 1:66)

Like most individuals who were religion majors in college and/or went to seminary, I've had to study other religions, differences in denominational theology and polity, and philosophical debates about God. Yet my awareness of Humanism, one of the largest "lifestances" in the world, was sketchy at best before reading this exceptional book by Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University. What is Humanism, and why should you care?

Here's my review of Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe (2009, William Morrow, 250 pp.)