Beer, Food, & Student Ministry at Christmas

Probably you've noticed, but attitudes towards Christmas food and drink are often at odds with each other. 

On one hand, we rightly applaud the many volunteers of the Operation Red Nose campaign for keeping the eggnog and rum off the road. On the other hand, we sing songs that include phrases like “Oh, bring us a figgy pudding…and a cup of good cheer/We won’t go until we get some, so bring some out here.” In other words, nobody is planning to leave the party until they’ve had their fill of “Christmas cheer,” which, in all likelihood, is referring to a cup of Christmas beer, as opposed to a cup full of Christmas good times.

On the topic of alcohol, while many churches and pastors condemn the over-indulgence of holiday spirits, it is also not uncommon for these same people to eat until they could actually fill out that big jolly red suit. While gym memberships and bottle recyclers make a fortune in January, excess of both food and drink are explicitly condemned throughout Christian Scripture. In the church, well-mixed hops get the evil-eye and the roasted turkey gets a feast. 

Why is this?

Most feasts, by the way, are meant to be shared with our families and loved ones. Yet the extra hours and stress spent at work so that we can somehow manage to pay the over-inflated Christmas prices are, at best, taken out on our families in the form of fighting, dysfunction, and all around Grinchyness. 

Unfortunately, many of the homes and families your youth ministry touches, the turkey isn’t the only one to be feathered and skinned in the mad rush for consumption during the holiday season. Kids feel it the most. 

Anyhow, all this to say, during Christmas season fight the urge to make your youth ministry calendar busier than it already is. Slow it down, give families room to breathe, and let your youth ministry be characterized by the mystery and anticipation of Emanuel, God with us.

Singer, songwriter, and author Michael Card says it this way, “The celebration of the birth of Jesus should be ever new, however; the scenery of Christmas has become too familiar and comfortable. It blocks our view into the depth of the stark mystery of it all…Perhaps the reason so many of us find it difficult to celebrate the birthday of Jesus is that we have confined the celebration, in many ways, to a single day… and, at that, a day that’s become more cluttered than any other day of the year, a day that better represents the noise and business of all our other days.”

Happy Ho! Ho!

-Jer

Jeremy is a youth ministry veteran based out of Whistler, BC. You can stalk him on Twitter or find reasons not to like him via www.whistlerisawesome.com where he sits as Editor-In-Chief.