In a technical sense, Advent starts the Christian Year. It begins with the arrival of Christ as a Babe in a Manger. His coming was foretold by the prophet Isaiah, which gets read to remind us that we expect Him to come again. While we wait, we celebrate with special events and services. One of my favorites is Christmas Eve with Silent Night and live candles.

Advent by it’s nature upsets the regular scheduling of volunteers. There are special services which need volunteers to help. So the regular monthly schedule goes out the window during December. Maybe that’s a good thing. We sometimes get in a rut by doing the same thing over and over and over. Advent has a marvelous way of shaking things up, as we remember that Christ came to make all things new!

This season is also a great time to thank all of your volunteers in Technical Ministry. It can be simple, like sending a Christmas Card with words of appreciation for all they have done this year. Or it can be complex like hosting a dinner party for the volunteers and their families at a local restaurant. Whatever you do, be sure to express your thanks and appreciation. It will go a long way towards making up for the demanding, often hectic, schedule of special events that need to be covered.

Merry Christmas, and may the arrival of the Babe in the Manger inspire all of us to serve the Church in new ways in the new year!

Thanksgiving is a national holiday. Churches don’t usually have a service on Thanksgiving day, since it is considered family time. However, there may be a special emphasis on Giving Thanks that week. How can the Tech Team support that?

One approach would be to produce a short video for worship that includes people giving thanks. This could be shot in various locations, then edited together into a short video. It could then be played before or during worship on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. This helps with the special emphasis. It could also be part of the sermon. The point is to show people giving thanks.

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday in the US, when we gather with family and friends. But it is also a spiritual discipline that we practice as Christians. Indeed, the holiday comes from the Pilgrims being thankful that they had survived the arduous journey across the unknown ocean.

One minister I knew liked to share an alphabetical list of the things that he was thankful every year. I would suggest taking a poll on the Church web site. Members of the congregation could list single words representing what they were thankful for. The website would record the words and generate a dynamic tally for each letter. By doing this, you could identify topics for future sermons or Bible studies. If 52% of the people chose Family for F, then you could do a series on “Families in the Bible.” There are some examples that have a lot of notoriety, which people could relate to.

Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but it is based on the Biblical idea of thanking God. We thank God for His many blessings in our lives. We thank God for His mercy and His love. And we thank God for His marvelous grace, which covers our multitude of sins.

As you approach this Thanksgiving, be sure to thank the members of your staff, who ensure that the Church functions as an organization. They not be perfect, but they show their dedication and commitment by coming to work each day to help the Church. Let them know that they are appreciated, and you will be investing in good will which will last well into the new year.

This author has served in Churches, both big and small. It is all to easy to leave people on staff feeling under-appreciated along with being over-worked. The two are a bad combination. You may not be able to change the workload, but you can always express appreciation for their efforts. From the least of these to the most, thank them for their efforts.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks. The technical ministry of the Church can help us identify all of the ways that we are thankful to God. I have seen preachers run through their ABC list of thankful things. Here is a list of my own:

• For being with us times of Catastrophe
• For helping us through economic crisis
• For healing our children when seriously ill
• For reminding us that God reigns when we forget
• For blessing us with life itself

What if your Church had a web poll where people could identify one way that they were thankful this year? You could then publish the resulting list on Thanksgiving Sunday. People would probably marvel at the results. It would be one way to collectively give thanks for God’s blessings this year.

Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on the things that we have to be thankful for. Here is a short list:

• God, who makes all things possible
• Resurrection, which empowers everything that we do as Christians
• Advent – a time to begin anew in search of the Babe in the manger
• Christ – who is our Lord
• Evangelists – who spread the word around the globe

What are you most thankful for? And how do you maintain your gratitude towards God?