Looking ahead towards the end of the year, there is one inevitable feature of the festive season that I’d rather avoid, but it is coming my way like a unstoppable freight train. It’s the Christmas cracker. Now you may choose to cause me Ebenezer Scrooge but out of all the seasonal traditions, I’ve never understood the cracker. Pulling them isn’t ‘fun’, there’s nothing worthwhile inside and the paper crowns are just annoying. Unfortunately, this year, my wife has been sewing reusable crowns for everyone around the dinner table, which means my usual trick of flexing my head muscles to break the crown promptly won’t work. I foresee being condemned to wear the crown for far longer than normal – Bah Humbug!
One aspect of a cracker which potentially redeems its torturous existence, is the Christmas cracker joke. Not that the jokes themselves are funny, but successfully guessing the punchline before others allows you to gently assert your intellectual superiority. So to ease you into your training for this year’s dinner table, here is a joke to consider:
Q: In which two regional newspapers did Charles Dickens announce the release of ‘ A Tale of Two Cities’ ? ….
A: It was the Bicester Times, It was the Worcester Times!
Thank you and consider your morning now brightened up. I’m here all week.
Why, I hear you ask, did we have to endure that joke?
This is the reason. As I reflect back on the 15years+ I spent administering the Christmas season for my churches, I am left with the sentiment ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. The ‘best’ because we celebrated the hope that is the incarnate Christ and we celebrated it with joy and grandeur in the company of many welcome guests each year. Through the privilege of this season, the gospel was shared, and people came to faith. Glory to God in the Highest.
Why then the worst of times? Because it was always tiring, always hard work and always challenging for the various staff teams I served on. Inevitably it involved early starts, late finishes and Christmas colds. On one year it involved falling asleep mid-way through the midnight communion service, to then be awoken by church members at the end.
We are now in early December and if the conversations I’ve had with many administrators recently are characteristic of the reality across church staff teams, you are probably very busy, very tired, and aware that the finish line is still several weeks away. Administering another Covid Christmas was not what we were hoping for and I’m sure this continues to make things that much harder. I am sorry that I lack the capacity to lighten your load or provide practical support for you, but if this article can encourage you, please receive and accept the following: A heartfelt word of thanks.
Thank you for being the administrator at your church this Christmas. Thank you for prepping the rotas, ordering the tree, buying the oranges, designing the flyers, updating the risk assessments, briefing the stewards, calling the boiler repair company, creating the PowerPoint slides and arranging the advent wreath. (If you’ve forgotten any of these up until now, you’re also welcome for the reminder!)
THANK YOU.
The MINISTRY you’re involved with, blesses people and honours God.
Well done good and faithful servant. Well done for continuing to run the race. Well done for serving under pressure.
Your earthly rewards may not be great but be assured your crowns in Heaven will put any ‘cracker’ offering to shame.
Please ensure you look after yourselves and your teams (voluntary and employed). I pray that in the midst of the busyness, you personally will experience the goodness of God this Christmas within the services, the times with family and friends and within the sabbath rest to follow.
On behalf of UCAN, we look forward to continuing to serve and support you in 2022 and beyond.
Merry Christmas,
Andy Bagwell
Executive Director, UCAN