Joy to the World

Inspirational Christmas Messages from America's Preachers

Olivia Cloud

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9781416543510
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

"Is there an idea or a dream that is lingering in the back of your mind this Christmas season?" asks the Reverend Robert H. Schuller in Joy to the World: Inspirational Christmas Messages from America's Preachers.

"Is there some long-lost hope that you just cannot forget? God often comes through these thoughts. It is God at work in you."

"Track what we call our good fortune and we shall see God clearly in our lives," says the Reverend Gardner C. Taylor in his message. He asked the question "Did you ever sit among your family and, strangely, feel a thankfulness which made you somewhat shamefacedly brush a tear away? You heard the angels sing!"

"Christmas is a time of establishing and celebrating many traditions," begins the Reverend Paula White in her reflection.

This is but a sampling of dozens of messages on the true meaning of Christmas included in this first book to celebrate the spirituality of Christmas by bringing together a diverse collection of messages from Christian leaders from across the country.

Contributors to this collection represent congregations from Hawaii to New York to Atlanta and all the regions surrounding and in between. These inspirational words are from men and women who minister to and console young and old from all walks of life and who reflect the range of ethnicities and Christian religious traditions that characterizes America today.

This timeless treasure trove of inspiration and teaching has something for everyone and is the perfect gift for the season of giving. Joy to the World shares the spirit of Christmas throughout the year.

Biographical Sketches of Contributing Preachers

DANIEL AKIN, PH.D., has written or contributed to nearly a dozen Christian and scholarly books and Bibles. He is the president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he also serves as professor of preaching and theology. He was the New Testament editor for Thos. Nelson’s popular Believers Study Bible, author of 1, 2, 3 John in the New American Commentary Series and God on Sex, and a coauthor of A Theology for the Church. During the past twenty years, missions have taken him to Australia, Thailand, Paraguay, and Sells, Arizona, where he worked among the Papago Indians.

MELVIN BANKS SR. is the founder and chairman of Urban Ministries, Inc. (UMI), one of the leading publishers of Bible studies and books, magazines, videos, and other Christian education resources for churches in the African American community. Based in the Chicago metropolitan area, UMI reaches nearly 100,00 teachers with Sunday school and vacation Bible school materials that facilitate communication of Christ-centered lifestyles, biblical principles, and Christian moral values to adults, children, and teens. He founded UMI in 1970 to produce Christian resources specifically geared to the needs and life concerns of urban people, particularly African Americans. These resources have earned recognition by the Evangelical Press Association. Four of UMI’s eight videos have earned Chicago Emmy and Angel Awards.

He is also founder of the Urban Outreach Foundation, which conducts leadership training institutes.

He is author and editor of a number of books and Bible studies, including Winning and Keeping Teens in Church.

NATHAN D. BAXTER is a third-generation Pennsylvania clergyman, and is presently bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. He was formerly rector of historic Saint James Episcopal Church, founded in 1744, renowned as a leading institution in the founding of our nation, whose ministry today is grounded in a diverse worship life of fifteen weekly services, ranging from traditional Anglican liturgies to services for young children to Saturday jazz masses. Prior to Saint James Church, he was dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., where he led many national worship events, including President George W. Bush’s first presidential inaugural service; the White House Millennium Prayer, at the request of President William J. Clinton; and the internationally televised National Day of Prayer and Remembrance Service at the cathedral following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His publications include the award-winning Challenge and Comfort: A Pastor’s Thoughts for a Troubled Nation.

A. R. BERNARD is the founder and pastor of Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York, a thriving ministry and not-for-profit organization with a membership of over 20,000. The 6.5-acre sanctuary and conference center also includes a café, flower shop, newsstand, and restaurant. A new paradigm in houses of worship, Christian Cultural Center includes among its many ministries The Bookstore, which began as a single-table operation and is now a $500,000-per-year business, providing Bibles, books, recordings, videos, and gifts to church members and ministries locally and internationally.

In 1990, while the ministry he had founded in 1978 continued to grow, he was asked to serve on the board of directors for the Christian Men’s Network (CMN) to help restructure the organization. During his six years on the board, CMN grew to comprise 74 international offices with a presence in approximately 150 nations. In addition to serving as treasurer for the board, Rev. Bernard was one of their most requested speakers. With the passing of Dr. Edwin Louis Cole in 2002, Bernard became the president of CMN.

He addressed an unprecedented one million Christian men on racial reconciliation on the mall in Washington, D.C., and is a requested speaker at Fortune 500 companies as well as universities and colleges.

GEORGE G. BLOOMER remains focused on his mandate from the Lord to preach the Word of God without compromise. He is founder of the deliverance ministry, Bethel Family Worship Center of Durham, North Carolina, known as “the church on Dowd Street.” He is author of eight books, including Witchcraft in the Pews.

CHARLES E. BOOTH has served as pastor of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, for the last twenty-eight years. A Proctor Fellow, he earned his doctor of ministry from United Theological Seminary (UTS) in Dayton, Ohio, and currently serves as professor of preaching at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus and a doctoral mentor at UTS.

He led peace marches through the neighborhoods surrounding Mt. Olivet and a bold campaign to close down crack houses and combat violence in these communities. Under his leadership the church completed a multimillion-dollar building program, is preparing to begin work on a Family Life Center, and founded a fully accredited Christian academy stressing excellence in academics, African and African American history, and Christian education.

He has traveled the world preaching and teaching the gospel, served on the advisory board of The African American Pulpit, and is author of Bridging the Breach: Evangelical Thought and Liberation in the African-American Preaching Tradition.

MARK G. BOYER has been a Catholic priest for thirty years in the Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and is the founding pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish. He has taught at Missouri State University for more than eighteen years. He is author of twenty-eight books on biblical and liturgical spirituality and of numerous articles.

CECELIA WILLIAMS BRYANT is an episcopal supervisor in the Fifth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, headquartered in Los Angeles. She cofounded the first A.M.E. church in a Francophone country, Bethel A.M.E. Church in Abijan, Ivory Coast. Missions have taken her throughout the Caribbean and South America, as well as to Sierre Leone and other parts of West Africa. She chaired the first convocation in the A.M.E. Church on the status of women. She was a founder of Gethsemane Outreach and Women’s Center in Baltimore, Elnita McClain Women’s Center in Houston, and the Davidson Houston Academy in Dallas. She is author of five books.

JOHN R. BRYANT has pastored three churches (Bethel A.M.E. Church, Fall River, Massachusetts; St. Paul A.M.E. Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Bethel A.M.E. Church, Baltimore, Maryland). He holds a D.Min. from Colgate Rochester Divinity School and has preached and taught on more than twenty-five college campuses and on five continents. As a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa from 1965 to 1967, he eventually oversaw 101 churches and 25 schools there. He currently presides as bishop over the A.M.E. Churches in fourteen states west of the Mississippi.

KEITH A. BUTLER is the founder and senior pastor of Word of Faith International Christian Center.

Word of Faith International Christian Center was founded on January 14, 1979, and has a congregation of more than 21,000 members and more than 300 employees. The main church is located on a beautiful 110-acre campus in Southfield, Michigan, where multiple services are held in the 5,000-seat auditorium.

Bishop Butler pastors not only the Word of Faith Christian Center in Southfield but also satellite churches in San Francisco, California, and Toronto, Canada. He also oversees the international operations in En gland, Bulgaria, Africa, and Brazil.

With the support of his lovely wife, Pastor Deborah L. Butler, and their children, Pastor Keith A. Butler II and his wife, Minister Tiffany Butler, the proud parents of Alexis Nichole and Angela, Pastor MiChelle A. Butler, and Minister Kristina M. Butler, Bishop Butler continues to plant churches worldwide. He ministers extensively in churches, conferences, and seminars throughout the United States and abroad, with an emphasis on instruction, line-upon-line teaching, and a no-nonsense, practical application of God’s Word.

Bishop Butler is also the author of more than a dozen books.

ANTHONY CAMPOLO has served American Baptist Churches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and is presently associate pastor of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church in West Philadelphia.

He is a media commentator on religious, social, and political matters, having guest-hosted many television programs, including Nightline, Crossfire, Politically Incorrect, The Charlie Rose Show, Larry King Live, and CNN News. He cohosted his own television series, Hashing It Out, on the Odyssey Network, and presently hosts From Across the Pond, a weekly program on the Premier Radio Network in En gland.

He served for ten years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.

Founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education (EAPE), Dr. Campolo works to create, nurture, and support programs for at-risk children in cities across North America and has helped establish schools and universities in several developing countries.

He is author of thirty-two books.

JOSEPH CHAMPLIN served as pastor in three parishes in the diocese of Syracuse and has been a Roman Catholic priest for over fifty years. Currently semiretired, he is the sacramental priest at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Warners, New York.

After studying at Yale and Notre Dame and attending seminary in Rochester, New York, he served as associate director in the Liturgy Secretariat for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, traveling more than two million miles and lecturing on liturgical and pastoral matters. He also conducted retreats for priests and missions for parishes.

He has written fifty books, including What It Means to Be Catholic (St. Anthony Messenger Press). More than twenty million copies of his publications are in print. His most popular volume is Together for Life in both English and Spanish, now with over nine million copies in circulation (Ave Maria Press/Liguori Publications). He has appeared in a dozen videos and made numerous television appearances. Take Five (Ave Maria Press) and A Catholic Perspective on the Purpose-Driven Life (Catholic Book Publishing) were published in Fall 2006. Juntos Para Toda La Vida (Together for Life) has consistently been at the top of the best-selling Catholic Spanish books list.

DAN CHUN is pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu and cofounder and chairman of the board of Hawaiian Islands Ministries, a group that does leadership development for all of the churches in Hawaii. He cochairs Hawaii Together, the governor’s task force for the community in response to the war.

As part of Promise Keepers, he has spoken to more than 250,000 men in stadiums and sports arenas around the country about how to be a better father, husband, employee, and friend.

Dan Chun is fourth-generation Hawaiian born, and his grandfather was houseboy to Queen Liliiuokalani at Iolani Palace and was there on the day of the military takeover. He is an award-winning film producer and former TV News reporter for KGMB-TV (a CBS affiliate). He earned his doctor of ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary.

EMANUEL CLEAVER is currently serving his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives. First elected to public office in 1979 as a city councilman, he later served as mayor pro tem of Kansas City and then made history as the first African American elected mayor of the city. During his two-term stint as mayor, he was president of the National Conference of Black Mayors. Cleaver, who holds a master’s in divinity, is an ordained Methodist minister and still serves as senior pastor at Saint James United Methodist Church in Kansas City.

SUZAN JOHNSON COOK was the first African American woman to be elected to an American Baptist church in its two-hundred-year history and was the first woman elected president of the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference, which represents all the historically African American denominations. She is the New York City Police Department’s only female chaplain. She has served on the Domestic Policy Council in the Whi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• The King with Four Names
• Keeping Christ Central to Christmas
• Honoring Gifts from the East
• Vision is a Process
• All the Christmases to Come
• The Forgotten Man at Christmas
• Christmas Past, Present, and Future
• We Have Something to Give
• Have you Seen Jesus?
• Giving IS the Mark of Greatness
• The Fullness of Christ Revealed
• Christ’s Concern for Current Concerns
• The King Has One More Move
• In Praise of Nazareth
• God Is with Us
• A Night at the Holy Day Inn
• Make Room for God
• Sacred Wonder
• An Uncomfortable Christmas
• Unto Us a Child Is Born
• Obedience Has Its Consequences
• Living with Deferred Hope
• Unwrap the Gift of Righteousness
• Power to the People
• Christ in You
• The Greatest Christmas Gift
• No Longer Business as Usual
• The Journey of Joy
• A Testimony at Christmas
• A View from the Bottom
• Raising Another Man’s Baby
• The Glory of Christmas
• Joy to the World
• Draw Near
• Emmanuel:God With Us
• Christmas Honors the Common Person
• Pregnant with Possibility
• Prepare the Way of the Lord
• Joseph: The Portrait of Obedience
• Christmas! So What!
• A Creative Christmas
• A Good Place to Stop
• God’s Timing and Our Timing
• Accept the Gift
• The Value of Creating Family Traditions
• An Amazing Contrast
• God’s Gift to Us
• Shopping for a Savior
• Acknowledgments
• Biographical Sketches of Contributing Preachers
• Permissions Acknowledgments