It's time to rescue Christmas from the jaws of consumerism.

Every year the Christmas "shopping season" starts earlier and earlier. Every year Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas. Every year we're encouraged to go into debt to buy things that don't make us happy, that we won't remember a year from now, and that do nothing to celebrate the radical story of God's love for the world that's at the heart of Christmas.

But  this is the year all that can change. And we are the people who can change it.

The Advent Conspiracy started in 2006. It's a campaign that links churches all over the country in an effort to reinvigorate us with the radical truth of Christmas. This year, Holy Comforter is participating in this effort.

The plan is simple: Worship fully. Spend less. Give more. Love all.

Worship fully: We will put Jesus right at the heart of all we do this Advent and Christmas season. A special Advent Conspiracy sermon series will begin on November 16 and run throughout Advent.

Spend less: We will buy less gifts this year and we will not go into debt.

Give more: We will give gifts of time, relational gifts, and things that we've made. There will be workshops after church, starting in late November, designed to help you learn how to make meaningful gifts. In addition, you can find great ideas for relational gifts by clicking here and here.

Love all: We will take a portion of what we save and give it to help those in need. There are four different organizations that our parish is considering partnering with for this effort. You can find out about these organizations by looking at the write-ups in the November issue of The Comforter which is available here.

On that first Christmas, God came among us and gave Himself to us, not as a commodity to be bought and sold but as a person who would live among us and pull us up out of the muck. This Christmas, we can be followers of that God, beneficiaries of that love, and inheritors of that promise. Let the conpiracy begin...