The word “Calendar” is a pretty negative one in my mind.
My grandmother would always give me a calendar for Christmas and I always thought it was about the worst gift I could have received. My friends were getting G.I. Joe action figures and video games, and I was getting wall calendars with outdated animal pictures or something strange like that.
So it’s pretty weird that we’re giving our church calendars for Christmas this year (one even has animal pictures).
The reason that we’re doing it is simple. When you really believe something it will show up in everything. At Antioch we believe that we are called to make a difference not just in Bend, but also in Central Oregon and the World (right now we’re focusing on what we can do to help those in Africa affected by HIV/AIDS and civil war).
If this is really something that we own – not just a cliche – then it ought to show up in everything. It ought to be hovering around day after day so that it slowly seeps further and further into our heart and minds.
So we decided to give calendars. Calendars hang around. Calendars have pictures that say something. Good calendars get looked at and (hopefully) talked about.
One of the calendars has a Central Oregon theme and the other has pictures from Eastern Africa. They both have the verse on them that governs our thinking in this area:
“And you shall be my witnesses in Jeruselem (at home) and in all Judea and Samaria (backyard) and to the ends of the Earth (abroad).” Acts 1:8
