webmaster posted on January 13, 2012 12:52
Ruth Clark, president of American Baptist Churches USA for the biennium running from January 1, 2012-December 31, 2013, reflects on the Christmas season and beginning of the New Year. Click here to 
read the press release about new ABCUSA officers for this biennium.
One of the highlights of the Christmas season for me has always been our church Christmas program the Sunday evening prior to Christmas. Each of the children’s Sunday school classes shares songs and verses, there is a dramatic skit to remind us of the meaning of the celebration we share, and also a live nativity. As the familiar verses of Luke 2 are read in the candlelight, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus (this year played by Molly) make their way down the aisle to the manger scene. Interspersed with the scripture, vocal solos add to the message as the costumed shepherds, sheep, wise men, and angels arrive on the stage on cue.
But this year, there was a new twist to the scene. During rehearsal on Saturday, the director coached the children in the angel costumes – “When the music for ‘Gloria’ begins, I want you to dance!” Well, that was all the encouragement those little girls needed. On that Sunday evening when the soloist began Michael W. Smith’s “Gloria,” those angels danced! All through the strains of “Gloria” they danced around the platform, waving their wings, smiling and glowing in the reality of the excitement of the arrival of Jesus into the world.
At first the audience reacted in stunned silence, then, as the song continued, smiles and chuckles began to be seen and heard around the sanctuary. By the end of the music, the church was filled with the children’s contagious enthusiasm.
I wish I could capture for our churches a renewed sense of dancing in the joy of the coming of our Savior as we begin this New Year. With Transformed by the Spirit, a denomination-wide initiative, to challenge us, may we each be moved to joy and worship spilling over into the communities we serve with a contagious and meaningful message of hope and new life!
With joy and blessings,
Ruth Clark
President, American Baptist Churches USA