– Advertisement –

Prestonwood Baptist Comes to Town: Church Worships to Flying Santa Claus Song

by | Dec 26, 2024 | News

✪ Read this article ad-free and leave comments here on Substack

In 2022, Prestonwood Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in Texas, put on a Christmas performance featuring none other than a flying Santa Claus. In what was supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Christ, the sanctuary became a theater for holiday theatrics, complete with Santa soaring through the air like a scene from a theme park show.

The sanctuary, which is meant for the worship of God, was transformed into a spectacle designed to entertain crowds and elicit applause. The humility of Christ’s incarnation—a story that has stood for millennia as the most profound demonstration of God’s love—was overshadowed by a performance more befitting of a shopping mall holiday event.

Fast forward to 2024, and churches like Champion Forest Baptist Church, as seen in the video clip below, are scrambling to emulate Prestonwood’s model. In their bid for cultural relevance, they, too, have introduced flying Santas into their Christmas services, reducing the miraculous story of the God-man taking on flesh to an afterthought in a glitzy production.

This isn’t about drawing hearts to the Savior, it’s about drawing applause from an audience. In chasing the world’s approval, these so-called “churches” are abandoning their duty to proclaim Christ crucified—a message that has always been countercultural, foolish to the world, and yet the very power of God to those being saved.

Join Us and Get These Perks:

✅ No Ads in Articles
✅ Access to Comments and Discussions
✅ Community Chats
✅ Full Article and Podcast Archive
✅ The Joy of Supporting Our Work 😉



What these churches fail to grasp is that the gospel doesn’t need a sleigh, a Santa, or a spotlight. The true relevance of Christmas lies in the unchanging truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, not to entertain them. Christ demands our total devotion, yet these performances ask for nothing but applause. The incarnation of the Son of God, the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy, and the foundation of our hope and salvation have been traded for such a spectacle that would be laughable if they weren’t so pathetic.

This isn’t about creativity or innovation—it’s about faithfulness. Churches have no business trying to outdo the world with spectacle when they’re called to stand apart from it. If Christ isn’t enough to fill the pews, flying Santas certainly won’t fill the void in people’s souls.

The holiday celebrated worldwide as “Christmas” is all about gimmicks and commercialization, yes. But the incarnation of Christ shouldn’t be. You won’t find any of that in Luke 2. It’s about the Savior who came to rescue us from sin and death—a message infinitely more powerful than any sleigh ride could ever be.

Flying Santa in Church

– Jeff

Read on Substack

Three Ways to Support DISNTR


The Dissenter is primarily supported by its readers. The best way to support us is to subscribe to our members-only Substack site where you will receive all of our content ad-free, plus you will get member-only exclusive content.

Support us with a monthly donation on Patreon

Support us with membership to our ad-free Substack

Make one-time or monthly donation on Donorbox


👕 Or make a purchase from our online store. 👕
Make a Dogecoin Donation

- Advertisement -

Latest

The Cycle of Charismatic Comebacks Continues: Next Up, Mike Bickle

The Cycle of Charismatic Comebacks Continues: Next Up, Mike Bickle

There’s a pattern in the charismatic movement—and once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Another leader crashes. Another “movement” staggers. Another circle of loyalists scrambles to explain, reinterpret, salvage. Not repent, but salvage. Not submit to Scripture, but...

This is What Happens When a Charlatan is Your Spiritual Advisor

This is What Happens When a Charlatan is Your Spiritual Advisor

Over Easter—of all times—spiritual charlatan, Paula White, stood in front of cameras and compared Donald Trump to Christ. Not subtly. Not loosely. Directly. She took the betrayal, the suffering, the cost, the language that belongs to the cross alone—and laid it at the...

That Moment When Paula “Jezebel” White Compared Trump to Christ

That Moment When Paula “Jezebel” White Compared Trump to Christ

I thought I had heard it all. I really did. Paula White has spent years building a reputation as one of the most brazen purveyors of prosperity nonsense in modern evangelicalism—name it, claim it, decree it, declare it, speak it into existence. The whole tired script....

- Advertisement -

Subscribe

Store

Follow Us

- Advertisement -

- Advertisement -

You Might Also Like…

Parents Handing Their Children Over to Drag Queens is Despicable

Parents Handing Their Children Over to Drag Queens is Despicable

These ... clowns. Literal clowns. Some dude, draped in cheap polyester sequins and a wig that reeks of desperation, sits there. He’s playing pretend with kids. He’s wearing a caricature of womanhood like a skin suit, and he’s doing it in front of a child.“Do I look...

This is What Happens When a Charlatan is Your Spiritual Advisor

This is What Happens When a Charlatan is Your Spiritual Advisor

Over Easter—of all times—spiritual charlatan, Paula White, stood in front of cameras and compared Donald Trump to Christ. Not subtly. Not loosely. Directly. She took the betrayal, the suffering, the cost, the language that belongs to the cross alone—and laid it at the...

How the Church Failed at Dismantling the Transgender Movement

How the Church Failed at Dismantling the Transgender Movement

For years now, the modern transgender movement hasn’t operated like a loose collection of ideas. It’s functioned like a system—predictable, coordinated, and disturbingly efficient. Not chaos. Not confusion. A process. A conveyor belt—the transgender conveyor belt—as...

In a World Unraveling, God Still Reigns.

In a World Unraveling, God Still Reigns.

I wake up, grab my coffee, thumb the screen—and it’s the same grim parade, again. A man guns down a pregnant woman at a red light—her husband beside her—an unborn child erased in the same breath, and the system shrugs it off under the banner of insanity. Not...

The Modern American Soft “Jesus” is an Idol

The Modern American Soft “Jesus” is an Idol

The modern American imagination is an idol factory, and it has manufactured a version of Jesus that never existed. In this version, Jesus is soft-spoken, endlessly agreeable, and almost allergic to confrontation. He floats through the Gospels like a spiritual...

- Advertisement -

Want to go ad-free with exclusive content? Subscribe today.
Already a subscriber? Click Here

This will close in 0 seconds

Three Ways to Support DISNTR



The Dissenter is primarily supported by its readers. The best way to support us is to subscribe to our members-only Substack site where you will receive all of our content ad-free, plus you will get member-only exclusive content.

 

Support us with a monthly donation on Patreon

Support us with membership to our ad-free Substack

Make one-time or monthly donation on Donorbox


👕 Or make a purchase from our online store. 👕

This will close in 0 seconds