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

by | Dec 26, 2024 | News

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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 Christโ€™s incarnationโ€”a story that has stood for millennia as the most profound demonstration of Godโ€™s loveโ€”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 Prestonwoodโ€™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 isnโ€™t about drawing hearts to the Savior, itโ€™s about drawing applause from an audience. In chasing the worldโ€™s approval, these so-called โ€œchurchesโ€ are abandoning their duty to proclaim Christ crucifiedโ€”a message that has always been countercultural, foolish to the world, and yet the very power of God to those being saved.

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What these churches fail to grasp is that the gospel doesnโ€™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 werenโ€™t so pathetic.

This isnโ€™t about creativity or innovationโ€”itโ€™s about faithfulness. Churches have no business trying to outdo the world with spectacle when theyโ€™re called to stand apart from it. If Christ isnโ€™t enough to fill the pews, flying Santas certainly wonโ€™t fill the void in peopleโ€™s souls.

The holiday celebrated worldwide as โ€œChristmasโ€ is all about gimmicks and commercialization, yes. But the incarnation of Christ shouldnโ€™t be. You wonโ€™t find any of that in Luke 2. Itโ€™s about the Savior who came to rescue us from sin and deathโ€”a message infinitely more powerful than any sleigh ride could ever be.

Flying Santa in Church

โ€“ Jeff

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