What Does “Turkey” Mean?

Dr. Barrett Mosbacker, PublisherThe following is an email that I recently sent to our staff and parents.  I am sharing this devotional on The Christian School Journal because you may want to submit your own acrostic, but I will not give you pizza! :-)   You may also want to consider something similar for your school.

Dear Staff and Parents,

Last week I had the privilege of attending our fourth grade Thanksgiving program, The Purpose of Thanksgiving.  It was a beautiful program and the children were wonderful.  We have some great talent heading to the South Campus!

As I watched and listened, I was again reminded that we are to walk through this life with its peaks and its valleys with a grateful heart.  One of the songs the children sang was Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart. 

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son
Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks unto the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"
And now let the weak say, "I am strong"
Let the poor say, "I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us"

The Challenge—You Must Hurry!

This beautiful song got me to thinking about Thanksgiving and how our culture demeans the holiday when referring to it as “Turkey Day.”  I do not like the phrase “Turkey Day” because it distorts the purpose and meaning of Thanksgiving.  “Turkey Day” turns our attention away from God and toward our appetites. 

Seeking to refocus our hearts and minds on thankfulness, I have created a simple acrostic from the word Turkey:

Thankful

Under all circumstances

Remembering God’s goodness and

Keeping his praise on our lips as we

Enjoy Him and his blessings every

Year

I bet our students can do much better than the Superintendent!  Here is a challenge!

Take a few minutes in your classes to have your students (individually or as a class effort—see below) create an acrostic for the word Turkey that communicates something about thankfulness from a biblical perspective.  Here is a website that you can use on your SMART Boards: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/poetry/acrostic/turkey/index.shtml. 

This challenge has both spiritual and academic merit! 

The Rules:

Early Childhood and Elementary

· To be fair to all students—all EC and Elementary classes must participate. 

· Every class is to submit an entry either as a class project or as individual student entries from the class.  I recommend that this be a class project as a part of reading, literature, or Bible instruction for EC and Elementary classes.

· The acrostic must be submitted to the Superintendent by the close of school this Tuesday!

· Submissions must include the student’s and teacher’s name and grade (if this was done as an individual effort) or the class grade and teacher’s name if done as a class effort. 

· To protect class time and to be equitable, no more than 15 to 30 minutes should be devoted to this challenge.

· Entries are to be submitted by email.  This means that for younger children, teachers will need to type the acrostic for their student or class and email them to the Superintendent.

· Entries from students or classes must be submitted to the Superintendent by the teacher, not by students.

· Only the acrostic will be considered.  Art work, etc., will not be considered.

· The winning entries will be determined by votes from the principals and Superintendent.

· If an individual student submission wins, his or her class will win free pizza.  The same applies if the winning entry is submitted by a class.

· Employees and their families are not eligible.  :-)

Junior and Senior High

· Due to the complexity involved on the Jr. and Sr. high campuses (e.g., we do not want this project done for each class period), only individual student entries will be considered.  Class entries will not be considered.  However, teachers may, if they elect, set aside time in their classes (from 15-30 minutes) for students to work individually on their acrostics during class time.  This may be an excellent exercise for study halls or English/Literature classes.

· I ask that each teacher explain this challenge to his or her classes and then encourage students to submit entries by emailing them to a Jr. or Sr. high teacher who will then email the entries to the Superintendent.  All entries must include the student’s name and the class/subject, class period, and teacher’s name that the student wants the entry to be considered for.  For example, “Mrs. Suzie Smith, 7^th period history, Mr. ‘s class”

· Entries are to be submitted by email.

· Entries from students must be submitted to the Superintendent by the teacher, not by students.

· The acrostic must be submitted to the Superintendent by the close of school this Tuesday!

· Only the acrostic will be considered.  Art work, etc., will not be considered.

· The winning entries will be determined by votes from the principals and Superintendent.

· If an individual student submission wins, the class that he or she designates on the submission will win free pizza.  Remember, in order for a class to be awarded pizza, the winning entry must include the student’s name, class/subject, period, and teacher’s name that the student wants the entry to be submitted for.  For example, “Mrs. Suzie Smith, 7^th period history, Mr. ‘s class”

· Employees and their families are not eligible.  :-)

The Reward:

Free pizza will be provided by the Superintendent.  Pizza will be awarded to one class for each division of the school (EC, EL, Jr. H., and H.S.) and the winning entries will be published in the next issue of The Roar!  The date for awarding the pizza to the classes will be determined in consultation with the classroom teachers, principals, and the Superintendent.

Final Thoughts:

Let’s not make this more complicated than necessary.  Let’s make this fun, creative, and a spiritual activity in the lives of our students.  If I have not anticipated every possible complication and inadvertently created a problem, please forgive me, granting the judgment of charity (I mean well), and work around it. :-)

I’m looking forward to seeing our students’ creativity!  Who knows, if an acrostic is good enough it may go viral and be a blessing to many others!

Jesus, Save Us From Your Followers

By Jay Matthews

Just had the privilege to view the documentary in selected theaters, "Jesus Save Us From Your Followers." I had an inside source allow me to see a DVD of it and have had some time to view it in sections.

Very clever movie and very impressive in terms of the visual presentation and trendy graphics.

The documentary explores the polarization of American culture over issues of faith and asks a great question: What is wrong? Why is there so much venom over such a beautiful message- the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Dan Merchant presents an excellent exploration of this caustic culture in these important areas.

I found the movie helpful in some points, but too silent on two large aspects of this issue.

First: We have lost civil dialogue in this culture. Disagreement usually means 'war'. Instead of honest debate- we hurl sound bites over the internet or through talking heads. I agree that we have lost humility and love in the message. The section of the movie (inspired by Blue Like Jazz) of Christian confession was very powerful.

Second: We are ignorant of opposing worldviews and uneducated in the trends of mainstream culture. The culture war mantra has made these issue oriented debates instead of human relationships.

I agree with these premises and, sadly, am guilty as charged.

But there are two other major problems in our presentation of the gospel.

1) We need to be more tender to the 'world' - but we have lost accountability inside the church. There is no discernible difference inside the American church and outside the American church today. We are guilty of loving the world. We have the same consumerist tendencies- we have the same divorce rate- we have the same pattern of addiction and cynicism. Our lips love Jesus, but our hearts love the world.

This problem stems from a lack of seeing sin as serious. We have preached the watered down gospel. To quote Niebur,

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.

The bad news is not bad... so the good news is not good.

2) We also stand as the most biblically illiterate generation in America. Our reading comprehension slowly dwindles and the light of the Word is dimming. I recently read a handout from C.S. Lewis to my freshman Bible class- when I finished a student said, "I didn't understand a word he said."

The purity of the church is diminishing because God's word is being eclipsed in our midst.

We should be tender to others and tough on ourselves. We need God's Spirit to convict us of sin. We need to stop posing and come clean in our sin- but we also need to move toward repentance and holiness.

One final comment- the Gospel of Christ will be offensive. Granted, it should be the only offensive part of our life as we seek to love, serve, in humility live above reproach. But if we ever think that we will live in harmony with the world.... don't be gullible.

So I come away from the movie conflicted... I want to stand for righteousness and preach forgiveness. That means drawing hard lines which will make me appear intolerant and offensive. I need to love sinners, but I cannot ignore sin.

Sin destroys.. the gospel heals. Help me Lord find the balance- help me walk in the truth. Anyone else seen this documentary? Comments? I won't be offended if you disagree!