I’ve asked a cross-section of Anchorage pastors to comment upon Advent as an Antidote for Acquisitiveness or Consumerism. Our next pastor featured is Pastor Bob Mather of Baxter Road Bible Church.

Traditionally, Advent refers to the four Sundays before December 25th where we celebrate the birth of the Son of God while understanding and thinking about the need to prepare for His second coming. If we truly gave much thought about the second coming then buying stuff and the American traditional Christmas consumerism would lose importance.

We take a little different tack, for us, at Baxter Road Bible Church; we emphasize remembering whose birthday we are celebrating. It is Jesus’ birthday not ours and our emphasis is on buying Him a gift which helps us realign our priorities. But what gift can we give Him? In Matthew 25 Jesus tells us plainly what He values and tells us “what we do for the least of these, we do for Him.” So, as people give their tithes and offerings, we give it all away to help the poor and needy and in that way we try to make Jesus’ priority our priority.[img_assist|nid=163058|title=Pastor Bob Mather, Baxter Road Bible Church|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=250|height=274]