December 21, 2024 • 33 mins
Pastor Bob and Trent discuss Christmas Eve worship services. Join us as we rank our favorite holiday classics, from the mischievous antics of "Home Alone" to the heartwarming nostalgia of "It's a Wonderful Life."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, good morning Pastor Bob, Good morning Trent.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you Good?
It's a Wednesday morning and weare exactly one week away from
Christmas morning.
We are, yeah Wild, yeah, it'scrazy.
It doesn't feel like Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, for a guy who's from a cold winter or cold
weather kind of place, yeah, itis supposed to be up to 83 today
, If I saw correctly.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I think it was 83.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Is that right I didn't see today.
I think it's 83.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I think today is supposed to be the warmest day,
and then it's supposed to cooldown.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is supposed to cool off between now and
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, we went to Knoxville for Thanksgiving and
it was fairly cold.
We went up to the mountains andit was really cold, and then we
came back here and it's gettingcloser to Christmas but it's
only getting warmer and warmer.
So, yeah, it does not feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Christmas, but we've had a fairly mild start to the
winter so far here.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, it is just so.
So Florida, specifically thepanhandle, was where our family
vacationed.
We didn't do a lot ofvacationing, but that's where we
vacation.
I can remember three or fourtimes growing up we would make
the drive We'd go to I don'tknow Pensacola or Destin.
I don't think we ever went toPanama City Beach.
We went to Destin, but I thinkwe did it in the summer and so
(01:20):
it was just really, really hot.
It's just so crazy to me tothink that you can be at the
beach on Christmas Day and mostlikely it won't be too cold.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, yeah, that's a Florida thing.
Wild, welcome to Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, but you're leaving.
We're in like kind of SouthFlorida.
Yeah, no, kind of South Florida, we're in Central West Florida.
Well, University of SouthFlorida is in our neighborhood.
Yes, but they're directionallychallenged.
Apparently that's kind of likethe Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
It's not really that Southern.
You're right In Louisville,it's like Northern Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You're right, geography.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, and two, there's not much more south of
us, at least in Florida, atleast on the Gulf Coast.
I mean, you've got like theEverglades but you have Miami,
but it's more on the west coast.
I just flipped that around Onthe east coast the coast of the.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Atlantic, you've just offended everybody who lives in
Bradenton and Sarasota, Naples.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, but that's almost our area.
Cape Coral is farther, but youdon't have a ton south of us,
right?
I mean you don't Do they havemajor reports?
No, right, do they havebeautiful beaches?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They might as well not be there Do they have
beautiful beaches.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yes, are they beautiful people?
Fort Myers, sure, okay, southof Fort Myers, what is there?
Nothing, right?
I don't think there's anything.
I think that's basically.
That's Alligator Alley, right?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, there's a little more, yeah, but that's
okay.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Like what it says.
Alligators there and peoplehanging out with them, right.
So I mean I say that to say Imean we're only what?
An hour and a half from FortMyers.
Yeah, give or take, yeah, sowe're in.
If that's the southern part ofthe Gulf Coast, we're in that
area.
Yeah, I think three hours ormore we're not have you ever
(03:16):
been to the Keys?
Yes, is it worth before we move,because we will come back down
to Tampa.
But we won't come back down toTampa for an extended period of
time.
Is it worth, in the next fivemonths, going down to the Keys?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What do you want to accomplish?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
To say we went to the Keys, I mean Just to go, I mean
I don't know.
Another time we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So it's a four and a half hour drive to Miami.
Yeah, Then you can get down tolike what is it to miami.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, then you can get down to like what is it key?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
largo which isn't all that exciting, and then the
keys are like a three-hour driveon bridges a long drive, yeah,
yeah.
Yeah, key west is kind of neat,but it's not like any other
beach town that you have here onthe in pinellas county.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So if we did so.
I think it's in sarasota orbradenton.
There's a ferry, yes, and it'salmost set up like a plane.
You sit front to back side byside with people and I don't
think it's that long of a trip.
It's not.
Wouldn't that be worth it Justto go down there?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
If you want to just do it with your wife, it'd be
kind of fun to do it with youand Jess.
I've had other friends thathave taken that ferry.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Okay, okay, I've had other friends that have taken
that ferry.
Okay, yeah, I wouldn't probablytake a day to do it, but the
thing is I'm terrified of boatsand that's fairly open water
fairly.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yes, yeah, yeah, so it's it's like the old days it's
just the two of us in thestudio today.
Yeah, it's been a while.
Not that I don't appreciatekara or whoever else sits in
with us, but it's been a whilesince it's just been the two of
us doing the podcast.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We are sans Kara and sans Jordan.
Jordan has his off day and Karais on her honeymoon, so we
don't normally record onWednesdays.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
This is unusual.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And it's a quiet Wednesday, it's a very quiet
Wednesday.
These weeks around Christmastime are just super quiet right.
There are people that may havespecific needs that come in and
out, but most people are seeingfamily, they're getting off of
school, they're going on trips.
What have you we're?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
not complaining.
No, we like the slower pace fora little while.
A little bit of reading is nice.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I was just reading a book that I got from
Mr Nathan Schneider, the giverof free books.
The giver of free books heworks for the Florida Vitals
Convention.
I assume he just gets freebooks all the time from Crossway
or B&H or Holman or whoever togive to pastors, to give to them
, and so occasionally get a freebook from him.
(05:36):
And so he gave a book to methis past week.
It's daily, devotional,something I don't know, but it's
almost like a systematictheology, but it's only like
four paragraphs on a topic andit's devotional.
It's really kind of cool.
That's kind of neat.
It's 365 of them, so you readone one day and you read the
(05:59):
next day.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was really kind of cool.
So it's written helpfully,devotionally, theologically and
briefly.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
All those things are good.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Daily something.
Daily doctrines, doctrine,daily devotion, devotion
doctrines, something.
I think it's two Ds, all right,so hey, here's the fact of the
day, it's.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Did you know that in Japan, apparently, it is
tradition for people to enjoy aKentucky fried chicken meal?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yummy.
You know, that I did not.
It doesn't really surprise me,because KFC is pretty popular in
foreign countries.
Why, I don't know, but it isSouth Africa all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Is it a so people?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
say Brazil.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, I've seen them in Brazil.
Yeah, People say in other partsof the world some of our fast
food restaurants are nicerrestaurants.
They're not, I mean sit-downrestaurants necessarily, but
would you say it's probably asit-down restaurant, a nicer
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I don't know that I'd call it a sit-down restaurant,
but you can recognize it as,whatever the establishment is,
mcdonald's KFC, but they arekind of a little more upscale-y
than what we have.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When we were in Krakow, poland, it was funny.
In the old city which has allthese old buildings from the
1300s and 1400s, there was aMcDonald's on one of the corners
, which is really kind of an oddplace for it to be.
It's right next to a hugeCatholic church and people were
like, okay, there's differentkinds of food here this is much
(07:28):
nicer than we have, and I'mthinking, I mean maybe a little
bit um, not a ton nicer, no,it's not yeah yeah, yeah, so kfc
is not my favorite chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
No in fact they're known for chicken.
Obviously it's kentucky friedchicken.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I think they have one of the worst chickens I'm not
sure it's the same standard thatit used to be.
The quality is low.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It's low.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I can't remember the last time I had KFC though?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Do you have a favorite chicken place?
Have you had Raising Cane's?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I've had Raising Cane's.
It's pretty good.
Guthrie's Guthrie's is okay.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'd only had Guthrie's a few months ago for
the first time in Tallahassee,didn't realize we had one down
kind of close to where you live.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yes, near us.
It's okay, Chick-fil-Aobviously Popeye's Chick-fil-A
has changed its chicken.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
No, in the last year.
I'm not really that up on thechicken franchises.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, someone told me that, and then I can notice it.
Eating the chicken, really, Ican taste the difference.
Yeah, for the better or for theworse, it doesn't taste as real
.
Hmm, I say that.
So if you had McDonald'schicken, it's like—.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Be careful.
You're bordering on blasphemywith the Baptist bird.
Oh, I still love it.
So be careful, be very careful.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I still love it when I say it doesn't taste as real
there might be.
It's not necessarily as good,but it's still really really
good.
You know, like McDonald'schicken is almost like ground
chicken put into a nugget.
You know it does not taste likethat, but it is much more
consistent and soft than kind ofthe pulling of the meat that it
(09:04):
used to have Genuinely.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You can bite into one and you'll taste it.
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So do you have a favorite?
Is it Chick-fil-A?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I don't really have a favorite.
Zaxby's is not bad.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Zaxby's is good.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, zaxby's is good , I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Chicken's chicken, get the fries and you get
whatever else where would?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
you go?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't know, because I would rarely go and get like
a three piece chicken meal, foranything, I just yeah, I think
I'd go to raisin canes, yeah, Ithink.
So they're chickens, they'rechickens, so I like their sauce
the best, I think.
Now I like Brahms, which is inthe Oklahoma, missouri area.
Yeah, I'm not familiar withthem, but all right.
Well, hey, it's time to rankChristmas movies.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, we did songs last time.
Right, it's songs last time.
Today's movies.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I've got.
Do we want to do eight of themor do we want to do ten of them?
Two?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I don't care.
Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Here's the 10 movies we're gonna rank, uh, in no
particular order.
White christmas never seen it.
It's a wonderful life.
I've never seen that elf.
I've definitely seen thatnational lampoon's christmas
vacation.
I've seen that home alone.
The santa claus, that's the timallen, the santa claus, the
first one, not the second, thirdand whatever else they made.
It's not good, uh, miracle on34th street.
(10:24):
Uh I, whatever else they made,it's not good.
Miracle on 34th Street.
I assume that they made twoversions of those.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
At least two.
Yeah, you talking about theoriginal or the one?
Pick your favorite and we'llvote on your favorite no, the
original is much better than theremake I haven't seen either.
How are you ranking moviesyou've never seen?
You haven't seen half thesemovies.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, so I'm going to have to just do like a.
I'll tell you what to watchGrinch, and particularly the Jim
Carrey version we're not doinganimated movies on this list and
then Die Hard, which peoplelove to talk about it being a
Christmas movie or not.
I've also not seen Die Hard, soI'm not in the vote on whether
it's a good or bad movie.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So this is basically me ranking half of them and you
ranking the other half thatyou've seen yeah, I think die
hards are rated r movie bob.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So if that's uh anywhere lower than 10, yeah I
think it is again.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I've not seen the movie set in a christmas setting
.
That's I have.
You can say I have seen.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Uh, the die hard image that I have every time I
think of die hard is him in like?
I think it's like a, a whitetank top in a like an air
conditioning vent.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's an iconic scene.
Maybe he's got like a lighterto see.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's themovie, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That's the movie.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
All right?
Well, hey, let's rank them.
So let's start with leastfavorite to most favorite, Least
to most.
Mm-hmm, what are you going tostart?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
with Diehard's number 10.
Really, yeah, I don't dislikeDiehard, I just don't consider
it a go-to Christmas movie.
Okay, um.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Grinch has to be next right.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, probably.
Grinch is nine.
Grinch is fine, grinch is fine.
I know Ryan really likes Grinch.
He enjoys that movie.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We just watched it with the kids.
It was a little bit scarierthan I remember for a
four-year-old, just because he'sloud, and Jim Carrey, it's a
little bit longer than I want itto be.
It felt long.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In all honesty, I hardly ever will sit down and
watch any of these movies startto finish.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'm watching the Untold documentaries again.
Those are so good.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
So number nine, grinch, I would go Home Alone.
8, although I like Home Alone.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I like Home Alone.
I'm not dissing on Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That would put Santa Claus.
I like Home.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Alone.
Home Alone is so good.
I like Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Joe Pesci, I'm not dissing on Home Alone.
Okay, that would put SantaClaus at seven, although I like
this.
Santa Claus, that hurts me, butbecause you don't know these
other movies, that's correct.
You can't judge because youdon't know the older movies.
I told you last time I'm atraditionalist, I call older
stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So I older stuff, so I'm going to rank the older ones
better.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Okay, so Santa Claus was the movie we watched growing
up, my parents just loved TimAllen, and so we watched the
Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
The first, two Third, I think I've seen the second
one.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I've seen Jack Frost is the third one.
Awful that's awful.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Those are money grabs .
They're trying to take themoney from the first, have you?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
seen the series that they've come out with Christmas
Chronicles.
No, it's the Santa Claus.
No, not seen it yeah don'tbother.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
There's the Christmas Chronicles and it's got the guy
from Overboard.
I forget his name Kurt Russell.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Kids like that one.
Okay, that's good.
Where am I?
You just did seven the SantaClaus, so this is going to
surprise you.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'm going to put A Christmas Story at six.
You would think I would rank ithigher.
I'm happy with that.
I like A Christmas Story.
It's a tradition on ChristmasEve that it's kind of on in the
background.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Here's the thing it's not a good movie, but's not a
good movie but it is a goodmovie.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
No, it's not.
It it's not a good movie.
It's got quotable lines.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's got quotable lines yes, yes so it's like um
monty python, right?
So just you know the holy grailvery quotable, not as quotable,
but very quotable, and peoplelike it because of of, uh,
sentimental value exactlynostalgia.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
it speaks to me because of the nostalgia,
because it was made in the 80sbut set in like the 50s, and so
that time frame just kind of iscool.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Can I tell you something?
You're going to.
The answer is going to be long,but the topic is short today
and we're talking aboutChristmas.
Fa la, la, la Yep.
So one of the big things aboutthe movie A Christmas Story is
that he gets a Red Rider BB gun.
I just bought Judah a Red RiderBB gun.
I hope he doesn't shoot his eyeout.
He's getting it for Christmas,which is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I remember when we bought Ryan a BB gun.
He's a little on the youngerside.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Judah's not even seven yet.
He'll turn seven on ChristmasDay, but we got him a Red Rider.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
With supervision, that'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We got him a Red Rider rider with supervision,
that'll be okay.
We got a red rider, we got inthe yellow little sunglasses
that came with a red rider, nice.
And then, uh, I actually wenton daisy's website who makes the
red rider, and, uh, they havelike these little clay targets
that, it's like you know,explode like clay pigeons but
built for bb guns, and so we'regonna stick those in the yard
I'm so excited.
It's gonna be fun yeah it'd bea lot of fun, cool, all All
(15:18):
right, so you did six for.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Christmas Story.
Six for Christmas Story.
I'm going to go NationalLampoon's Christmas Vacation at
five, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I enjoy it.
Now is Christmas Vacation, theone that You've not seen this
one.
No, no, no, there's twodifferent vacations.
Right, there's multiplevacations.
Okay, christmas vacation iswith uncle eddie, where, um,
they, uh, they do the prayer, um, and they let grandma do the
prayer and she starts in thepledge of allegiance or
something, or the nationalanthem.
(15:48):
Okay, yeah, hilarious, yeah,yeah, and the turkey just goes.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's over okay, it's just a little dry.
Yeah, great baby.
Uh, yeah, good stuff in thatmovie.
Uh, so that's number five.
So that puts miracle at 34thStreet.
The original, not the remake.
The original at four, elf atthree.
I like Elf I enjoy Elf and thenthe two.
It's a Wonderful Life, which isa long movie and can be very
(16:16):
depressing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, I really don't know what happens in it, but
it's a good movie.
I'm not kidding, it's a classic.
I'm a classic guy.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So it's a Wonderful Life at two, and I'm going to
put White Christmas at one,which was also my number one
song.
And the reason for that istraditionally, when Darlene and
I are decorating our main tree,we play White Christmas the
movie while we're decorating ourtree, so it's just a kind of a
(16:46):
holiday tradition for us.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Okay, so I feel like people aren't going to believe
this.
But not only have I not seenthe movie, I, they're both old
movies, but they're in differenteras correct um was I told that
they're not around the sametime frame when they were made,
or when they're set yes I don'tknow, I don't know either.
They're both black and white no, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
They're both post-World War II settings.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
They're both black and white and probably made in
similar time frames.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I'd have to look, butthey're going to be pretty close
.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
The song White Christmas is that from the movie
.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's originally from a different movie Holiday Inn,
if I remember right.
Okay, and then the song was sopopular that they ended up
making a movie for it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Ah, okay, there you go.
See, you're learning stuff, sothey made the movie from the
song.
That was kind of part of theinspiration.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, you need to see these movies.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, man, okay, maybe my wife thinks it's
horrible that I haven't seeneither one of those movies.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
She grew up on Westerns, black and white
Westerns, with her dad, and thenjust black and white movies.
You are uneducated right now.
So I have to mark out Die Hardand I have to mark out White
Christmas and I have to mark outit's a Wonderful Life and I
have to mark out Miracle on 34thStreet.
Okay, so we've got to use that.
(18:07):
So that's uh, four, so six.
Grinch will be six.
Um, uh, no, yeah, grinch wouldbe six.
Christmas story would be five.
Um, national Lampoons will befour.
Home Alone.
No, let's do.
Elf would be three.
Home Alone would be two.
Santa Claus would be three.
Home Alone would be two.
Santa Claus would be one.
Santa Claus is my Christmasstory.
It just has a lot ofsentimental value.
I love you know.
(18:29):
The boy stays with the dad.
Mom and dad are divorced anddad doesn't know how to cook,
and so you know it shows this.
It zooms in on a TV.
He's watching for how to make aturkey looking like it's the
table he's prepared.
And then it shows him and he'sspraying a fire extinguisher on
(18:49):
the turkey.
It's going everywhere.
And then he goes to Denny's andhe says it's an American
establishment.
They show a bunch of Chinesepeople there and then Judy's
their waitress and he seesanother dad with two kids and
he's like, did you burn a turkey?
And the dad raises and he's gota cast on Hilarious, great
movie.
(19:10):
We want to talk about ChristmasEve services, okay, so in every
church that I've been a part ofserving and growing up they have
had a Christmas Eve servicetradition to gather on the night
before Christmas to sing carols.
I think most churches that Iwas a part of, if not every, had
(19:35):
candles where we'd sing SilentNight or something similar
together and it was like afamily thing.
You know, a lot of timesfamilies would dress up for that
night and then go home andmaybe open up one Christmas gift
before Christmas morning.
So I looked up when ChristmasEve services started Early on in
church history.
There were vigils.
(19:55):
Some of those Christmas Eveservices early on went to
midnight midnight mass.
But let's just ask the questionlike why do we at FBC Tampa
have a Christmas Eve service?
What's the significance in it?
The answer might be obvious,but just from you as our pastor,
why do we have Christmas Eveservices?
Because I like it, okay.
So it's not in the Bible to haveChristmas Eve service.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No, it's not in the Bible to have it Okay, we've
just found it to be, and ourshas grown.
In my 15 years here it reallyhas grown and grown every year
to where it's one of the mostpopular services each year.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Now, is it in the Bible to have Christmas Eve
service?
If it's on a Sunday, what?
Yes, so Sunday service, okay,so then in the Bible?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, on the first day of the week, but it's
a Tuesday this year, so we'regoing to have one at five
o'clock on a Tuesday.
On a Tuesday, yeah, we've justcome to find that it helps
families to just kind of slowdown in the midst of a very busy
season and just kind of makesure we're focused in the right
way.
And that, and just kind of makesure we're focused in the right
way, that for me it just slowsmy mind down.
It slows my heart down and justsays, okay, let's focus on what
(21:06):
we're really celebrating here.
For me it goes back tochildhood.
Like you, I grew up in churchesthat had them.
My family always participatedin them.
We would go and then go to mygrandmother's house afterwards.
Then I did attend a church thatdid a service from 11 to
midnight, and we did that foryears.
(21:27):
So for us here at First Baptistit's a church service.
That is just a great time tojust slow down and worship the
Lord together and remember whatit's all about.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, Uh, since we've been here, one thing that, so I
love Christmasy service as well.
Um.
I think, you've only missed inmy family and my wife's family
lives 16 hours to 20 hours awayfrom where, uh, we now live here
in Tampa, Um, but I think I'veonly missed one service because
(22:03):
we've tried to arrange goingback home to see family around
that service, and not justbecause you need me here you
don't need me here but because Ijust love that service.
I think you're spot on.
It is a time for us just torest, reflect.
It's almost like a Sabbath wherewe're taking time to
contemplate and consider whatGod has done in the rush of
(22:25):
getting all our packages wrapped, and it even makes some of the
things we do for Christmas thatare good things.
It puts them in properperspective for their importance
.
Yeah, the weekend before we'regetting all the gifts we can,
you know, uh, all the stores arefull of people rushing around,
and then you slow down and youremember okay, this is, this is
(22:45):
all about Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, We've been busy going to parties and meetings
and everything getting ready forChristmas.
You got a night where you canjust slow down and then you know
it's going to crank back up fora day or so with family, but
you can just slow down for alittle bit.
And so we've had families startto rearrange their, their
Christmas Eve celebrations withtheir family to be able to be
here, and we choose to do oursat five, just so we can give
(23:08):
those families that opportunity.
So we're it's an hour longservice.
They can be gone at six andthen go enjoy their evening
together.
Um, but yeah, it's.
Uh, it's also a service thatfrom us, from a ministerial
standpoint, doesn't require awhole lot of preparation.
Darren probably more than therest of us, as he's getting the
(23:30):
musical team and the worshipteam together, but even that is
it's familiar songs.
We go very traditional.
We have families read theChristmas story, we light
candles, we do the Lord's Suppertogether.
I give a brief Christmas Evedevotional thought.
So it's not a lot of prep time,it's not a lot of we do
(23:51):
everything with excellence, butit's not a lot of effort that we
have to put in on the front endto make that to go well.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
We're not trying to make it into something, we're
trying to remember togetherExactly.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We're not trying to overthink it, we're not trying
to be too creative with it,we're just.
I think at Christmas, peoplewant to remember what Christmas
is about.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They want their family.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
They want their family and for most people they
want traditional stuff.
They want songs.
They know they want to singthings.
They know they want songs.
They know they want to singthings.
They know they want to hear thestory.
They know.
So I think we just lean intothat pretty well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's right leaning into it
because we want to appear to bethe family that we are as much
as possible so that families canbe here and enjoy time with not
only their family but a churchfamily, Right, All right?
Well, hey, so what do we doduring service?
You mentioned that we singcarols.
You mentioned that you do adevotional Candles we do.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
How long is the service Usually right?
At an hour.
And so it alternates betweensome music that the congregation
participates in carol singing.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
All I Want for Christmas.
Is you those kind of things?
Yes, Not it.
Mariah Carey hasn't made thelist yet.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But traditional, typically pretty traditional
Christmas carol stuff.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Yeah that's Darren's favorite,I think.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
That's got to be up there.
For me too, it's a great one.
Joy to the World.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Joy to the world.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Joy to the world First Noel, first Noel you know
that kind of little town ofBethlehem.
Are there any Christmas songs?
I'm going off subject.
Are there any Christmas songsthat we don't sing?
Christmas hymns carols that arereally good, that you know of
that are just like man.
This is a really good one,don't sing all that often I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Joy to the world.
We do, but it's not a Christmascarol, it's a Second Coming
song.
I've heard that.
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It's 100% a Second Coming song, but it's okay.
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So that didn't answer your question.
I don't know, joy to the World.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
The Lord has come.
He's come once he's comingagain.
I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Darren does a great job of that.
So we try to intersperse thosesongs and then we'll have
families go up and read portionsof the Christmas story.
You know, the Gabriel appearingto Mary, gabriel appearing to
Joseph the census.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Herod and the wise man, Herod and the wise, you
know all of the shepherds, thewhole thing, and then we'll put
the songs in between it.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And then we'll do a devotional, maybe a five or ten
minute devotional on what themeaning is.
We'll observe Lord's Suppertogether.
We used to do that.
I really love this.
We used to be able to do itwhere families could come down
and we would have about five orsix different stations set up.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You would do one, I would do one, dan would do one,
we would just do very individualtimes with families.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
We've grown so to the point where we can't do that
anymore, not not in thetimeframe.
So now we do a corporate Lord'ssupper together which is still
nice.
Yeah, and then we'll lightcandles.
We'll do a candle lightingwhere it passes the candle
around, focusing on the light ofthe world and that God has sent
us into the world to be light.
Now, uh, we'll sing silentnight.
(27:02):
So it's just a very sweettraditional reminder.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, have you ever had any incidents with the
candles?
Significant incidents?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Uh, not on Christmas Eve we have.
But at a musical somebody'shair got too close to a candle.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Oh yeah, that was fun .
Did it just start smelling?
Did it get a little fire?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Fortunately it was out in the hallway as children
were getting ready to come inand sing Wow, and so nobody out
in the congregation actuallyever knew it happened.
No children were hurt in theincident, but it was close.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Was it this church or another church?
Was there ever like a liveanimal brought into the building
?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Not, here, but yeah, there's a lot of places that do
that.
I've been in churches that dolive animals.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, okay, I remember there's some story.
Yeah, okay, this is you right.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, that was.
Oh, was that West Palm?
I think that was First BaptistWest Palm, before it came family
church.
Okay, I think what happened Acamel just went over into the,
into a person, into a pew.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I've
never, I don't think I've beenin any service where a live
animal has intentionally come in.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Not unintentionally either, but I don't think
anybody's ever brought a liveanimal into service for a play.
At one of my churches we did alive nativity at christmas eve
service.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I think it was christmas eve service and we had
a donkey and it just refused togo down the aisle so we had two
guys dressed, it just sat thereand you know, when a donkey
makes up his mind, it ain'tgonna do anything so we had
these two guys, two deacons whosit on it and slap its bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
They just, they had a , they had a rope, and one of
them grabbed one side of therope and the other and they just
dragged that thing down theaisle with its bottom just feet
out like, yeah, yeah, yeah,that's hilarious, yeah, oh
goodness, okay, um, so uh,there's this history.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So I looked up the history of celebrating christmas
eve services and it talkedabout a midnight mass.
Sure, sure, so uh, in churchhistory, a number of churches
have celebrated that ChristmasEve service going into midnight,
ending, right, you know, at1201 AM.
Uh, why do that?
Why not do that?
Uh, have you been a part of achurch that does that?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I have um Catholic church still does it.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
There's still the celebration at St Peter's
Basilica every year right atmidnight, but they start before
midnight, right, they do.
They start before midnight andthey go into midnight and they
kind of stop.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I've been in churches that give you an option
.
You can come at like 6 o'clockwith your family, or there's one
at 11 o'clock that ends aftermidnight, and we used to do both
as a couple that would just beDarlene and I.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
We'd probably enjoy going to that other than the
fact that we're probably bothasleep well before that,
especially not having kids now.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Exactly, but with kids it's a but.
We've, I've enjoyed those it's,it's, it's, it's, uh.
In the church I grew up in, itwas special Um, and we would
usually end with candles and wewould proceed out to the outside
in the front of the church andend with the candles.
Outside is just the symbolicnature of taking the candles or
(30:09):
the light singing outside.
Yeah, okay, yeah, so you'resaying process out with the with
the light, okay, into the, intothe night.
Oh, that's cool, it was nice.
I mean, is it necessary to doit at midnight?
No, but it just rings in thenew day, I guess.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Okay, how many churches do you think like
non-Catholic Protestant Baptistchurches do you think?
Do that Still?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, probably fewer now than yeah, yeah, I rarely
hear of any that actually aredoing one, but I'm sure they do
actually are doing one, but I'msure they do.
And if they do, it's great.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, how many kids do you think are just sleeping
in the pew during that?
They come in their pajamas?
I would assume kids.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, you would think so, you know, when they fall
asleep on the way home.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, it's a late night.
I don't ever see the other sideof midnight.
Yeah, I rarely do.
I can probably count on onehand the last number of years.
So, all right, well, hey, justone more quick thing, pastor Bob
, and then we'll be done.
Do you have like a go-todevotional text to teach on?
(31:08):
So, do you go to Matthew?
Do you go to Luke?
Do you do kind of a version ofJohn, the word becoming flesh,
you know?
Is there a way?
So when you're doing adevotional, I assume you pull
from all of them.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You almost have to to tell the whole story to get the
whole picture you pull fromeach of the gospels.
Um, if I had to pick one, Iwould probably go with Luke,
just because I've got that onemore memorized and there's more
detail in that one.
Yeah, shepherds are in Luke.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, shepherds, not in Luke.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, okay, they're definitely in.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Luke shepherds.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
But I probably would use John as my favorite, just
John.
Chapter one, sure, because itjust summarizes the whole thing
and John doesn't mess aroundwith telling us about the Light
coming in the world.
He doesn't go back to thenativity, he goes back to
eternity past and starts thereand explains it all.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Matthew and Luke are historical accounts.
What John is doing isexplaining from eternity past
for an eternal future.
Christ has now entered into.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, it's a theological explanation of
Christmas.
Yeah, so that's probably myfavorite passage to go to, but
there's different ways to do it.
But again, I think people don'tget.
Sometimes pastors can, I think,get too creative at Christmas.
Just, there's a reason why wecelebrate Christmas celebrate it
, emphasize it, use those textsto do it.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Be reminded not necessarily be wow, did
something new.
What we're celebrating issomething that is old and great.
We don't have to make it better.
It doesn't get much better thanChrist coming for us.
Anything else?
You'd add Christmas Eve service.
If you don't have a church togo to, go to a solid church,
(32:49):
Come to FBC Tampa.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We'd love to have you Make it part of your
celebration.
I think it's important forparents.
Parents are always trying tostrike this balance between the
secular nature of Christmas andthe traditional, the sacred
nature, and I think a ChristmasEve service is the perfect way
to do that.
I think it is an opportunity toteach your children.
Yeah, we're excited aboutwhat's going to happen tomorrow
(33:11):
morning or tonight, whateveryour family's tradition is, but
this is why we celebrateChristmas, and so I just I would
encourage families to use it asa teaching tool for their kids.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
That's good.
I love that.
All right, well, hey, thanksfor listening.
In next week We'll probablyrecord again and you'll get to
hear from us, yeehaw.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
See you later.
Well, good morning Pastor Bob, Good morning Trent.
How are you?
I'm doing well.
How are you Good?
It's a Wednesday morning and weare exactly one week away from
Christmas morning.
We are, yeah Wild, yeah, it'scrazy.
It doesn't feel like Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, for a guy who's from a cold winter or cold
weather kind of place, yeah, itis supposed to be up to 83 today
, If I saw correctly.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
I think it was 83.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Is that right I didn't see today.
I think it's 83.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I think today is supposed to be the warmest day,
and then it's supposed to cooldown.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It is supposed to cool off between now and
Christmas.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yeah, we went to Knoxville for Thanksgiving and
it was fairly cold.
We went up to the mountains andit was really cold, and then we
came back here and it's gettingcloser to Christmas but it's
only getting warmer and warmer.
So, yeah, it does not feel like.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Christmas, but we've had a fairly mild start to the
winter so far here.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, it is just so.
So Florida, specifically thepanhandle, was where our family
vacationed.
We didn't do a lot ofvacationing, but that's where we
vacation.
I can remember three or fourtimes growing up we would make
the drive We'd go to I don'tknow Pensacola or Destin.
I don't think we ever went toPanama City Beach.
We went to Destin, but I thinkwe did it in the summer and so
(01:20):
it was just really, really hot.
It's just so crazy to me tothink that you can be at the
beach on Christmas Day and mostlikely it won't be too cold.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
No, yeah, that's a Florida thing.
Wild, welcome to Florida.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Yeah, but you're leaving.
We're in like kind of SouthFlorida.
Yeah, no, kind of South Florida, we're in Central West Florida.
Well, University of SouthFlorida is in our neighborhood.
Yes, but they're directionallychallenged.
Apparently that's kind of likethe Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary.
It's not really that Southern.
You're right In Louisville,it's like Northern Kentucky.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You're right, geography.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, and two, there's not much more south of
us, at least in Florida, atleast on the Gulf Coast.
I mean, you've got like theEverglades but you have Miami,
but it's more on the west coast.
I just flipped that around Onthe east coast the coast of the.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Atlantic, you've just offended everybody who lives in
Bradenton and Sarasota, Naples.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, but that's almost our area.
Cape Coral is farther, but youdon't have a ton south of us,
right?
I mean you don't Do they havemajor reports?
No, right, do they havebeautiful beaches?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
They might as well not be there Do they have
beautiful beaches.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yes, are they beautiful people?
Fort Myers, sure, okay, southof Fort Myers, what is there?
Nothing, right?
I don't think there's anything.
I think that's basically.
That's Alligator Alley, right?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Well, there's a little more, yeah, but that's
okay.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Like what it says.
Alligators there and peoplehanging out with them, right.
So I mean I say that to say Imean we're only what?
An hour and a half from FortMyers.
Yeah, give or take, yeah, sowe're in.
If that's the southern part ofthe Gulf Coast, we're in that
area.
Yeah, I think three hours ormore we're not have you ever
(03:16):
been to the Keys?
Yes, is it worth before we move,because we will come back down
to Tampa.
But we won't come back down toTampa for an extended period of
time.
Is it worth, in the next fivemonths, going down to the Keys?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
What do you want to accomplish?
Speaker 1 (03:30):
To say we went to the Keys, I mean Just to go, I mean
I don't know.
Another time we're going to go.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
So it's a four and a half hour drive to Miami.
Yeah, Then you can get down tolike what is it to miami.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Yeah, then you can get down to like what is it key?
Speaker 2 (03:47):
largo which isn't all that exciting, and then the
keys are like a three-hour driveon bridges a long drive, yeah,
yeah.
Yeah, key west is kind of neat,but it's not like any other
beach town that you have here onthe in pinellas county.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So if we did so.
I think it's in sarasota orbradenton.
There's a ferry, yes, and it'salmost set up like a plane.
You sit front to back side byside with people and I don't
think it's that long of a trip.
It's not.
Wouldn't that be worth it Justto go down there?
Speaker 2 (04:16):
If you want to just do it with your wife, it'd be
kind of fun to do it with youand Jess.
I've had other friends thathave taken that ferry.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Okay, okay, I've had other friends that have taken
that ferry.
Okay, yeah, I wouldn't probablytake a day to do it, but the
thing is I'm terrified of boatsand that's fairly open water
fairly.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yes, yeah, yeah, so it's it's like the old days it's
just the two of us in thestudio today.
Yeah, it's been a while.
Not that I don't appreciatekara or whoever else sits in
with us, but it's been a whilesince it's just been the two of
us doing the podcast.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
We are sans Kara and sans Jordan.
Jordan has his off day and Karais on her honeymoon, so we
don't normally record onWednesdays.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
This is unusual.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And it's a quiet Wednesday, it's a very quiet
Wednesday.
These weeks around Christmastime are just super quiet right.
There are people that may havespecific needs that come in and
out, but most people are seeingfamily, they're getting off of
school, they're going on trips.
What have you we're?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
not complaining.
No, we like the slower pace fora little while.
A little bit of reading is nice.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I was just reading a book that I got from
Mr Nathan Schneider, the giverof free books.
The giver of free books heworks for the Florida Vitals
Convention.
I assume he just gets freebooks all the time from Crossway
or B&H or Holman or whoever togive to pastors, to give to them
, and so occasionally get a freebook from him.
(05:36):
And so he gave a book to methis past week.
It's daily, devotional,something I don't know, but it's
almost like a systematictheology, but it's only like
four paragraphs on a topic andit's devotional.
It's really kind of cool.
That's kind of neat.
It's 365 of them, so you readone one day and you read the
(05:59):
next day.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
That's kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Yeah, it was really kind of cool.
So it's written helpfully,devotionally, theologically and
briefly.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
All those things are good.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Daily something.
Daily doctrines, doctrine,daily devotion, devotion
doctrines, something.
I think it's two Ds, all right,so hey, here's the fact of the
day, it's.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Christmas time.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Did you know that in Japan, apparently, it is
tradition for people to enjoy aKentucky fried chicken meal?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yummy.
You know, that I did not.
It doesn't really surprise me,because KFC is pretty popular in
foreign countries.
Why, I don't know, but it isSouth Africa all over the place.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
Is it a so people?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
say Brazil.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Yeah, I've seen them in Brazil.
Yeah, People say in other partsof the world some of our fast
food restaurants are nicerrestaurants.
They're not, I mean sit-downrestaurants necessarily, but
would you say it's probably asit-down restaurant, a nicer
restaurant.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
I don't know that I'd call it a sit-down restaurant,
but you can recognize it as,whatever the establishment is,
mcdonald's KFC, but they arekind of a little more upscale-y
than what we have.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
When we were in Krakow, poland, it was funny.
In the old city which has allthese old buildings from the
1300s and 1400s, there was aMcDonald's on one of the corners
, which is really kind of an oddplace for it to be.
It's right next to a hugeCatholic church and people were
like, okay, there's differentkinds of food here this is much
(07:28):
nicer than we have, and I'mthinking, I mean maybe a little
bit um, not a ton nicer, no,it's not yeah yeah, yeah, so kfc
is not my favorite chicken.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, not at all.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
No in fact they're known for chicken.
Obviously it's kentucky friedchicken.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I think they have one of the worst chickens I'm not
sure it's the same standard thatit used to be.
The quality is low.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It's low.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I can't remember the last time I had KFC though?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Do you have a favorite chicken place?
Have you had Raising Cane's?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I've had Raising Cane's.
It's pretty good.
Guthrie's Guthrie's is okay.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'd only had Guthrie's a few months ago for
the first time in Tallahassee,didn't realize we had one down
kind of close to where you live.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yes, near us.
It's okay, Chick-fil-Aobviously Popeye's Chick-fil-A
has changed its chicken.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Did you know that?
Speaker 2 (08:17):
No, in the last year.
I'm not really that up on thechicken franchises.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, someone told me that, and then I can notice it.
Eating the chicken, really, Ican taste the difference.
Yeah, for the better or for theworse, it doesn't taste as real
.
Hmm, I say that.
So if you had McDonald'schicken, it's like—.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Be careful.
You're bordering on blasphemywith the Baptist bird.
Oh, I still love it.
So be careful, be very careful.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
I still love it when I say it doesn't taste as real
there might be.
It's not necessarily as good,but it's still really really
good.
You know, like McDonald'schicken is almost like ground
chicken put into a nugget.
You know it does not taste likethat, but it is much more
consistent and soft than kind ofthe pulling of the meat that it
(09:04):
used to have Genuinely.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I mean Okay.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You can bite into one and you'll taste it.
Yeah, okay, yeah.
So do you have a favorite?
Is it Chick-fil-A?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I don't really have a favorite.
Zaxby's is not bad.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Zaxby's is good.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Yeah, zaxby's is good , I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
Chicken's chicken, get the fries and you get
whatever else where would?
Speaker 2 (09:30):
you go?
Speaker 1 (09:31):
I don't know, because I would rarely go and get like
a three piece chicken meal, foranything, I just yeah, I think
I'd go to raisin canes, yeah, Ithink.
So they're chickens, they'rechickens, so I like their sauce
the best, I think.
Now I like Brahms, which is inthe Oklahoma, missouri area.
Yeah, I'm not familiar withthem, but all right.
Well, hey, it's time to rankChristmas movies.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Yeah, we did songs last time.
Right, it's songs last time.
Today's movies.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
I've got.
Do we want to do eight of themor do we want to do ten of them?
Two?
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I don't care.
Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Here's the 10 movies we're gonna rank, uh, in no
particular order.
White christmas never seen it.
It's a wonderful life.
I've never seen that elf.
I've definitely seen thatnational lampoon's christmas
vacation.
I've seen that home alone.
The santa claus, that's the timallen, the santa claus, the
first one, not the second, thirdand whatever else they made.
It's not good, uh, miracle on34th street.
(10:24):
Uh I, whatever else they made,it's not good.
Miracle on 34th Street.
I assume that they made twoversions of those.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
At least two.
Yeah, you talking about theoriginal or the one?
Pick your favorite and we'llvote on your favorite no, the
original is much better than theremake I haven't seen either.
How are you ranking moviesyou've never seen?
You haven't seen half thesemovies.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, so I'm going to have to just do like a.
I'll tell you what to watchGrinch, and particularly the Jim
Carrey version we're not doinganimated movies on this list and
then Die Hard, which peoplelove to talk about it being a
Christmas movie or not.
I've also not seen Die Hard, soI'm not in the vote on whether
it's a good or bad movie.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
So this is basically me ranking half of them and you
ranking the other half thatyou've seen yeah, I think die
hards are rated r movie bob.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So if that's uh anywhere lower than 10, yeah I
think it is again.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I've not seen the movie set in a christmas setting
.
That's I have.
You can say I have seen.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Uh, the die hard image that I have every time I
think of die hard is him in like?
I think it's like a, a whitetank top in a like an air
conditioning vent.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
That's an iconic scene.
Maybe he's got like a lighterto see.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's themovie, okay.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
That's the movie.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
All right?
Well, hey, let's rank them.
So let's start with leastfavorite to most favorite, Least
to most.
Mm-hmm, what are you going tostart?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
with Diehard's number 10.
Really, yeah, I don't dislikeDiehard, I just don't consider
it a go-to Christmas movie.
Okay, um.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Grinch has to be next right.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, probably.
Grinch is nine.
Grinch is fine, grinch is fine.
I know Ryan really likes Grinch.
He enjoys that movie.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
We just watched it with the kids.
It was a little bit scarierthan I remember for a
four-year-old, just because he'sloud, and Jim Carrey, it's a
little bit longer than I want itto be.
It felt long.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In all honesty, I hardly ever will sit down and
watch any of these movies startto finish.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I'm watching the Untold documentaries again.
Those are so good.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
So number nine, grinch, I would go Home Alone.
8, although I like Home Alone.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
I like Home Alone.
I'm not dissing on Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That would put Santa Claus.
I like Home.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Alone.
Home Alone is so good.
I like Home Alone.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Joe Pesci, I'm not dissing on Home Alone.
Okay, that would put SantaClaus at seven, although I like
this.
Santa Claus, that hurts me, butbecause you don't know these
other movies, that's correct.
You can't judge because youdon't know the older movies.
I told you last time I'm atraditionalist, I call older
stuff.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
So I older stuff, so I'm going to rank the older ones
better.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Okay, so Santa Claus was the movie we watched growing
up, my parents just loved TimAllen, and so we watched the
Santa Claus.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
The first, two Third, I think I've seen the second
one.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I've seen Jack Frost is the third one.
Awful that's awful.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Those are money grabs .
They're trying to take themoney from the first, have you?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
seen the series that they've come out with Christmas
Chronicles.
No, it's the Santa Claus.
No, not seen it yeah don'tbother.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
There's the Christmas Chronicles and it's got the guy
from Overboard.
I forget his name Kurt Russell.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Kids like that one.
Okay, that's good.
Where am I?
You just did seven the SantaClaus, so this is going to
surprise you.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
I'm going to put A Christmas Story at six.
You would think I would rank ithigher.
I'm happy with that.
I like A Christmas Story.
It's a tradition on ChristmasEve that it's kind of on in the
background.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Here's the thing it's not a good movie, but's not a
good movie but it is a goodmovie.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
No, it's not.
It it's not a good movie.
It's got quotable lines.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
It's got quotable lines yes, yes so it's like um
monty python, right?
So just you know the holy grailvery quotable, not as quotable,
but very quotable, and peoplelike it because of of, uh,
sentimental value exactlynostalgia.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
it speaks to me because of the nostalgia,
because it was made in the 80sbut set in like the 50s, and so
that time frame just kind of iscool.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Can I tell you something?
You're going to.
The answer is going to be long,but the topic is short today
and we're talking aboutChristmas.
Fa la, la, la Yep.
So one of the big things aboutthe movie A Christmas Story is
that he gets a Red Rider BB gun.
I just bought Judah a Red RiderBB gun.
I hope he doesn't shoot his eyeout.
He's getting it for Christmas,which is so exciting.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
I remember when we bought Ryan a BB gun.
He's a little on the youngerside.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Judah's not even seven yet.
He'll turn seven on ChristmasDay, but we got him a Red Rider.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
With supervision, that'll be okay.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
We got him a Red Rider rider with supervision,
that'll be okay.
We got a red rider, we got inthe yellow little sunglasses
that came with a red rider, nice.
And then, uh, I actually wenton daisy's website who makes the
red rider, and, uh, they havelike these little clay targets
that, it's like you know,explode like clay pigeons but
built for bb guns, and so we'regonna stick those in the yard
I'm so excited.
It's gonna be fun yeah it'd bea lot of fun, cool, all All
(15:18):
right, so you did six for.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Christmas Story.
Six for Christmas Story.
I'm going to go NationalLampoon's Christmas Vacation at
five, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
I enjoy it.
Now is Christmas Vacation, theone that You've not seen this
one.
No, no, no, there's twodifferent vacations.
Right, there's multiplevacations.
Okay, christmas vacation iswith uncle eddie, where, um,
they, uh, they do the prayer, um, and they let grandma do the
prayer and she starts in thepledge of allegiance or
something, or the nationalanthem.
(15:48):
Okay, yeah, hilarious, yeah,yeah, and the turkey just goes.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's over okay, it's just a little dry.
Yeah, great baby.
Uh, yeah, good stuff in thatmovie.
Uh, so that's number five.
So that puts miracle at 34thStreet.
The original, not the remake.
The original at four, elf atthree.
I like Elf I enjoy Elf and thenthe two.
It's a Wonderful Life, which isa long movie and can be very
(16:16):
depressing.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Okay, I really don't know what happens in it, but
it's a good movie.
I'm not kidding, it's a classic.
I'm a classic guy.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
So it's a Wonderful Life at two, and I'm going to
put White Christmas at one,which was also my number one
song.
And the reason for that istraditionally, when Darlene and
I are decorating our main tree,we play White Christmas the
movie while we're decorating ourtree, so it's just a kind of a
(16:46):
holiday tradition for us.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Okay, so I feel like people aren't going to believe
this.
But not only have I not seenthe movie, I, they're both old
movies, but they're in differenteras correct um was I told that
they're not around the sametime frame when they were made,
or when they're set yes I don'tknow, I don't know either.
They're both black and white no, they're.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
They're both post-World War II settings.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
They're both black and white and probably made in
similar time frames.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, I'd have to look, butthey're going to be pretty close
.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
The song White Christmas is that from the movie
.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
It's originally from a different movie Holiday Inn,
if I remember right.
Okay, and then the song was sopopular that they ended up
making a movie for it.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Ah, okay, there you go.
See, you're learning stuff, sothey made the movie from the
song.
That was kind of part of theinspiration.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Yes, you need to see these movies.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, man, okay, maybe my wife thinks it's
horrible that I haven't seeneither one of those movies.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
She's right.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
She grew up on Westerns, black and white
Westerns, with her dad, and thenjust black and white movies.
You are uneducated right now.
So I have to mark out Die Hardand I have to mark out White
Christmas and I have to mark outit's a Wonderful Life and I
have to mark out Miracle on 34thStreet.
Okay, so we've got to use that.
(18:07):
So that's uh, four, so six.
Grinch will be six.
Um, uh, no, yeah, grinch wouldbe six.
Christmas story would be five.
Um, national Lampoons will befour.
Home Alone.
No, let's do.
Elf would be three.
Home Alone would be two.
Santa Claus would be three.
Home Alone would be two.
Santa Claus would be one.
Santa Claus is my Christmasstory.
It just has a lot ofsentimental value.
I love you know.
(18:29):
The boy stays with the dad.
Mom and dad are divorced anddad doesn't know how to cook,
and so you know it shows this.
It zooms in on a TV.
He's watching for how to make aturkey looking like it's the
table he's prepared.
And then it shows him and he'sspraying a fire extinguisher on
(18:49):
the turkey.
It's going everywhere.
And then he goes to Denny's andhe says it's an American
establishment.
They show a bunch of Chinesepeople there and then Judy's
their waitress and he seesanother dad with two kids and
he's like, did you burn a turkey?
And the dad raises and he's gota cast on Hilarious, great
movie.
(19:10):
We want to talk about ChristmasEve services, okay, so in every
church that I've been a part ofserving and growing up they have
had a Christmas Eve servicetradition to gather on the night
before Christmas to sing carols.
I think most churches that Iwas a part of, if not every, had
(19:35):
candles where we'd sing SilentNight or something similar
together and it was like afamily thing.
You know, a lot of timesfamilies would dress up for that
night and then go home andmaybe open up one Christmas gift
before Christmas morning.
So I looked up when ChristmasEve services started Early on in
church history.
There were vigils.
(19:55):
Some of those Christmas Eveservices early on went to
midnight midnight mass.
But let's just ask the questionlike why do we at FBC Tampa
have a Christmas Eve service?
What's the significance in it?
The answer might be obvious,but just from you as our pastor,
why do we have Christmas Eveservices?
Because I like it, okay.
So it's not in the Bible to haveChristmas Eve service.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
No, it's not in the Bible to have it Okay, we've
just found it to be, and ourshas grown.
In my 15 years here it reallyhas grown and grown every year
to where it's one of the mostpopular services each year.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Now, is it in the Bible to have Christmas Eve
service?
If it's on a Sunday, what?
Yes, so Sunday service, okay,so then in the Bible?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, on the first day of the week, but it's
a Tuesday this year, so we'regoing to have one at five
o'clock on a Tuesday.
On a Tuesday, yeah, we've justcome to find that it helps
families to just kind of slowdown in the midst of a very busy
season and just kind of makesure we're focused in the right
way.
And that, and just kind of makesure we're focused in the right
way, that for me it just slowsmy mind down.
It slows my heart down and justsays, okay, let's focus on what
(21:06):
we're really celebrating here.
For me it goes back tochildhood.
Like you, I grew up in churchesthat had them.
My family always participatedin them.
We would go and then go to mygrandmother's house afterwards.
Then I did attend a church thatdid a service from 11 to
midnight, and we did that foryears.
(21:27):
So for us here at First Baptistit's a church service.
That is just a great time tojust slow down and worship the
Lord together and remember whatit's all about.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, Uh, since we've been here, one thing that, so I
love Christmasy service as well.
Um.
I think, you've only missed inmy family and my wife's family
lives 16 hours to 20 hours awayfrom where, uh, we now live here
in Tampa, Um, but I think I'veonly missed one service because
(22:03):
we've tried to arrange goingback home to see family around
that service, and not justbecause you need me here you
don't need me here but because Ijust love that service.
I think you're spot on.
It is a time for us just torest, reflect.
It's almost like a Sabbath wherewe're taking time to
contemplate and consider whatGod has done in the rush of
(22:25):
getting all our packages wrapped, and it even makes some of the
things we do for Christmas thatare good things.
It puts them in properperspective for their importance
.
Yeah, the weekend before we'regetting all the gifts we can,
you know, uh, all the stores arefull of people rushing around,
and then you slow down and youremember okay, this is, this is
(22:45):
all about Jesus.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
Yeah, We've been busy going to parties and meetings
and everything getting ready forChristmas.
You got a night where you canjust slow down and then you know
it's going to crank back up fora day or so with family, but
you can just slow down for alittle bit.
And so we've had families startto rearrange their, their
Christmas Eve celebrations withtheir family to be able to be
here, and we choose to do oursat five, just so we can give
(23:08):
those families that opportunity.
So we're it's an hour longservice.
They can be gone at six andthen go enjoy their evening
together.
Um, but yeah, it's.
Uh, it's also a service thatfrom us, from a ministerial
standpoint, doesn't require awhole lot of preparation.
Darren probably more than therest of us, as he's getting the
(23:30):
musical team and the worshipteam together, but even that is
it's familiar songs.
We go very traditional.
We have families read theChristmas story, we light
candles, we do the Lord's Suppertogether.
I give a brief Christmas Evedevotional thought.
So it's not a lot of prep time,it's not a lot of we do
(23:51):
everything with excellence, butit's not a lot of effort that we
have to put in on the front endto make that to go well.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
We're not trying to make it into something, we're
trying to remember togetherExactly.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
We're not trying to overthink it, we're not trying
to be too creative with it,we're just.
I think at Christmas, peoplewant to remember what Christmas
is about.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
They want their family.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
They want their family and for most people they
want traditional stuff.
They want songs.
They know they want to singthings.
They know they want songs.
They know they want to singthings.
They know they want to hear thestory.
They know.
So I think we just lean intothat pretty well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's right leaning into it
because we want to appear to bethe family that we are as much
as possible so that families canbe here and enjoy time with not
only their family but a churchfamily, Right, All right?
Well, hey, so what do we doduring service?
You mentioned that we singcarols.
You mentioned that you do adevotional Candles we do.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
How long is the service Usually right?
At an hour.
And so it alternates betweensome music that the congregation
participates in carol singing.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
All I Want for Christmas.
Is you those kind of things?
Yes, Not it.
Mariah Carey hasn't made thelist yet.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
But traditional, typically pretty traditional
Christmas carol stuff.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Yeah that's Darren's favorite,I think.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
That's got to be up there.
For me too, it's a great one.
Joy to the World.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Joy to the world.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Joy to the world First Noel, first Noel you know
that kind of little town ofBethlehem.
Are there any Christmas songs?
I'm going off subject.
Are there any Christmas songsthat we don't sing?
Christmas hymns carols that arereally good, that you know of
that are just like man.
This is a really good one,don't sing all that often I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Joy to the world.
We do, but it's not a Christmascarol, it's a Second Coming
song.
I've heard that.
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It's 100% a Second Coming song, but it's okay.
Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
So that didn't answer your question.
I don't know, joy to the World.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
The Lord has come.
He's come once he's comingagain.
I got it, I got it.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Darren does a great job of that.
So we try to intersperse thosesongs and then we'll have
families go up and read portionsof the Christmas story.
You know, the Gabriel appearingto Mary, gabriel appearing to
Joseph the census.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Herod and the wise man, Herod and the wise, you
know all of the shepherds, thewhole thing, and then we'll put
the songs in between it.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
And then we'll do a devotional, maybe a five or ten
minute devotional on what themeaning is.
We'll observe Lord's Suppertogether.
We used to do that.
I really love this.
We used to be able to do itwhere families could come down
and we would have about five orsix different stations set up.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
You would do one, I would do one, dan would do one,
we would just do very individualtimes with families.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
We've grown so to the point where we can't do that
anymore, not not in thetimeframe.
So now we do a corporate Lord'ssupper together which is still
nice.
Yeah, and then we'll lightcandles.
We'll do a candle lightingwhere it passes the candle
around, focusing on the light ofthe world and that God has sent
us into the world to be light.
Now, uh, we'll sing silentnight.
(27:02):
So it's just a very sweettraditional reminder.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Yeah, have you ever had any incidents with the
candles?
Significant incidents?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Uh, not on Christmas Eve we have.
But at a musical somebody'shair got too close to a candle.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Oh yeah, that was fun .
Did it just start smelling?
Did it get a little fire?
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Fortunately it was out in the hallway as children
were getting ready to come inand sing Wow, and so nobody out
in the congregation actuallyever knew it happened.
No children were hurt in theincident, but it was close.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Was it this church or another church?
Was there ever like a liveanimal brought into the building
?
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Not, here, but yeah, there's a lot of places that do
that.
I've been in churches that dolive animals.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Yeah, okay, I remember there's some story.
Yeah, okay, this is you right.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, that was.
Oh, was that West Palm?
I think that was First BaptistWest Palm, before it came family
church.
Okay, I think what happened Acamel just went over into the,
into a person, into a pew.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I've
never, I don't think I've beenin any service where a live
animal has intentionally come in.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Not unintentionally either, but I don't think
anybody's ever brought a liveanimal into service for a play.
At one of my churches we did alive nativity at christmas eve
service.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I think it was christmas eve service and we had
a donkey and it just refused togo down the aisle so we had two
guys dressed, it just sat thereand you know, when a donkey
makes up his mind, it ain'tgonna do anything so we had
these two guys, two deacons whosit on it and slap its bottom.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
They just, they had a , they had a rope, and one of
them grabbed one side of therope and the other and they just
dragged that thing down theaisle with its bottom just feet
out like, yeah, yeah, yeah,that's hilarious, yeah, oh
goodness, okay, um, so uh,there's this history.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
So I looked up the history of celebrating christmas
eve services and it talkedabout a midnight mass.
Sure, sure, so uh, in churchhistory, a number of churches
have celebrated that ChristmasEve service going into midnight,
ending, right, you know, at1201 AM.
Uh, why do that?
Why not do that?
Uh, have you been a part of achurch that does that?
Speaker 2 (29:14):
I have um Catholic church still does it.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
There's still the celebration at St Peter's
Basilica every year right atmidnight, but they start before
midnight, right, they do.
They start before midnight andthey go into midnight and they
kind of stop.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
And I've been in churches that give you an option
.
You can come at like 6 o'clockwith your family, or there's one
at 11 o'clock that ends aftermidnight, and we used to do both
as a couple that would just beDarlene and I.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
We'd probably enjoy going to that other than the
fact that we're probably bothasleep well before that,
especially not having kids now.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Exactly, but with kids it's a but.
We've, I've enjoyed those it's,it's, it's, it's, uh.
In the church I grew up in, itwas special Um, and we would
usually end with candles and wewould proceed out to the outside
in the front of the church andend with the candles.
Outside is just the symbolicnature of taking the candles or
(30:09):
the light singing outside.
Yeah, okay, yeah, so you'resaying process out with the with
the light, okay, into the, intothe night.
Oh, that's cool, it was nice.
I mean, is it necessary to doit at midnight?
No, but it just rings in thenew day, I guess.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Okay, how many churches do you think like
non-Catholic Protestant Baptistchurches do you think?
Do that Still?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah, probably fewer now than yeah, yeah, I rarely
hear of any that actually aredoing one, but I'm sure they do
actually are doing one, but I'msure they do.
And if they do, it's great.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Yeah, how many kids do you think are just sleeping
in the pew during that?
They come in their pajamas?
I would assume kids.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
Yeah, you would think so, you know, when they fall
asleep on the way home.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, it's a late night.
I don't ever see the other sideof midnight.
Yeah, I rarely do.
I can probably count on onehand the last number of years.
So, all right, well, hey, justone more quick thing, pastor Bob
, and then we'll be done.
Do you have like a go-todevotional text to teach on?
(31:08):
So, do you go to Matthew?
Do you go to Luke?
Do you do kind of a version ofJohn, the word becoming flesh,
you know?
Is there a way?
So when you're doing adevotional, I assume you pull
from all of them.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You almost have to to tell the whole story to get the
whole picture you pull fromeach of the gospels.
Um, if I had to pick one, Iwould probably go with Luke,
just because I've got that onemore memorized and there's more
detail in that one.
Yeah, shepherds are in Luke.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, shepherds, not in Luke.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
No, okay, they're definitely in.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Luke shepherds.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
But I probably would use John as my favorite, just
John.
Chapter one, sure, because itjust summarizes the whole thing
and John doesn't mess aroundwith telling us about the Light
coming in the world.
He doesn't go back to thenativity, he goes back to
eternity past and starts thereand explains it all.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Matthew and Luke are historical accounts.
What John is doing isexplaining from eternity past
for an eternal future.
Christ has now entered into.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Yeah, it's a theological explanation of
Christmas.
Yeah, so that's probably myfavorite passage to go to, but
there's different ways to do it.
But again, I think people don'tget.
Sometimes pastors can, I think,get too creative at Christmas.
Just, there's a reason why wecelebrate Christmas celebrate it
, emphasize it, use those textsto do it.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
Be reminded not necessarily be wow, did
something new.
What we're celebrating issomething that is old and great.
We don't have to make it better.
It doesn't get much better thanChrist coming for us.
Anything else?
You'd add Christmas Eve service.
If you don't have a church togo to, go to a solid church,
(32:49):
Come to FBC Tampa.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
We'd love to have you Make it part of your
celebration.
I think it's important forparents.
Parents are always trying tostrike this balance between the
secular nature of Christmas andthe traditional, the sacred
nature, and I think a ChristmasEve service is the perfect way
to do that.
I think it is an opportunity toteach your children.
Yeah, we're excited aboutwhat's going to happen tomorrow
(33:11):
morning or tonight, whateveryour family's tradition is, but
this is why we celebrateChristmas, and so I just I would
encourage families to use it asa teaching tool for their kids.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
That's good.
I love that.
All right, well, hey, thanksfor listening.
In next week We'll probablyrecord again and you'll get to
hear from us, yeehaw.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
See you later.
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