By Pastor Tee

FNL’s 2025 Christmas Dinner Theater.

What happens when you pull together 35+ youth representing 8+ ethnic groups/cultures, add in college students and a few older adults? It becomes a form of organized chaos that turns into a phenomenal event.

Friday Nite Live (FNL), a ministry of OCMC, held its first-ever Christmas Dinner Theater (video at the bottom). Two years ago, I directed a Christmas play through this ministry with a smaller group and IT WAS EXHAUSTING!! This year, my leaders were more ambitious asking God to help us to do the impossible. The beauty of it was I did not have to direct this time. I selected directors for the four acts and managed the process. A Philadelphia councilmember provided info about a small Philly grant that we receivced for the catering. Praise God!

We are serious about loving our neighbor. Oxford Circle (OC), a neighborhood in NE Philly, is considered the most diverse area in the city. Everyone lives here. Fifty years before that, the area was mostly working class Irish. Thirty years before that, it was Jewish. (Most of the headstones in OC cemeteries bear Jewish names and you can still find 1-2 Irish bars.)

Twenty five years ago, OCMC started Oxford Circle Christian Community Development Association (OCCCDA) to put actions to Jesus’ words in the neighborhood.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Matthew 25:34-36

Our nonprofit offers ELL, GED, Food Distribution, Workforce Development, Parent Resources, a program at a local elementary school and a high school. Visit our website at occcda.org

FNL’s mission is to introduce middle school youth and their families to healthy community and relationships with Christ as our guide. Part of why this ministry exists is because there is no middle schools in the OC area. Public schools often bring other resources to the neighborhood. FNL is attempting to fill some of that gap.

Although this ministry started five years ago, one of the blessings is that it is becoming a community that includes parents, young adults, high school volunteers, middle school youth and others. We are a church that believes in the Good News for everyone from all walks of life and that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to bring the increase. So, we share the message, stand on our convictions and discern what the Spirit is doing just as the early Anabaptists did. This brings a certain kind of freedom and is a breath of fresh air during divisive times like right now in the United States. But nothing is impossible with God!

We spent three weeks planning the Christmas Dinner Theater that involved a total of probably 50 people: Actors, dancers, a set designer, sound technicians, greeters, decorators, set-up and breakdown and food servers. FNL parents stepped forward to assist in various ways. If I said it was like herding cats, that is an understatement. But it was still a labor of love for the Lord even when things occasionally went wrong.

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58

The Christmas story in the Bible is much more relevant today than ever: Jesus birth happened during a time of political corruption (Roman Empire, House of Herod) and divisiveness (Pharisees, Sadducees and the Essenes).

In addition, the Jesus’ birth story is also a way of understanding God in the Old Testament. The Almighty always made it clear directly and through his prophets that those on the margins more likely to experience physical, relational and spiritual poverty—the widow, the fatherless and the foreigner—are to be cared for. The groups that came to see Jesus in the Book of Matthew and the Book of Luke represent different facets of humanity coming to recognize the divine King:

• The shepherds in Luke 2 symbolize the poor and the common folk that are despied but loved by God.

• The Magi in Matthew 2 represent non-Jewish people signifying Jesus’s universal call to all people.

• The heavenly hosts in Luke 2 represent divine approval and the coming of peace.

Let’s also remember that the Book of Matthew was written for a Jewish audience while the Book of Luke was written for a Gentile audience. Apostle Paul illustrates the point more emphatically:

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29

The King of Kings is bringing salvation and is the light to the world. Jesus is bringing together a people not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. (John 1:13).

Enjoy the video of the dinner theater below. I especially like our grand finale of lighting candles reminding ourselves that Jesus is calling many nations to himself as the Prince of Peace.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.