Keeping Christmas Spirit Alive Wealth Distances Us From God Rev. Tom Starr Maranatha Bible Church
Every holiday season, the congregation at Maranatha Bible Church sets up its most special tree.
It’s not a Christmas tree; it’s an angel tree. And instead of decorating it, church members strip it bare, taking from its branches the name of a family whose father, husband or mother is spending the holidays in prison.
Then, they hit the malls, buying clothes, toys and other gifts for the family. They wrap the presents in festive paper, decorate them with ribbon and send them off - from the inmate.
This type of giving, Rev. Tom Starr tells his Newman Lake congregation, is much more satisfying than adding another present to the pile at your own home. It’s more satisfying than scarfing down another slice of pumpkin pie, or snoozing on the couch after Christmas dinner.
“We try to get people to focus outside of themselves,” the 63-year-old minister says, “instead of buying each other gifts we don’t need.
“The more needy the person you give to,” he said, “the better you feel.”
Starr knows what it’s like to be in need.
“I remember going to high school barefooted because my shoes were being repaired,” he said. “We never had much at Christmas, except love, which was the important thing.”
He and his wife have started three churches during his 43 years as a minister. Somehow, he said, God always provided for them.
When he started Maranatha, an independent nondenominational Bible church, he decided to stop passing around an offering basket. He didn’t like to ask his parishioners for money, he said.
Still, his supporters provide him with about $10,000 each month.
Giving is what life is really about, Starr said.
“Christmas gave us the gift of God’s son, who gave us the gift of salvation,” he said.
Parents, he said, often give too much. They want their children to have more than they had - to see and experience everything and never know want.
“Parents say they they don’t want their children to suffer the way they suffered,” said Starr, who raised six daughters and a son on his minister’s salary. “But that built character,” he said. “Our affluence has destroyed our Godly character.”
Starr encourages his parishioners to focus on giving, not getting, during the holidays. This goes for the kids also.
He provides his parishioners with gift catalogs for needy missionary projects in the Middle East.
“They can buy a pig or a cow or a bicycle,” he said.
In his own large family, which now includes 15 grandchildren, several members donate their Christmas spending money to missionary projects. Starr hopes it will become a tradition - one even his grandchildren participate in.
Starr isn’t naive about life in a materialistic culture. As a young man he found financial success as a department manager at a J.C. Penney store in Caldwell, Idaho. He remembers the lure of wealth and greed.
“I got a new car. I dated good-looking girls. I went to parties,” the minister said. “I had a lot of fun, but I was also miserable.”
About that time, his parents started taking his brothers to church.
“They didn’t want (my brothers) to end up like me,” Starr said.
Ironically, it was at that church where he discovered his calling.
By 21, Starr began preaching at a Union Gospel Mission in Baltimore. He later studied at Multnomah Bible College in Portland, and helped found three churches.
Today, he wears a silver-colored wedding ring that says “Jesus.” He’s proud that it only cost him $14.95.
“What’s more important, the clothes on your back, or heaven?” he asked.
Anyway, the best Christmas gifts aren’t the ones that lead you into debt, he said.
They’re always free. Just like love.
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