Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All 

Advent Conspiracy  

Greg Holder, Rick McKinley, and Chris Seay 

Over a decade ago, three pastors— Chris Seay, Greg Holder, and Rick McKinley—were lamenting how they’d come to the end of an Advent season feeling burnt out by the endless to-do lists in preparation for Christmas and missed the awe-inducing, soul-satisfying mystery of the incarnation. Similarly, the holiday season tends to be the busiest time of year for all of us, and we struggle to find the connection between our overwhelming schedules and the story of Jesus’ birth. 

So in 2006, Chris, Greg and Rick created the Advent Conspiracy Movement. They came up with four tenets—Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All— to guide themselves, their families, and congregations through the Christmas season and prevent stress from overtaking the worship and celebration we owe to Jesus. It’s all about substituting consumption with compassion. 

The movement started small with just a handful of churches trying their experiment to make the Advent story personal again. But that first Christmas they got creative, changed their traditions, and ended up raising enough money for a water-well in West Africa. 

The news spread quickly, a book was written, videos were created, and along the way a revolution was born. Now, thousands of churches are celebrating with the Advent Conspiracy Movement and channeling even more resources to the poor, marginalized, and forgotten. 

Their prayer is that more churches join together to live out the story of Jesus’ sacrificial love. God is not finished with our world and He is inviting us deeper into the Christmas story. Christmas can still change the world when you, like Jesus, give what matters most—your presence. 

Greg Holder is a speaker, author, and the lead pastor of The Crossing, a multi-site church in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the author of Advent Conspiracy, The Genius of One, Never Settle, and was a contributing writer for The Voice translation of the Bible. Greg is passionate about the local church and how God designed us to thrive in healthy community. 

Chris Seay is a church planter, pastor, president of Ecclesia Bible Society, and internationally acclaimed speaker. His six previous books include The Gospel According to Lost, The Gospel According to Tony Soprano, and Faith of My Fathers.  
 

Rick McKinley is the author of Faith for this Moment: Navigating a polarized world as the people of God and This Beautiful Mess. He is the founding pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon, a church creatively demonstrating the faithful presence and prophetic witness of Christ in their city. Rick and his wife, Jeanne, live with their four children in Portland. 

 
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.” – Nehemiah 9:6