December 06, 2005
Priorities? What Priorities?
OK, when I first heard it, I thought it was a joke. I figured someone had pulled a
Larknews and written a fake story, and then some folks with an axe to grind picked it up and ran with it. It's happened before.
But no -- it's true. The "mega-churches" have cancelled their Christmas day services.
I was going to parody this decision, but I can't. And I'm not going to pull any punches on this.
I've never heard anything so stupid in my entire life. What do they think the point of Christmas is, anyway? And don't give me the excuse that they're running Christmas Eve services -- churches all over the world are doing that, and having a service on Christmas day.
Christmas day is one of two days out of the year when many people actually think about going to church. These "seeker sensitive" churches say that they are trying to get people in the churches to hear the Gospel, yet they're closed on one of the most popular church attendance days of the year!!! Anybody else sense some inconsistency here?
We spend all our efforts to get people to remember to "keep Christ in Christmas" and then we close the doors on Christmas. Guess we aren't serious about all that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" stuff after all.
It's sad that the wise men travelled all the way from the Orient, but we can't get out from under our Christmas trees long enough to drive across town.
(Others talking about this one: Tim Challies, GetReligion, JollybloggerA View From the Pastor's Study)
Posted by: Warren Kelly at
08:07 PM
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1
This church is not alone. There seems to be more support for this than you would imagine. I just asked a friend what he thought about this and he said, "I tried to get my church to do this, but my deacon board shot down the idea." His reasoning is that we don't go to church on Christmas whenever it falls on the other six days.
And that made me realize that the fact we (as in American Protestants) generally don't do church on Christmas is probably the single biggest contributor to the commercialization of Christmas.
If it's really a holy day, then we should be in church. How can you pretend to observe Christmas as a religious holiday and not go to church 6 out of 7 times?
Posted by: Ryan DeBarr at December 06, 2005 11:07 PM (EZnB/)
2
also discussed here:
http://titusonenine.classicalanglican.net/?p=10303
Good points, both of you. I'm surprised to learn how few churches have a Christmas service during the week, let alone how many cancel on Sunday.
If any unchurched person decided to visit a church once to see what it was like, I imagine they'd assume Christmas would be a good time...
Posted by: James Manley at December 07, 2005 11:35 AM (/kOri)
3
I would like to see churches have Christmas services -- not sure why so many don't. I think my biggest complaint is that it's a Sunday. I don't care what the holiday is, Sundays are the days that the Church celebrates the risen Savior. Christmas should enhance that celebration, not eliminate it.
Posted by: Warren at December 07, 2005 06:47 PM (DPRNU)
4
I'm a bit confused myself...being a burnt out worship leader, I was glad to, "skip Christmas," for a Sunday and just spend it at home...
Now I'm wondering what our churches motivation is for not having a service on Sunday.
That said, I remember the last Christmas Sunday service when I was a kid... I attended a very conservative/traditional church....very, and I mean very few people showed up....that was in what, 1990..what...
What to do?
Posted by: C M S at December 17, 2005 05:51 AM (1ELb7)
5
The main reason I've heard that churches are cancelling services on Christmas is that nobody will show up, or that numbers will be down. I think I'd shrug my shoulders and say "We'll be having services for whoever can and will come. We're going to be worshipping God."
That is what our motivation should be for having church. Shouldn't matter how many people show up, or how many don't.
Posted by: Warren at December 17, 2005 10:01 AM (DPRNU)
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