Monday, December 05, 2005
cancel church on Christmas?
Internetmonk has a great piece on the fury surrounding the decision of several mega churches to cancel Christmas morning services. He links to a strong response from conservative Ben Witherington, and in his post lists a number of various responses. I'd like to ask you to take a look at these and come back here and tell me what you think about cancelling services on Christmas day. This is an interesting discussion.
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11 comments:
Hi Cindy
Thanks for visiting my blog.
I understand why a church might want to cancel Christmas morning services, but I think there should be options. My church is having 4 services Christmas eve, with the last one at 11:00 pm. That does make it hard to have a full service Christmas morning. But why not a scaled-down service, or a service Christmas evening? If everyone is like my house, I'm ready to get out and do something Christmas night.
By the way, I notice you are from Alabama. Rooting for the Crimson Tide at the Cotton Bowl? If so, then we might have to have some kind of "Christian" bet on the game. :-)
His peace.
B~
Hey Bruce. Thanks for your comment. I have to admit that I don't feel quite as passionately about the church on Christmas issue as these other folks. If pressed, I'd probably have to say each church should make a decision based on its community make up. For a church like yours- with 4 Christmas eve services, I could hardly say it would be heretical to skip the next morning services. But a church with a typical high visitor turn out on Christmas day, should seriously consider the impact on potential once a year church goers who show up to find the doors are locked. Since my husband and I have been involved in leading worship for a while now, I have to admit that the prospect of a toned-down service that doesn't require our presence is a welcome break.
Also, I hate to disappoint here, but I'm about as far from a football fan as a person can get-- which makes me basically a freak in Alabama. It's a stigma I live with. :-)
My church is relatively small (about 75 members), and we're having a midnight service on Christmas eve. Knowing that kids love to open gifts early, we're having our Christmas Day service in the evening (5 pm), which will allow families the morning to enjoy being with each other, and then heading to church later in the day.
I honestly don't have a problem with not having a service on Christmas. My church's policy is typically to not hold services (at least in the evening) for major holidays and events (like the Super Bowl). Instead, church members are urged to plan events in their homes as a way to both strengthen family bonds and to reach out in a personal way to unsaved friends. It's always been a great form of ministry.
Andy and Jim- thanks for your input. It's very helpful to me to hear what y'all are doing in your churches. Clearly the sky isn't going to fall if our churches don't all do the same thing on Christmas day! I think God is way more flexible than we are most of the time, don't you?
southland chirstian church (affectionatly known as "fort
god" by those of us who lived in the lexington area) often was seen as 'setting the trend' for local churches. i am an evangelical, conservative pastor and bill hybels, mike berouex, and the other 'named' guys didn't call me to see what we are doing here. having said that, i was asked with some surprise the other day by one of my parishoners, "preacher... we're having church at 11'oclock
on christmas day? why?" i hesitated asking him what the
significance of christmas was (fear of hearing what he
really thought) and politely said, "sure we are!"
i expect that attendance will be low... very low on christmas morning. and no, i do not expect those in attendance will be 'seekers' trying to find meaning in the christmas story. and perhaps, for this one day... more than being sensitive to those who are 'outside the walls' and for
that matter, even those who are 'inside the walls' of the
church, going that morning and singing the songs, hearing
the birth narrative read and preaching the last installment
of a 4 part series on the lion the witch and the wardrobe and how it reveals the truths of christmas to us maybe more for me than anyone else. call me selfish. there will be no 'blessing of the toys' here... (i have a hard time
with that one) no abbreviated service and no preacher
standing in the pulpit donned with some awful looking christmas sweater and wearing a santa hat. nope. we are going full bore. the congregation may not show up... there may be no visitors or seekers... but as for me and my house - we will serve the lord on this day.
in the words of that great philosopher, forrest gump,
"that's about all i'm going to say about that."
I was going to write a great, long-winded comment about how family was more important, and I for one was going to spend christmas with my family and darn the consequences. Then I was informed that (as a family) we're all going to church. So much for that.
Well anonymous (affectionately known as SBH to some of us who've been around way too long)- I understand. Go for it. But what will I do with the awful sweater I was going to give you for just that occasion?
Dan- I know what you mean. And, you know, submitting to the will of THE FAMILY is putting them first, isn't it? Seems like you win on both sides of this argument!
There have been a lot of opinions. . . [More...]
As one of millions of unsolicited voices, my personal concern is that we are showing non-believers that we can shift our established services for convenience. The concern feeds an even greater concern of (1) what if Christ or the apostles would have shifted their teachings or events due to convenience, and (2) what else is our Christian hierarchy willing to shift on in the name of that convenience? This is not a simple matter of shutting down services for a single day, Christmas. Further, this is neither to criticize a certain church over their choices. It is a question for those running those churches on what they are doing and how the world of non-believers view those choices. In this critical time in our history, we need to show the light to all.
Thanks for coming by, David. Maybe the best thing that's come of this whole discussion is that it's caused us to really think about what we're doing and why we're doing it. One commonality I see in all of these opinions is that the church is important to the world, and we need to be mindful of that. Thanks for the good words.
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