Is Your Church Open on Christmas?
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Mon, December 05, 2005
- Viewed 97
- (68) comments so far
Many large churches have decided to not have services on Christmas Sunday morning:
Willow Creek Community Church (South Barrington, IL)
Fellowship Church (Grapevine, TX)
Southland Christian Church (Lexington, KY)
Mars Hills Bible Church (Grandville, MI)
North Point Community Church (Alpharetta, GA)
All of these churches have decided to hold multiple Christmas Eve services instead.
Of course... there's controversy; as stated in this article from Kentucky.com:
Megachurch officials around the country consulted with each other before deciding to take the day off.
The decision makes sense in today's hectic world, said Willow Creek spokeswoman Cally Parkinson. "It's more than being family-friendly. It's being lifestyle-friendly for people who are just very, very busy," she said.
Many evangelical churches don't hold Christmas day services, except when the holiday falls on a Sunday.
For some evangelicals, it's the day of the week -- not the day of the year -- that's sacred. To them, closing the doors of the church on the Lord's Day is unthinkable.
Others, troubled by the holiday's increasingly secular tone, lament the change.
While admiring the emphasis on family, Fuller Theological Seminary professor Robert K. Johnston worries that another Christian tradition is fading. Fuller, in Pasadena, Calif., is one of the nation's premier evangelical schools.
"What's going on here is a redefinition of Christmas as a time of family celebration rather than as a time of the community faithful celebrating the birth of the savior," said Johnston, a professor of theology and culture. "There is a risk that we will lose one more of our Christian rituals, one that's at the heart of our faith."
At Southland, the decision hasn't generated much controversy. "We've probably had maybe half a dozen (complaints), which is understandable," said church spokeswoman Cindy Willison. Southland members are encouraged to attend one of three Christmas Eve services instead. A Dec. 23 service has also been added.
Willison says attendance dropped significantly the last time Christmas fell on a Sunday, in 1994. Her church's decision was made "based on analysis of the number of people who attended in previous years and just a desire for us to emphasize family time on Christmas Day," she said.
"It's not anything unique to us," she said.
At least one other major Lexington congregation, Crossroads Christian Church, will close for Christmas.
Crossroads Pastor Glenn Schneiders says Dec. 25 is no longer considered sacred by many Americans -- especially those who are not regular churchgoers. "It's viewed more as a holiday than a holy day," he said.
The unchurched are more reachable on Dec. 24, said Schneiders, who leads a church with average weekend attendance of 1,900 people.
"Studies would say the best opportunity to invite people is Christmas Eve. It's, for whatever reason, the least threatening service of the year to attend ... so what we do is really point all of our energy in that direction," Schneiders said. "We don't think we're compromising. We're actually reaching more people by doing that."
Lexington Theological Seminary professor Bill Turner says it's difficult for some congregations to hold multiple Christmas Eve services and then return the following day.
"You're talking about a lot of volunteers and a lot of logistics to make Sunday happen in a lot of those megachurches," he said. By the end of Saturday's services, "you're pretty well wrung out."
Some churches are scaling down their Sunday schedule on Christmas.
At Louisville's Southeast Christian Church, where 18,000 people worship each weekend, they'll have one service on Christmas in the fellowship hall. Fewer than 1,000 people are expected to attend.
Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, where 1,650 people typically worship, will also have one service on Christmas.
"We want to be here to worship Christ on his birthday," pastor Bill Henard said.
At a time when some corporations and government agencies are shying away from even using the word "Christmas," Henard said, "We want the world to know that it's okay to celebrate Christ."
Meanwhile, Roman Catholics will be as busy as ever, Lexington diocesan spokesman Tom Shaughnessy said. "It's a holy day of obligation, which means for the faithful, Mass attendance is required."
At First United Methodist Church in Lexington, the pastor will perform a "blessing of the toys," and the congregation will sing Christmas carols, church spokeswoman Marsha Berry said.
"Even if there's a small group ... we'll be there to worship," she said. "What better day than Christmas to experience God?"
What do you think?
It only happens once a decade or so… Christmas Day actually falling on a Sunday. If you and your staff are like many, you had to determine what your schedule of services would be this Christmas weekend…
Comments
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Ben E on Mon, December 05, 2005
I certainly agree with Sid. Granted, we’ll only have one service on Christmas Day but what a service it SHOULD be! I’m excited about Christmas falling on a Sunday and I honestly don’t know what to expect. I don’t think I’ll be suprised either way. Whether we have a “full house” or fraction of our people. (I certainly HOPE for a full house!)
Perhaps it will be sort a test of sorts.
Will the hearts of our people be moved to join together on this “extra special” Sunday? Or, will it be an excuse to stay home? Yes, I know that you don’t have to be in church to experience and share the joy of birth of Jesus Christ but come on, Christmas Day falling on a Sunday should provide A LITTLE extra motivation!
I don’t expect many on Christams Eve. It just hasn’t been a tradition at our church and something that I hope will change in time. But, the doors will be open and I and my family will be there to sing and perhaps share in a small intimate communion time with whomever shows.
For Christmas Day, I’m thinking of videoing people sharing their “spiritual” birthdays. The day they accepted The Babe as their Lord and Savior. Then we’ll open it up for others to share their testimonies and celebrate the Birth of Christ and our RE-Births in Him together.
Then on New Years Day, (also on a Sunday) we’ll continue the idea to help people renew their focus on Christ in their lives.
Just an idea.
Does any one else have some ideas? I’d love to hear them.
Ben E
Robert Pooley on Mon, December 05, 2005
We will do a 5:00 PM and 11:30 PM Christmas Eve Candlelight Communion, and then will do one service, at 10:45 on Sunday (Christmas) morning. We normally have two services. We will not offer children’s ministries and the service will be abreviated… but also powerful, with worship, special music and a Christmas Challenge.
Matt on Mon, December 05, 2005
I can see both sides of the issue really. My church will actually have service on Sunday…and I’m sure it’ll be awesome and satisfying to celebrate it with the church that morning…but let me tell ya, as Tech Director…I’ve had to search and scrape to find volunteers both on and off my normal tech rotations to serve that morning. Everyone is traveling. Worst of all, all of my sound pros will be out of town. God’s going to have to show up in a pretty big way to meet our needs if we are to meet with excellence on that day. And I will definitely sleep well that night.
Ben E on Mon, December 05, 2005
The problem I will be facing is multi-fold.
We currently do not have a full time pastor and our interim will be out of town seeing his family. He only gets the opportunity to spend considerable amounts of time with them about twice a year, so I don’t fault him for that. The chairman of the deacons has the responsibility to arrange for someone to preach but who would be availible for Christmas morning?
I’m the worship guy so I’ll have my hands full with not only planning and leading the service but “staffing” it as well. I may end up with my wife on the board!
It may end up being a patch-work morning but to me, that’s the kind of times you really rely on God to put things together and He has an incredible habit of showing up in the most marvelous of ways!
Ben E
PS, Dang it’s late! Goodnight!
Pastor Dan on Tue, December 06, 2005
We are having a service at 11:00am. No Sunday School that morning for a couple for reasons, family time ect. We are expecting a good turnoutfor our service, we have our children involved in the service which will bring out the parents and grandparents, we are also doing a baby dedication on Christmas Day. I excpect we will be near normal attendance or above. We do not have a Christmas eve serivce. In our area (southern VA) they are not popular and it is a traditional family night for many in our community. I lament this as a Christmas Eve serivce was one of my favorite times growing up. We are looking forward to a wonderful Christmas Day celebration as we meet togther for worship and celebration of Jesus coming into this world to be our Savior.
Rev. Thomas on Tue, December 06, 2005
I pastor a small congregation. We will have service on Christmas Day. We will also have a Sunday School production (of sorts) immediately after the worship service.
I had suggested to my Deacon Board that we not have Sunday School (since the service will cover the reason for the celebration) and focus on the celebration that morning. I truly felt that we could reach more people by advertising this change as a way of allowing members on the fence who don’t attend Sunday School (and will probably stay home that day) to seriously consider attending the Worship service. I also plan to conduct an abbreviated service for that day. My emphasis is the celebration of Jesus, not the continuation of the “routine”.
I appreciate the other suggestions out there.
Rev. Thomas
Al on Tue, December 06, 2005
Well our church and the deacons voted on this so that the staff could spend time with the family. This to me says a lot about our church and the members, they do care about the staff and they do not use them as “Hired hands” Just my personal thoughts
Rev. Jones on Tue, December 06, 2005
This Christmas morning, we will be having a time of worship and communion at 11 am. First, we will have a time of fellowship with warm drinks. Christ is, after all, the main reason for this celebration. However, there will be those who will not be able to attend because of family. This will be a great time for “the body” of Christ to get together and remember Him in the midst of the celebration.
Everyone has a different reason for everything. I don’t think we should all be puppets who do the same things.
Pastor Gary on Tue, December 06, 2005
Our church is currently doing a Christmas Eve srevice. On Sunday we have scaled down to only a 10am morning worship w/no evening service.
We also, will be having one sevice on New Years Day.
After reading several comments from other ministers. I do agree about offering a Christmas Eve service and allowing the church body to have “family time” on Christmas Day. I also agree that if a visitor is going to come to service they are more apt to come to a Christmas Eve service.
Offer the “one” service either Eve or Christmas Day not both, especially for the church staff and their families.
Pastor Oz on Tue, December 06, 2005
While my family and I will be on vacation that week, I have instructed our staff to hold our morning service as scheduled. We will not have Sunday school or evening services. Doing so gives our teachers and children’s workers a break from preparation and also provides family time especially for those who have young children. The thought to cancel services entirely never entered our minds or hearts. We have no reason to complain about stores selling “holiday trees” or replacing the word “Christmas” with “holiday” if we don’t celebrate Christmas Day in the intent it was given.
Paul Kuzma on Tue, December 06, 2005
We will do 2 Christmas Eve Celebrations and no Christmas Day service. We are putting together “Christmas In A Box” for all our families - a small box that includes a DVD with a warm welcome and instructions for the elements in the box for families to have church in their home around the Christmas Tree, along with some Christmas carols instrumentals that can be sung to, a gift from our church family, some kids ideas to teach about Jesus’ birth, communion elements, and a devotional guide.
BeHim on Tue, December 06, 2005
Brian, I can’t believe I heard this from you “What about family worship?”
Is the family to be worshipped? Is the family more important than God?
In the muppet’s Christmas carol kermit and the mice ask Scrooge for the day off…
“Mr Scrooge none of the other businesses will be open for us to do business with so it would seem to be a waste of resources and coal to stay open.”
“It’s a useless excuse to pick a man’s pocket but seeing as I’m the only one to realize this, fine… take the day off.”
Since nobody will be at Church anyway, why “waste” our resources on a useless day, let’s take the day off.
...In the end day men will be lovers of themselves.
Bill on Wed, December 07, 2005
We’re having 4 Christmas Eve services and none on Christmas Day. It takes us about 80 volunteers to offer even scaled back services… and to do 7 or 8 services on two days back to back is simply overwhelming… especially on a day when so many key volunteers are out of town.
I don’t understand the SARCASM in so many of the comments on this article. There’s no biblical law that requires us to celebrate Christ and worship him any particular day. In fact Paul seems to worry about those who lay down “holy days of obligation” (Gal 4:10,11). Don’t we teach that every day is the Lord’s Day and every day is Christmas/Easter?
Let each church do what makes sense missiologically. Let those who NEED worship on Christmas Day raise the volunteer force, design the service, and implement it without judging those who don’t come, including the “paid professionals” (pastors). I, for one, after leading and speaking at four services on Christmas Eve, and being away from my family all week long, will be HAPPY TO STAY HOME, enjoy my kids, and not face the emotional trough I normally feel after services. Merry Christmas.
Christian Outlaw on Wed, December 07, 2005
Just had a thought! The question is this…
1)What “IF” (I am not setting dates, just a thought) this was the day that Jesus Returned to get the church?
Matt on Wed, December 07, 2005
I kind of like that “Christmas in a Box” idea. Paul, do people really get into it? I mean, in your opinion, is it effective in your community…as in, do people really do it? I’d be open to try it out if it has a good track record with you guys.
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