We got to go home early today due to the snow. I’d guess a good 5″ so far and it took me 15 minutes to drive Chris’ rear-wheel drive car up the hill we live on and another 10 to turn left. Dang rear-wheel drive cars! Anyway…
Now that I’ve been home a while, I’ve been reading the almost consistent disdain blogged about by the religious masses on megachurches closing the doors on Christmas Sunday. The church I work for is doing that as well. I’ve read several quotes from the brainiest theologians saying how we’re bowing down to the secular culture and not wanting to inconvenience those who aren’t believers.
I’m sorry, is it just me, or is this not that big of a deal? Would I rather give the community an opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus and experience the love of Christ when it’s convenient for them, or ask them to go out of their way to check out something they’re not even sure exists? I do think that as believers, we should sacrifice our needs in order to reach people, but I don’t and wouldn’t force those expecatations on others to sacrifice their Christmas time with family. I am feeling that we are worshipping a specific day instead of celebrating the incarnation of God.
What irritates me about this whole ordeal is the “us-against-them” mentality and sucker punching that is happening! I’m not all for everything megachurches do, but I do try to respect and celebrate that they are doing something for the kingdom of God. It might not be the way I would do something, but who the heck cares when people’s lives are being changed? Why can’t they just peacefully say, “We are glad these churches are offering nontraditional times and means of reaching people for Christ even though we are offering services in a more traditional manner?” Why do they have to be so dramatic about the whole ordeal?
Have services on Christmas or don’t have services on Christmas. Whatever is going to reach your community – Just do it and don’t whine about the way other leaders have decided. Let – it – go!
So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on!
And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out. Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done. I can hardly wait to continue on my course.
~Paul, 1st Century missionary
(BTW, this isn’t a post on whether or not you agree/disagree with the churches offering other service times other than Christmas day, although please feel free to share your opinion. What do you think about how, as the body of Christ, we’re handling this?)
Comments
19 responses to “Moving on – Megachurches & Christmas Sunday”
OOPS you might not like my comment on your last post. But I am struggling whether this is a style or substance matter and I am tending to fall down on the side of substance at the moment. Of course its been my conviction and practice to have a church service every Christmas day whether it is Sunday or not because as another mega church pastor said quite rightly “its not about us ..or … is it?” However you are right, the anti-mega church people are just using this as a big stick to hit the part of the church they despise over the head with. The more interesting reaction would be to see what those who don’t come to church think about the decision. Seen any letters or heard any comments from non-church folk.
No I love your comment on the below post and I never really had considered the people without families. I know we do have a strong LifeGroup community but I know we can’t make sure everybody has a place to go if they don’t have families. I remember the first Xmas I lived here I had no family or real friends and was upset because I didn’t know what to do – but Chris’ family “adopted” my roommate and me knowing we couldn’t make it to Texas.
I know there are a couple people who read this that don’t go to church and I would love to hear what these people think…
Anne, I once pastored a church that met only on Saturday nights. Hmmm..maybe I’m fallen from grace because of it. The point is that all of us will answer to God one day for our actions and the only thing I want to be concerned about is…did I do what my Savior told Me to do. Each church has a mission field and strategy to win that mission field. If we all operated the same way and looked the same..oh boy, what a boring place this would be.
So, we shouldn’t judge churches by their methods knowing that God will judge their hearts. By the way, when my family gathers around the tree on Christmas day…we will be the church.
The media will never report us for who we are anyway. But what they will report is how we treat each other as churches. Instead of rebuking one another we should defend one another. After all, Jesus wasn’t born on 12/25.
Christians like to complain that other Christians aren’t as Christian as they are. I think it’s as simple as that.
I agree with Thomas…you don’t need to get in your car and drive to a man-made building to experience church.
I’ve been reading some more on it and a lot of people say that if these churches are trying to “reach” those who don’t normally go to church, that those people will normally go to church on Christmas Sunday.
So I think yeah, they are probably right – some people would. And you know what? Some people wouldn’t and they think going to church on Thursday works for them. So nobody’s right, nobody’s wrong, but galldarn – ain’t it fun to pretend we know what we’re talking about?
On a side note, what I find completely funny is you don’t hear these megachurch folk arguing back :) They just keep on walking.
“they just keep on walking”
and this is why you are my hero and why i want to be you :)
ok i went a little far and stalker-ish that time.
check email
If we’re going to skip Christmas Day in Christ’s Church, Easter can’t be far behind…
I have to wonder about Christians who are in countries where there is no Christmas holiday or where Christ can’t be openly worshipped? Is it wrong for them to celebrate Christ’s birth differently than the way we see it needs to be here in America?
With holidays like Christmas and Easter, it seems like in the American culture the actual DAYS are worshipped more than the reason for them. What if I like to celebrate the incarnation everyday, so why is Dec. 25th any different than June 15th? The people upset about this are saying these churches are giving into the secular culture – well, it’s the secular culture who has designated through the years the date of Dec. 25th for the Christmas holiday, so really the people who are dead-set on celebrating Christmas then are buying into that mindset more than the people who say you can celebrate the incarnation on any day?
When the focus is put on the day, the reason is often forgotten, and all you have are pissed off narrow minded church goers that believe anyone doing anything different than has been set in modern Christiandom is a culturally relevant sell out.
Sky,
I don’t think these churches are skipping Christmas Day..ok, maybe they are not having services on December 25th but is there harm in celebrating the birth of Christ on days other than December 25th? Is there something wrong with celebrating Easter, as Anon said, on June 15th? I hardly think there are problems with that. My opinion is our society has compartmentalized the two most important days in the history of the world by putting a bigger emphasis on celebrating them on a particular day instead of celebrating them every day.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
That’s our culture though. We have Valentine’s Day so we only have to love our spouse one day per year. We have Christmas and Easter so we only have to love God two days per year. Some would even say we have a Sunday service for the same reason. Just my opinion, but who cares if we have a “service” as long as we are loving and serving God seven days per week. The service is a piece of that puzzle, not the whole picture.
I’m surprised at the backlash, though I guess whoever said that it’s just an opportunity to take a shot. To be honest, though, if it were me trying to attack, my argument would be that churches closing on Christmas are too “self-focused.” That they are bowing to the pressures of tradition and appeasing their congregations. I think you could make a stronger argument with this, so maybe it could be worse.
I don’t fall heavy on one side or the other of open/closed/Mega/Not issue and I have spent many Christmas Sundays at church. However if we’re closed but portraying that we’re a church that appeals to everyone in our community, then let’s be honest, it’s contradictory. We probably will not be appealing to the more traditional families, elderly steeped in tradition and those without families to celebrate Christmas with. As for me, if my church was open and it’s not, I would probably go wishing Christmas hadn’t fallen on a Sunday, just like the rest of the Sundays I’ve gone and thought the same thing.
Piggybacking on the points that others have made, I think this debate largely stems from how we think about worship and celebrating. Is that only through a church service? Is that only with others? The media’s response is not surprising because of their likely view on what worship and “church” is – a place, a thing you do once a week, a religion.
I love to celebrate the birth of Christ, but Jesus never listed that as one of the main things to understand or do in order to follow him. We should be remembering and reflecting on our Savior with our whole lives, and I think that can be through celebrating with our church community, with our families, or with Jesus alone. Most of all, it is through loving Him and others. If the Church can do this as we are called, then it seems like the rest will be so much less important.
i just don’t understand why the day of the week is such a big deal. if we all normally had church on a friday and christmas fell on sunday no church would be expected to be open on christmas, because it wasn’t a “church day”. i agree with what others have said about the apparent need to point out what they see as a flaw in other churchs or christians and as they do so it feels as if we be come less and less like the one united church and the body of christ. the fingers on your left hand don’t fight of think of themselves as better than the ones on your right do they? i’m pretty sure God would let pastors know if he dissaproved the way they were leading their communities in worship over the holidays. I’m sure God’s not concerned with days of the week or tradition. it’s our hearts he wants, not our rituals or the actions of driving to a certain building on a certain day just because that’s how we do it everday. authentic worship only takes place in the heart. and you and God are the only ones who know what’s happening there.
just a thought from a 17 year old.
merry Christmas
I think this debate requires some background on how dates for Christmas began. Several different “theories” exist, but the one I like best is the ancient idea you died on the day you were conceived. So the early Christians just estimated forward nine months and you have Dec. 25th. Also it didn’t hurt that it was Winter Solstice, the birthday of several Greek Gods, etc…
Back to the debate over Christmas, I don’t think the date matters as much as the realization that Christmas is about something much more than gifts, shopping, santa, elves, and reindeer. My question for the megachurch would be are you celebrating advent? Is the message that we need to prepare, get ready…Jesus is coming. Then the church must announce that Jesus is HERE, if not who will?
Pax,
Stephen
Thanks everyone for your comments about this. There are many unique thoughts, many which I have never considered. I just wish people would stop crying about it! :)
churches don’t have doors on Christmas–only Church buildings…
People are concerned about how closing the doors to the church building might appear to those who aren’t Christians. But what concerns me the most is how some churches are arguing and name calling – that seems to be more of an issue in my book … and I think that’s really sad. I don’t think Christ would debate on when a building’s doors are open, but instead would try to show love to people in every possible way He could.