Christmas is on a Sunday this year! Don't go to church!
But don’t try attending some of America’s finest mega-churches. It seems that the consumer driven, baby-boomer, “me” mentality, has won the day and some churches are closing their doors on Sunday, December 25, 2005.
I am concerned about this for several reasons.
1. American Churches (especially the large ones) typically have Patriotic Services for July 4, even on Sunday. Why celebrate an imperfect country if you cannot celebrate your perfect Savior?
2. People who do not normally attend church SHOW UP on Christmas and Easter. Good job alienating them, now they’ll go somewhere else.
3. It is placing too much emphasis on the people who “make it happen”. Some of the reasoning given is that it takes too many people to get church ready for Sunday, etc, and too many will be out of town. That’s just silly.
4. It makes Evangelical Christians look like morons. Think about it. For the past month, many evangelicals have been sending boycott emails and have been on cable TV complaining that the secularists are taking “Christ” out of Christmas since companies won’t say, “merry Christmas”. Given this, I would think that every Evangelical church in the country would want to have their seats full on Sunday, December 25, 2005.
5. It gives more fuel for the dying Fundamentalist movement. All over the country, there will be pastors, ranting and raving about the evil of megachurches and how they lost their first love because they gave in to the slippery slope of the NIV which lead to women’s pants, then modern music, then modern morals, and now won’t worship on Christmas. After 50+ years, you want to give them more sermon fodder?
6. It gives even more fuel for Emerging movements. Now people my age can point to the selfishness of the Baby Boomer church growth movement, and how it does not preserve community, seek to influence incarnationally, etc, etc.
In a broken world that is looking for meaning, it should behoove churches to take every opportunity possible to have the doors open and ministries available for people who may walk in our doors.
I know I have been a little on the sarcastic side today, but I am simply stunned that on the most Christian holiday of the year, there will be some churches with their doors closed. At least people could come in on the Fourth of July, Sing God Bless America and eat Jell-O salad.
I am concerned about this for several reasons.
1. American Churches (especially the large ones) typically have Patriotic Services for July 4, even on Sunday. Why celebrate an imperfect country if you cannot celebrate your perfect Savior?
2. People who do not normally attend church SHOW UP on Christmas and Easter. Good job alienating them, now they’ll go somewhere else.
3. It is placing too much emphasis on the people who “make it happen”. Some of the reasoning given is that it takes too many people to get church ready for Sunday, etc, and too many will be out of town. That’s just silly.
4. It makes Evangelical Christians look like morons. Think about it. For the past month, many evangelicals have been sending boycott emails and have been on cable TV complaining that the secularists are taking “Christ” out of Christmas since companies won’t say, “merry Christmas”. Given this, I would think that every Evangelical church in the country would want to have their seats full on Sunday, December 25, 2005.
5. It gives more fuel for the dying Fundamentalist movement. All over the country, there will be pastors, ranting and raving about the evil of megachurches and how they lost their first love because they gave in to the slippery slope of the NIV which lead to women’s pants, then modern music, then modern morals, and now won’t worship on Christmas. After 50+ years, you want to give them more sermon fodder?
6. It gives even more fuel for Emerging movements. Now people my age can point to the selfishness of the Baby Boomer church growth movement, and how it does not preserve community, seek to influence incarnationally, etc, etc.
In a broken world that is looking for meaning, it should behoove churches to take every opportunity possible to have the doors open and ministries available for people who may walk in our doors.
I know I have been a little on the sarcastic side today, but I am simply stunned that on the most Christian holiday of the year, there will be some churches with their doors closed. At least people could come in on the Fourth of July, Sing God Bless America and eat Jell-O salad.
posted by Bobby's blog at 11:17 AM
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