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Friday, December 9, 2005
When we found out that Christmas was going to be on the Lord’s Day, I was ecstatic. Where else better to celebrate the birth of our Savior? Well I guess there are some churches around the nation that disagree with that thought and are actually closing their doors on Christmas morning. Ya, locking the doors! Can you believe that? I’m stunned!
The Rapid City Journal has a very sad quote, stating:
In Spearfish, Countryside Community Church decided against holding Sunday services on Christmas Day, largely because of the inconvenience it would cause to church volunteers and workers at the Donald E. Young Center at Black Hills State University, where the church meets.
“We’re not having it,” Lori Bean, administrative assistant at Countryside, said. “After lots of prayer and debate, we decided we just couldn’t ask volunteers to do that on Christmas Day when they want to be with their families.”
Man, maybe this is a reason NOT to have a mega-church, huh? Even if this is the case, isn’t this all done onto the Lord and what better way to thank our GOD on his observed birthday to give up some of our time? I don’t get this thinking at all. Completely alien and completely worldly.
I don’t want to get into the mega-church debate, but I think this is a strong example of how worldly philosophies seep into these huge cathedrals of worship. I have only been to one mega-church that blew my socks off with it’s spot on teaching and that was Grace Community in Sun Valley, California. Yes, John MacArthur’s church. All other mega-churches seemed fake and wrong, to me. Looks like the “wrong” part may be right one in this case. Sad.
December 9th, 2005 at 16:54
So which is worse, a church that decides to shut down on Christmas day knowing that Christmas eve is the bigger Christmas service anyway, or the church that decides to stay open simply because they want to collect offerings? I’d guess there are a fair number of pastors who’ve decided to stay open that day simply because they don’t want to put their budgets at risk by being closed for a Sunday. That’s more true in the north than other places because there is a chance that churches will have to close due to weather (its rare, but it happens). Take out two Sundays in a year, and that has the potential of really hurting the income side of the budget!
I don’t see this as a mega-church issue. I’d bet there are tons of small churches that are doing the same thing, they don’t happen to generate the media interest or have a web presence to make their announcement public.
December 10th, 2005 at 14:31
I think that I personally would have not had church on a Sunday either. My wife is on staff at our church (www.westgatechurch.org) and we’re actually having church on Sunday. But, we decided after all to consolidate all the services into one and have one single service since we didn’t expect many people to come (Which, btw is totally my thought, I have neither talked with nor debated any of these things with the pastor staff or elders - exclaimer done). I know in the past my family has skipped church on Sundays of Christmas, simply because it’s usually not a service day. I think this isn’t that much of a “big deal”, I can’t remember ever having a Christmas Day service if Christmas was not on a Sunday either, so I think it’s pretty status quo.
I have to agree with Bob as well, I don’t think this is a mega-church issue either, this is the first church that I’ve ever been to with a Christmas day service, and it’s pretty large.
December 11th, 2005 at 7:08
One more thing, if your church meets at a school, as the one in your quote above does, its not just about your church’s volunteers, its about the employee(s) of the school who have to work that day. I haven’t quite figured out why so many people are upset that churches they don’t go to aren’t having a service when they think those churches should. My church will have Saturday night and Sunday morning. I also live in a city with a lot of Swedes who always celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, so a Sunday morning service won’t interfere with their family get togethers anyway.