Despite the questions about closed for Christmas or not, it managed to come to pass as it has for many years. People shopped, some went to church and others did not. Yet in each home it was celebrated as each family chose. In all the articles I read o…

Nor do we feel we need to make a point of leaving our house and going there so that others can see us do it, and approve. Or disapprove. Or feel encouraged by our presence. Or anything. We have prioritized our holidays in this manner: Xmas comes before Sunday. What would we ordinarily do on Xmas? Go to a Xmas Eve service and worship Christ with carols and candles, then sleep, then in the morning worship Christ with giving and feasting. Either way, Jesus is worshipped.

The only “selfishness,” if anyone wishes to use that word to describe it, is when traditionalists insist that their way is the only right and holy way to do it, and that anyone who doesn’t go to a church is in any way putting Jesus second. Likewise I would be selfish if I insisted that everyone ditch the Sunday services and worship with their families at home. Both can be honest ways of honoring God; likewise, both arguments can be adopted by hypocrites who want to either get out of uncomfortably dealing with family, or uncomfortably sitting in a church.

Lastly, to David, who decided he’d not just disagree with me, but suggests that if Jesus took my attitude, He’d never have died for our sins: Is this the same Jesus who said, “The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father… the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4.21, 23) If Jesus wasn’t so particular about our worship location, why should any of His disciples be?

My comments about personal attacks, etc. were related to the overall discussion taking place on many blogs, not just this one, and certainly not just your comments. Churches who are cancelling their services have been accused of teaching a false gospel in some comments, many have commented that the family has become an idol, and you even imply in your comments that if one is not at the church building, they obviously are not worshipping Jesus with the Body of Christ. To put it rather bluntly, you don’t know that. You present a false dichotomy of “worshipping Jesus at the institutional church building” or “not really worshipping in a suitable way” (my paraphrase of the only two choices you seem to allow). That misrepresents both sides of the argument and creates a false dilemma.

I’m not attacking you personally, and I wasn’t even responding to you directly. Maybe you’ve got a balanced opinion on this topic, but if so, you are definitely in the minority.

steve

Friend, you have made it clear that you disagree with my position on ‘to have or not to have church services on a Sunday that is Christmas day,’ but I don’t see that as you attacking me.

For me, the issue is as simple as this. The last time Christmas day fell on a Sunday was in 1994. Now of course I can’t prove this, but I would guess that the vast majority of the churches that will NOT BE HAVING sevices on Christmas day HAVE NOT discontinued a Sunday service since 1994, other than weather related. Of course I can’t prove that, but logic says that I am probably right. Steve, it is not about not having services on Christmas day; it is about not having church on Christmas day WHEN it falls on a Sunday, when they probably have never closed the door on any other Sunday. To close the doors when we celebrate one of the GREAT doctrines of our faith just makes no sense to me.

The Virgin birth of Jesus Christ is one of the major doctrines of the Christian Church [Universal church], along with the death and resurrction of Jesus. I would take a guess that there is not a Bible believing church that takes Sunday off on the day we remember the death and celebrate the resurrection as local Bodies of Christ. Remember, Easter Sunday is never on the same date–it is contantly changing. It is very seldom held on the offical date of Jesus’ resurrection. 2005 it was March 27th, and 2006 it will be on April 16th. So why don’t those churhes who will shut down for Christmas day on a Sunday, not shut down for Easter since Easter,when Easter rarely falls on the date of the resurrection?

I will stop for now, Steve. I don’t want my “arm-chair theology” making you too sick.

And Steve, if you reply to my comments, and you don’t agree with them, I WILL NOT consider your disaproval of what I have written as a ‘personal attack.’

Steve-in reference to your comments about “senior pastor,” there is only ONE SENIOR PASTOR in the church I am a part of: It says it right at the top of our bulletin.
SENIOR PASTOR–Jesus Christ
Pastors: Gene, Dick, Art, and Jerry [fish on]

There’s a couple of my pennies.

For those of you who believe that the ONLY way people can worship is to be in a church building on a Sunday morning, you are missing out on somewhere around 165 hours a week of opportunities to worship. And if you believe that the only way the Body of Christ can gather is in a church building on a Sunday morning, you ignore a large portion of the New Testament.

For the record, I am not anti-institution, but this whole debate about services on Dec 25 has highlighted for me many of the problems that the institutional church has. All of Paul’s warnings about division, all of his warnings about making YOUR designated special day mandatory for others…these things seem to get ignored. If you want to gather with other believers on Dec 25, go right ahead and do it! You don’t need a special building to do it, and you don’t need the “senior pastor” to be there to make it official. And if you’re that concerned about the lost missing a chance to hear the Gospel on that day, then go out and tell them yourself! And if you’re so concerned about people selling out to the commercialism, then you better go all the way and make sure that they don’t open presents on Christmas Day next year when it’s on a Monday.

All of this armchair theology and finger-pointing is sickening.

Sorry for the frustration and venting, but this whole discussion in the blogosphere probably does more to stain the name of Christ than any “church” deciding not to have services on Dec 25. If Paul were alive today, he could probably write the sequel to Galatians and send it to the church in America. For that matter, he could rewrite Romans and 1 Corinthians, too.

steve

When I stepped into the pulpit to give the sermon, I didn’t get a word out before a Lady in the congregation spoke up and asked, “You mean we are not have church [called out assembly]because Christmas falls on Sunday?” Many others nodded in agreement. Wow! They had indeed read the bulletin and saw the title.

To make a long sermon short — we will “be open for Christmas.” The bars and taverns won’t, but then, their main business interest is not the same as ours: The worship and praise of our Savior on Lord.

I find it interest that there are so many people who can defend the churches that will be closed Sunday, the 25th, but I wonder why they are not passionate for all the reasons to be open for Christmas?

Matthew 2:1-12 tells us about the Magi that traveled, after the birth of Jesus, to go and find him and “worship” him. It was a priority to them to worship that little baby — and the key word is “priority.”

For all you Christians who will be celebrating Christmas, but NOT attending church on Sunday, Dec. 25th, let ask you a question. WHAT IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON to which you are celebrating? Most of you are going to say, “I am celebrating the birth of Jesus.” So I would say this: “You are going to celebrate the reason for the season, and not celebrate it with His Body, the Church because that celebration day falls on a Sunday?” If that doesn’t seem strange to you –well, I will just let it go at that.

TREADLIGHTLY: You say you belong to a Mega-church. Then you say that the mega-churches that will be having services are doing it to keep the tithes coming in. So if your statement is true, then I can assume that the mega-church you attend is staying open for Christmas for the tithes and offerings. If your statement and assumtion is true about other mega-churches, then logic tells me your church is doing the same thing. YOU HAD BETTER FIND A NEW CHURCH THEN.

Moderator–if you do not send this on, I understand. It is a little confrontational.

jerry [fish on]

Second, the mega churches are getting slammed on this because its considered newsworthy. I’d bet there are more small churches skipping on Sunday than mega churches, they just don’t make the headlines.

Third, cultural traditions play a role in these things as well. In my town there are a high percentage of Swedes who have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve (my wife’s family among them). It is a given that church will be open on Sunday because it won’t interfere with their Christmas celebration at all. Others will attend both Saturday night and Sunday morning. Saturday night because its part of their Christmas tradition, Sunday morning because there’s nothing else to do if they celebrated Saturday night.

Fourth, people are scattered all over. How many families have only one Christmas celebration with their families. This year my family will only have two. One year my wife and I had five Christmas celebrations with family in four days in four states (from Iowa to Ohio). Needless to say, we never did that again. Family situations make Christmas a very difficult holiday for people to begin with, just because a few churches decide to focus the celebration on the week before rather than on the Day, that’s no reason for blasting them. I agree with the poster a bit further up. I’m a tired Christian. These types of petty arguments make me more so. Why don’t we focus on something besides “Will XYZ megachurch in another state have a church service when I want them to?”

My church is having an Xmas Eve service because no one would be there Xmas but the pastors’ families.

Few of us are big on the commercialism that is the real threat to this season — not the use of “Happy Holidays” or the references to “Holiday Trees” that are causing the bigger-than-average Xian backlash. I, too, am tired of the political correctness; but Mammon has been trying to steal this holiday from Jesus a lot longer than the anti-Christians have, and we have yet to threaten a boycott of the greedy and the opportunistic.

Therefore, I expect that most of our family Xmas gatherings will focus, naturally, on Jesus; and on obeying His commandment to love one another as He loves us. And if we must put aside the Sunday morning service for that, so be it. Sunday morning services are made for man, not man for the Sunday morning service.

Happy Christmas.