There's only one thing I can say about "churches" being closed on Christmas Day. Thank God I'm not a Protestant!

Thanks for posting this, and I appreciate your kind words.

I don't know what all the fuss is about.
Sunday is our day of worship and that should settle it. There should be no issue about whether there should be a worship service.
There might be conversation and discussion about whether we hold two services.
At our Church (The Salvation Army) in Scarborought, Ont. Canada, our regular services are 11AM and 6PM. We dediced to have one service at 11Am and because many people are travelling and opening gifts and sharing with family and friends, it would be unfair to hold them accountable for another service, seeing it is Christmas day.
And on New Years we will have it at 6PM since the faithfuls will be up late worshipping God in a Watchnight Service on New Years Eve,
I'm sure they would like to sleep in on New Years day. (Sunday.)
I comes only once in 7 so, I don't think God is going to be to upset about enjoying family on Christmas day. And I'm sure we haven't neglected our Christian duty by having one service.
I don't think,however, that we should neglect him altogether, and have no service.

We nedd to be flexable and understanding of our people and not to be making them feel guilty about everything they do, and continually judging them for not measuring up.

Let's lighten up a little - IT'S CHRISTMAS!!

MERRY CHRISYMAS or is it 'HAPPY HOLIDAYS?"

Let's not go there!!!

God bless you

Major Calvin Collins
PASTOR

It's a shame that our corporate perspective of what constitutes a valid church meeting has become so static...i.e. no preacher, pastor, priest = no church.

I will reassert the issue. It is NOT about the closing, rather, it is about the thought process and defensive stance that was taken by these leaders.
They claimed they were closing the church building because they are committed to the family. Yet, they do not close the building on Mother's Day or Father's Day (for individual birthdays, Grandparent's Day, Easter...). The rationale is flawed, skewed, and hypocritical. It makes the decision appear thoughtless and capricious.
The leaders’ defensiveness on the issue was an extreme overreaction. They should have followed Gamaliel’s advice (Acts 5.33-39) and left the reaction of others alone. Everyone is allowed an opinion. Not everyone will agree with every decision. People are going to disagree. Who cares what others are saying, except those who insist they are THE leader and MUST be followed and obeyed. It is the power-monkey who makes these demands on "all of Christianity." They claimed it was the dissenters’ ego that was the issue. Their reaction exposed their own ego issues.
Their poor reasoning and defensiveness indicate real flaws in thinking and acting, thereby, proving the closure decision to be a poor one. Let them close the buildings. It is theirs to close. However, don’t let them condemn others or demand that everyone has to like it.

I think that it is utterly ridiculous that churches would even consider closing on Christmas Day. This is the day that we celebrate the birth of Christ. It should not be about how much it costs to turn on lights or not having enough attendees. This isn't OUR holiday, it's Christ's birthday -- celebrate it in His house. Other religions would never consider closing their place of worship on any of their major holidays. What message are we sending by closing church on Christmas Day.

"It's not about us." Whether we stay home with family, have breakfast cassarole and open presents; or whether we go celebrate the resurrection of Christ (that is what we are doing on the first day of the week you know)with fellow believers -- that's what it is about. The closed church doors, whether massive or small, tell a questioning world we would rather be home today celebrating with Santa instead of with Christ. It's our gifts at home or God's indescribable gift to us -- what's the public message we should give to a lost and dying world -- especially the multitude that only come on Sunday and Easter and have that one chance to hear the good news? "It's not about us." Thank you, Rick Warren, for that great reminder.
Merry Christmas and Joyous Resurrection service,
lbyates

UrL,

Someone needs to end this endless bickering discussion. Please. Everything that can be said has been said, and every judgemental attitude has been made public. Please end it.

My church is one of the megachurches that will not have services on Christmas Day this year. I was interviewed by National Public Radio for a story they ran on this issue during All Things Considered on December 13.

My comments that were included in the NPR story centered on the fact that my wife and I will still worship Christ and honor his birth on December 25. Though we get much from worshipping with others, our church is not responsible for our worship; we are.

My wife and I are volunteers at our church. We serve year-round and derive great joy and pleasure from it. It takes more than 1500 volunteers plus our staff to run things every Sunday. We have the hardest-working staff and volunteers I've ever been around.

Am I glad we have December 25 off? You bet I am, because it means our staff won't have to be at the church that day, many of them for as long as 7-8 hours or more. They can enjoy the day with their family and friends in whatever way they choose.

Is Christ dishonored by our doors being closed on December 25? Why would He be, as long as we take time to honor Him that day? Would we volunteers and our staff be there if we were open? We would indeed.

Instead, we will be open on Christmas Eve, giving thousands of people an opportunity to worship God and celebrate our Savior's birth. I believe Jesus will be very pleased at what takes place then.

By the way, our church has closed on the last Sunday of the year and the first Sunday of the year since it began ten years ago. That's why we'll be closed on Christmas Day.

So, my Christian brothers and sisters, please do what works best for your church and allow others to do what works for them. As long as no clear biblical practice or teaching is violated, what's the big deal? Somehow, I find it incredulous that our Heavenly Father will ask if we had services on December 25 when we get to Heaven.

May you and your family have a very wonderful Christmas, wherever and however you choose to spend it.

Amen to Larry's comment. Haven't we looked foolish enough to the onlooking world with our petty arguments long enough. Let's end it! God isn't wringing his hands in anxiety over this one folks.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

(Amen, Larry!)

Cancel church on Christmas Day? Absurd! How will the world know the end of the story? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by preaching. How can they hear if no one peraches? How can they preach if they close church? It's not about Church. It's about the Word! Two-thousand and five years ago the Word became flesh and dwelt a while among us. He lived among His own and they did not recognize Him. Now it seems, we don't either. Close church on Christmas day? Absurd! We fuss about "happy holidays," but can't even spare the time to celebrate the day in worship on the Day. What hypocrisy!! May God forgive us and show us poor, stupid creatures mercy.

Regarding the decisions made by a particular local congregation to be closed or hold worship services on any given Sunday, I'm not going to make comment - that is their decision, not mine.

But for those of us who hold to celebrating God's gift of himself to us, Emmanuel, as the center of what Christmas is all about -- let me encourage you, whether it be Christmas Eve or Christmas Sunday to set aside time to be in worship: praise him and give Glory to God in the Highest. Do that in your home, at your church, or at the nearest church to those whom you will be visiting. For, to me, it makes no sense to make a big celebration out of Christmas with family, and friends, and gifts, and parties, and all the other things that are an augmentation adding to the joy of our celebration and miss the very heart of Christmas.

And if the church you would normally attend is closed, don't make a big deal out of, there will be plenty of others open and you can worship there as well.

Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees for their practice of straining out gnats while swallowing camels. This entire discussion seems to revolve around that kind of practice. We truly need to place our emphasis solidly where Christ did.

We certainly must join our hearts with Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, Magi, Simeon, Anna, all God's people, and all of heaven in rejoicing over the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. Praise God forever for His incredible Gift of Love and Salvation through Jesus Christ! My sympathies lie heavily with all those who sincerely desire to acknowledge, worship, please, and hold as preeminent our Lord Jesus all the time without compromise. Hopefully this honest statement will spare me from being labeled a heretic by those who plea for church attendance on Christmas - I am far more in agreement with you than not.

But evidently Jesus did not instruct His followers to celebrate His birthday. The certain historical fact is that the early church never made a point of celebrating it - if they had it would have been impossible for that date to have been completely lost as it has. Based on the biblical accounts, virtually no one accepts December 25th as even being "in the ball park" of His actual date of birth, which Mary and others would certainly have known for many years after His death.

What Jesus did command His followers to do was to celebrate His death. He Personally placed little or no emphasis on His being remembered as a baby in a manger, but He commanded His followers to continuously proclaim His death in Holy Communion and through preaching the Gospel (of His sacrificial death) until He returns. That was unquestionably His priority and, appropriately, that was the total priority for the biblical church. We must not neglect His birth, but we honor Him best by remembering Him exactly as He wanted to be remembered ("do this in remembrance of Me"), in His sacrificial death. Of course they are not mutually exclusive, but we, like the biblical church should have, in obedience to Christ, a mind for what truly matters.

This line of thought leads to the "camel" of this discussion. I have surveyed only a few blogs, but have seen literally hundreds of passionate posts - pro and con - on this issue. There must be many thousands more. The "camel" is this: where is the outcry over the MISSING proclamation of "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" which should be our 365 days a year emphasis? Answer for yourselves, do you and your church continuously point toward the death of our Savior on the cross to condemn sin in the flesh? Are you and the congregation with whom you assemble focused entirely on following Christ in self denial and living the crucified life as He commanded? Have you "died with Christ" to self, sin, the Law, and the world? Are we promoting the Gospel of His death to the lost world? If we are not passionately obeying Jesus Christ in these matters of eternal importance, what we do, or do not do, with regards to celebrating Christmas is probably of little importance.

What? Church is closed on Sunday? Huh? Man, I wish someone would have told me! Cuz, then I would have bought cigars, porn and booze - cuz, you know, that's what happens to followers of Christ who don't meet on SUNDAY!!!!!!

Here's a thought... some churches will be open on Christmas. Some won't. And, in the end, somehow - - God will STILL be in control, right?

Happy Festivus!

"...thoughtful, intelligent, and charitable."

Evidently some of the commenters didn't respect the author's wishes or read the comments on parts one and two and realize their position had been explained ad nauseum.

I may be wrong, but I don't think God cares about our traditions. He doesn't care about nativity scenes, Palm Sunday, or boycotting Halloween. He didn't send His Son to this world to establish traditions and judge whether our reasons for interrupting them are practical, selfless, or enlightened spiritually.

Personally, I don't care what other churches do. There are over 1,700 churches in my area. Not only do I have choices, I doubt God thinks any of them are doing everything right.

Watching exchanges like these makes me want to curl up into the fetal position. But hey, maybe that's a good thing. Just evidence of a "child-like faith."

I appreciate Scot's post, and said so on his blog. I am among those who have taken heat for their belief that this has been blown way out of purportion.

Some of these large churches are having 10 or more Christmas services Friday and Saturday night, bringing in 10's of thousands of people to church. Many of those will be the kind of people who don't attend church regularly. Many of those critics will be bunkered down Christmas day in their churches with the same people who have always gone there, and if they are lucky a couple of hand fulls of non-regular attenders.

Big Chris

It's now Christmas eve, 3:05 a.m. It occurs to me at this odd hour that the controversy over certain churches being closed on Christmas Day is really nothing more than a false crisis created by some Christians to shame others. I don't remember what part of "Closed for Christmas" on this blog I saw it, but a Vietnamese Christian had posted on the persecuted church, and it convicted me in a powerful way.
It said to me, "Hey, mainliners, evangelicals, Roman Catholics, everyone else in the US: Consider how incredibly blessed you are that not only do you get to worship freely, you have the freedom to criticize those who choose to do things differently. Think about what you're blessed with, and what you're taking for granted by making this such a big issue, when there are clearly more important things in the world to deal with".
I hope that somehow, we all decide to look past this whole mess, so that the next time Christmas falls on a Sunday, we don't have to go through this. Let's all have a blessed Christmas!

Serious question to those who are aghast that Willow Creek was closed for Christmas ... It seems to me that logic requires not only that they should not close on Christmas but that they would ONLY be "open" on Sundays. That would leave several thousand unable to attend "Sunday" worship services. If a congregation should not have seven "Christmas" services to accommodate tens of thousands on days other than Sunday, should they only meet on Sunday?

Serious question...

Phil Miglioratti
National Pastors' Prayer Network

I was more disturbed at churches (including mine) that didn't have a Christmas Eve service because Christmas fell on Sunday and complained about other churches not having a Sunday service for the same reason.

I ended up going to Christmas Eve service (different denomination than mine) with a friend and was very blessed. It was an excellent Lessons and Carols service with a great sermon on being truly surrendered to Christ. I ended up missing Christmas service at my church because I didn't wake up in time (due to being up late with prep and being sick).

Phil M - I have re-read your post/question a few times and have yet to focus in on what it is you are asking - but I'd love to discuss it with you if I can figure out what it is you are trying to ask! LOL... help us out here.

Scott, at least utilize your considerable theological knowledge, training and good mind! This IS an issue, don't sidestep it with calls for Goodwill. This IS a current theological issue effecting the Church of Jesus Christ. Economically, large churches have difficulties staying open on a poorly attended Sunday. Say it for what it is! This is an ECONOMIC issue! And many of these large mega churches bring in MILLIONS! Theology and tradition have been swept aside due to economies of scale. And to have the gaul to rationalize, "to spend time with family," give me a break.

Personal testimony, if you will. I went to the evening service at the Lutheran church I attend. I sang in the chior. I also had to work midnight that night, 10pm to 5am. I came home and went to bed. At 9am I got up, was in the church at 9:30 to practice with the chior again. We had the divine service. I got on my knees at the chancel to recieve the body and blood of my Savior. I went home afterwards and had to go back to work at 2pm that afternoon. I had to, for in the job I work in, no one wants to work on Christmas, but someone has to.

I wouldn't have missed either service. I wouldn't miss the chance to worship and laud his name with angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven. I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to recieve the sacrament of communion on the Lord's day that wont come again for another 7 years.

Why would anyone want to be anywhere other than with our Lord and Savior?

"That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth,
The spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,
the body they may kill, God's truth abideth still... His kingdom is forever"

I think given the evidence of the NT that 2000 years of Christianity makes it abundantly clear that the "Lord's day" is the first day of the week e.g. Sat. It is irrefutable. So to choose to attend or not is an individual decision. At best it is poor judgment. At worst it leads to even more spurious and rational defenses that get more strange as one reads them. To obey is better than sacrifice said the prophet. end.