Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Celebrating Christmas
During my elementary school years, I went to a great church. Seems like the whole church got together for holiday celebrations. I remember huge crowds (well a couple hundred, which really was the whole church) gathering and spending the entire day together. I had a lot of fun as a kid and remember this great feeling of warmth and belonging. Everybody knew me and was nice to me. I felt like I had 200 people in my immediate family.
Why can't it be like that these days? Everybody is talking about how some churches have decided to forego Sunday services on Christmas day -- Jollyblogger has a great collection of some of the better posts. David quotes Ben Witherington exstensively, I'll just borrow a couple of sentences.
For me the answer is simple -- the congregation of which I am a part simply is not as cohesive as the one I was a part of when I was a kid. Some of that is a refelction of the narcissism Witherington mentions, that's true. But some of it is that the church doesn't do a great job of building that kind of cohesiveness either, and my church has a fairly active fellowship ministry. The fellowship minstry makes allowance, to some extent, for the narcissism instead of challenging it. Most bigger churches I have checked out don't even try a fellowship ministry.
I think all this belies the central problem in most church issues these days. So called "successful" churches seem to garner that success by catering to the people in the pews. You hear talk of "customer service" and so forth. If church exists to cater to the pews, not holding services on Christmas Sunday makes perfect sense.
But that's just the thing, church is not about the people in the pews, it's about GOD! The benefits that we derive from our faith and it's practice, and they are legion, and they are wonderful, and they are marvelous, are by-products.
I heard someone say the other day that the commericalization of Christmas - at least when it comes to gift giving isn't all bad - because it's about making someone else happy; it's about considering the needs of others as more important than my own. There is some wisdom in that, though it comes with a bunch of caveats.
I'm not satisfied with "just" having church on Christmas this year -- I want it to be like it was when I was a kid. Let's not sell ourselves short here. If we look to the Lord we are indeed a part of a huge family and it will seem wonderful and natural to share our holiday with all of them. I dont want to just go to church this Chritmas, I want it to be so good that I don't want to leave.
Why can't it be like that these days? Everybody is talking about how some churches have decided to forego Sunday services on Christmas day -- Jollyblogger has a great collection of some of the better posts. David quotes Ben Witherington exstensively, I'll just borrow a couple of sentences.
Our culture does not need any encouragement to be more self-centered and narcissistic or to stay at home on Sunday. It is already that way.Now, I have to make a confession, I look forward to worship on Christmas day, but an all day thing like I had when I was a kid really does seem like an intrusion - so why does something that seemed so wonderful as a kid seem so different today? I think the question can lead us to the causes of the general desire to cancel even an hour's worship.
For me the answer is simple -- the congregation of which I am a part simply is not as cohesive as the one I was a part of when I was a kid. Some of that is a refelction of the narcissism Witherington mentions, that's true. But some of it is that the church doesn't do a great job of building that kind of cohesiveness either, and my church has a fairly active fellowship ministry. The fellowship minstry makes allowance, to some extent, for the narcissism instead of challenging it. Most bigger churches I have checked out don't even try a fellowship ministry.
I think all this belies the central problem in most church issues these days. So called "successful" churches seem to garner that success by catering to the people in the pews. You hear talk of "customer service" and so forth. If church exists to cater to the pews, not holding services on Christmas Sunday makes perfect sense.
But that's just the thing, church is not about the people in the pews, it's about GOD! The benefits that we derive from our faith and it's practice, and they are legion, and they are wonderful, and they are marvelous, are by-products.
I heard someone say the other day that the commericalization of Christmas - at least when it comes to gift giving isn't all bad - because it's about making someone else happy; it's about considering the needs of others as more important than my own. There is some wisdom in that, though it comes with a bunch of caveats.
I'm not satisfied with "just" having church on Christmas this year -- I want it to be like it was when I was a kid. Let's not sell ourselves short here. If we look to the Lord we are indeed a part of a huge family and it will seem wonderful and natural to share our holiday with all of them. I dont want to just go to church this Chritmas, I want it to be so good that I don't want to leave.
