Closed for Christmas
Photo by Tim Mossholder (Unsplash)
Many churches, when finding that Christmas falls on a Sunday, choose to scale back their services or even cancel them in light of the holiday.
Is that right or wrong?
The rhetoric decrying it has been strong. “Soft doctrine congregations close on Christmas,” one seminary professor proclaimed. “Sound doctrine churches will be there to scoop those folks right up.” A pastor in Boca Raton snarkily quipped, “In some places the magi might show up for worship and find the doors locked.” (Honestly, this doesn’t even make sense because the Magi didn’t come with their gifts for months, even years, after Jesus’ birth.)
As a pastor of a church that will not be holding services on Christmas Day nor New Year’s Day for that matter (though our Online Campus will be operating in full force), what in the world am I thinking?
Several things, actually.
First, evangelical churches of all kinds throughout the United States have seldom held services on Christmas Day even when it has not fallen on a Sunday (a tradition that dates back to the Puritans).
Second, marking Christmas has never been tied to a Sunday-specific celebration as with Easter. If there is a day that has uniformly been seized by churches to celebrate the birth of Christ it has been Christmas Eve, and the churches being chastised for not having Sunday services on the 25th are planning on offering numerous services on the 24th.
Third, many if not most churches choosing to not hold in-person services on Christmas Day are offering online services.
Finally, some of the rhetoric criticizing churches for opting out of services on the 25th skates dangerously close to Sabbatarianism, with a fair dose of legalism to boot. To insist that we must meet on a Sunday – any Sunday – can be debated. Early church records show a preference for worship on the “Lord’s Day,” but only the 2nd century church manual – the Didache – directed Christians to meet at that time. No day was set aside in Gentile Christianity for worship until the time of Constantine and the institutionalization of the Church, but nowhere is it directly commanded in Scripture.
For many years, Christmas Eve has been the day of choice for the communal celebration among Christians of the birth of Christ. Celebrations could be held on Christmas Day, but very few would come. If someone cares about leading a church to celebrate the birth of Christ, they should go with the hundreds or even thousands who will assemble on Christmas Eve against the handful they might choose to engage on Christmas Day—particularly since there is the biblical freedom to do so.
This isn’t compromise, it is common sense.
But it is a moot point for most churches. The volunteer base needed for a Christmas Day service simply cannot be met. As I joked with one reporter back in 2016 (when this confluence last occurred), I guarantee you that the critics who want to insist on a Christmas Day service have no intention of being the one sitting in the nursery watching someone else’s child. They may not have any intention of attending at all. I recall a deacon in the church I pastored while in seminary insisting on a Sunday night service on Super Bowl Sunday. We had the service. He stayed home and watched the game.
Yes, we live in a world where materialism, individualism and consumerism rule the day, but whether you offer services on the 24th or the 25th is not at the center of that culture war. We will not keep Christ in Christmas through a Christmas Day service—whether on a Sunday or any other day of the week.
We will keep Christ in Christmas by working to keep His birth in the center of our hearts and celebrations, as Christmas Eve services will most certainly do.
We will keep Christ in Christmas by avoiding the materialism our culture places upon the holiday season.
We will keep Christ in Christmas, most of all, by reaching out to individuals within our culture for Christ so that one day they may celebrate His birth with us…
… whenever it is we meet to do it.
James Emery White
Sources
Jessica Lea, “‘Tragically Ironic’—Pastors Debate Whether or Not To Hold a Christmas Day Service This Year,” Church Leaders, December 14, 2022, read online.