Evangelical Churches Such As Suburban Willow Creek Will Close On Christmas So Members Can Focus On Family
The decision by some mega-churches to cancel church services on Christmas day (a Sunday) is making quite a stink across America.
From the Chicago Tribune:
Willow Creek Community Church, one of the largest churches in the Chicago area, will be closed on Sunday, Dec. 25--because it's Christmas.
Although thousands of the faithful usually flock to the South Barrington church and its satellites on Sundays, Willow Creek is joining several other evangelical megachurches across the nation in choosing not to worship as a congregation on Christmas Day.
Instead, they will urge members to focus on family at home, rather than filling the pews.
"At first glance it does sound contrarian," said Rev. Gene Appel, senior pastor of Willow Creek. "We don't see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralizing the church on Christmas--hundreds of thousands of experiences going on around Christmas trees. The best way to honor the birth of Jesus is for families to have a more personal experience on that day."
It's not that the church does not value Christmas, the day set aside to commemorate the incarnation of God on Earth. Willow Creek is organizing almost a week of worship ending Christmas Eve, and total attendance at the services is expected to top 50,000. The church has also produced a short DVD designed to reinforce the theme of the Christmas services and help viewers process spiritual questions that may cross their minds during the holidays.
And Appel argues that family has always been at the heart of the Christmas story: the tale of a mother and father celebrating the birth of a babe in a manger.
But there are many who say that this is an example of American evangelicals shifting the focus from God to themselves:
But some religious scholars say letting people decide what is convenient for them on one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar is an example of American evangelical Christians' concessions run amok.
"This speaks to the dilapidated state of evangelical faith today," said David Wells, a professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. "That we would think that going to church is getting in the way of celebrating Christmas--that the family celebration shouldn't be impeded by having to go to church--it seems to me that our priorities are upside down."
When I was growing up, my parents allowed us to open one present before we went to church on a Christmas Sunday. Then we'd get home, change clothes, grab a light lunch, and dig into the Christmas gifts. But my mom trained me that our time of worship at church came first.
That was 30+ years ago.
How priorities can change in one generation.
Expect to see newspapers across the country pick up the story, and write the "local angle" on which churches in their communities are in or out for Christmas.
HT: Terry H.