Why meeting on Christmas Sunday may be a good idea.
Christmas fell on a Sunday again this year, and there were more and more churches who decided to “close up shop”.
All of the pastors I know who decided not to gather as a Church on Sunday morning had a full complement of Christmas Eve (and even Christmas Eve-Eve) services that were well planned and executed and that saw many people get saved. Honestly, for some of these large churches, Christmas Eve was almost just as much work as Easter, and by the time they finished their 3rd (or 5th or 6th, etc.) service, there was not much left for Sunday morning.
The thought in not having an extra service was pure: Gift this important day to staff and volunteers who already hadn’t seen their families much leading up to Christmas; more importantly, it was thought, unbelievers don’t want to go to church on Christmas, they want to stay home with their families and friends, too.
I have to admit, though I’m not a fan of ever canceling Sunday morning Church (if Sunday is when you normally meet) I actually encouraged some of my pastor friends in their reasoning about this year’s Sunday services.
But now I think I was wrong.
A few days ago on Christmas Sunday morning, I woke up wanting to go to church. Since our family had attended service together the night before and there was extended family activity all over the house, I quietly slipped out of the house alone (with my wife’s permission) to make the solitary drive to a large church downtown in the city where my in-laws live.
I didn’t know what to expect. I walked into the foyer to find that the service had been moved out there. When I talked to one of the pastors later I discovered that they had figured maybe 50 or 75 people would show up, but by the time I arrived 5 minutes late they had nearly 400 people gathered to worship Jesus and celebrate Christmas.
It was a simple service. One very talented family led worship. A handful of ushers were quickly setting up extra chairs. There was a sound guy, a preacher and a greeter. That was it. Maybe 10 or 15 staff & volunteers. Everyone from 2 weeks old to 100 was together for about 40 minutes in a very simple service. I imagine (and later confirmed) it wasn’t that hard to pull off. The lead pastor wasn’t even there, because he had been heavily involved in the services the night before. It seems that some of the staff and volunteers had taken “shifts” so that either Christmas Eve or Christmas day could be spent with family.
But those are just logistics. What brought me to tears was sitting alone, experiencing Christmas service without any family or friends with me for the first time ever. On one side of me was an older single lady, who was very glad to be there. On my other side was an elderly couple who was there with their kids and grandkids (I gathered that the couple regularly came to church but that the rest of the family did not). As I looked around the room I saw homeless people, disabled folks, couples without kids, immigrants, college students and single parent families.
It struck me how many folks were at Church, alone, on Christmas.
And then I realized how selfish I can be. When declaring that people want to spend time with their families on Christmas day, I never fully grasped how many don’t have families or friends to spend Christmas with. For some of those people, this was the most significant experience on Christmas day that they would have. Singing praise to the Messiah; hearing the message of the gift that came from God; having the chance to receive the Lordship of the King into their lives; connecting with others who were also celebrating.
Christianity is and always has been especially concerned about the lonely, the outcast, and the disenfranchised. Repeatedly we are called on to take care of the orphan, the widow and the alien. And in our culture, Christmas still attracts those who have not yet given their lives to Jesus—one pastor friend of mine who did identical Christmas Eve and Christmas services had 60% attendance Christmas Eve (with one first-time response to Jesus) and 40% on Christmas Day (with 11 first-time responses to Jesus).
What better way to declare the message of the King who was born to temporarily homeless and outcast parents than to intentionally make time and space on this special day for those who are homeless, outcasts, or lonely, and for those who can take the opportunity to bring family members who have not yet met the King.
To host a simple service that takes a couple of hours out of our day so that someone doesn’t have to sit at home alone eating top ramen and watching old Christmas movies on TBS may be a wonderful act of grace that will brighten someone’s day, and that may just open them up to eternal life.