A Plea to Pastors: Don’t Cancel Church on Christmas

Life and Books and Everything — Clearly Reformed

00:00

A Plea to Pastors: Don’t Cancel Church on Christmas

November 30, 2022

Life and Books and EverythingClearly Reformed

In this episode of Life and Books and Everything, Kevin reads his article from The Gospel Coalition and pleads with pastors not to cancel Christmas services this year.

Transcript

[MUSIC] Reading the salutations, this is Life in Books and everything. Today, I'm reading an article that's addressed to pastors, although could be to other church leaders, thinking in particular as we come this year to have Christmas fall on a Sunday, and some people may be considering whether they have church because it falls on a Sunday. So here's a very brief article called A Plea to Pastors Don't Cancel Church on Christmas.

Dear brother pastor, I hope it's not too late to make you reconsider your decision to cancel church on Christmas. I know that December is crazy busy for you and for everyone else. I know you probably have Christmas Eve services, maybe even one that bumps up against midnight.

I know that families like to gather Christmas morning to open presents. I know that many of your people may be traveling and others won't come to church on Christmas after coming on Christmas Eve. I know that canceling church for one Sunday will not send all your people slouching to Gamora.

I know that getting volunteers for the worship team and for the sound system and for the nursery may be challenging. I know that you'd rather not have to work on Christmas when you already had to work on Christmas Eve. I know that you may have places to go and family to see.

I know that when Christmas falls on Sunday, it's in all around big pain. Why couldn't Leap Day do us a favor and skip over this problem? But don't do it. Don't cancel all your services on Christmas.

Scale back on the nursery perhaps, take the week off from Sunday school, make things closer to an hour than an hour and a half, skip the life groups or even the second service for a day. But don't close the church up on Christmas. You need reasons? Here are a few.

One, most people will come back. Even if half of your people don't show up and I imagine far more than half will be there, that's still a gathering of 25 or 50 or 150 or 400 or 1200 people. In most churches, most of the people will still come to church on Christmas and let's not kid ourselves to think that we can encourage everyone to have a meaningful thoughtfully prepared, do-it-yourself service at home.

Two, visitors will be looking for a place to worship. Family members from out of town, neighbors, non-Christians, twice a year churchgoers, they may venture into your church on Christmas, out of habit, out of curiosity or just to hear some Christmas songs. Will anyone be there when they show up? Three, family is a gift, not a God.

I love, love, love waking up on Christmas. Doing the advent wreath with the kids, having a big brunch and opening presents with the family. Yes, it will be hectic to get everyone out of the house for church.

Thanks to my wife for making it happen. Yes, it will mean a delay in the normal festivities, but maybe the normal festivities should not be deemed more important than the festival itself. I want my family to know that we rearrange our schedule for corporate worship.

We don't expect corporate worship to be rearranged for us. Four, it's Christmas for crying out loud. It's the day we celebrate the incarnation, the birth of the Messiah, the entrance into our world of the second person of the Trinity.

Don't we want to sing? Don't we want to celebrate? Don't we want to preach and praise and pray? Number five, it's Sunday for crying out louder. I don't have a problem with Advent and Christmas, in fact, I love this time of year. I'm not a huge church calendar guy, but I'm not bothered by focusing on the incarnation once every 12 months, especially when the world around us may, by God's kindness be turned into some of the... tuned into some of the same spiritual realities at the same time.

But I'm enough of a puret, and to think that December 25 is the Sunday before it's Christmas. It's the Lord's Day. It's a resurrection morning.

It's the day on which Christians have gathered for 2,000 years to sing the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, and see the Bible in the sacraments. It's the day that we've given for rest and worship. Why would we cancel church on Sunday just because that Sunday is extra special? Maybe you've already printed the Advent schedule.

Pastor, maybe the plans were already set, but it's not too late to change your mind. Will your church's ministry crumble without church one Sunday? I doubt it. But might it say something good and healthy about your convictions and priorities if you gather for corporate worship on December 25, just like you do every other Sunday? Something to think about.

[music]