Reporting on the number of megachurches who are "skipping Christmas services" the Orange County Register mentioned that a number of the churches who closed for Christmas day cite a desire to be consistent with their "innovative" and "family friendly" approach to Christianity.
Rock Harbor church in Costa Mesa is giving Christmas gift bags with a CD "old time radio drama" about the message of Christmas that they can play at home while sipping hot cocoa and sucking on a candy cane, all provided. 6000 bags were prepared by the congregation volunteers, so the staff has decided to give them the day off from worship. A church spokesperson explained,""Hopefully, it will bring them to reflect on God and Christmas and Christ...Christmas is a time to be with family and friends."
At Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., (called by the OC Register, "a pacesetter among megachurches") they are handing out a DVD it produced for this occasion, featuring a contemporary Christmas tale.
"What we're encouraging people to do is take that DVD and in the comfort of their living room, with friends and family, pop it into the player and hopefully hear a different and more personal and maybe more intimate Christmas message, that God is with us wherever we are," said the communications director at Willow Creek.
Now, in one sense, I love their innovative and creative approaches to ministry. It's their theology, ecclesiology,and witness that disturbs me. Yes, God is with us wherever we are, but still we are called by that God to worship together as a people and that includes more than just MY family and MY friends.
(By the way, OC megachurch Saddleback Community Church IS having worship on Christmas morning. Like our church they will only have one service, but the fact of having worship, not the numbers of services is the point.)
As Ben Witherington, professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky.has written, "I see this in many ways as a capitulation to narcissism - the self-centered, me-first, I'm going to put me and my immediate family first agenda of the larger culture. If Christianity is an evangelistic religion, then what kind of message is this sending to the larger culture - that worship is an optional extra?"
John D. Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., points out another pastoral angle that is all too often overlooked: "What about the people in society without strong family connections - the elderly, single people a long distance from family, or people who are simply lonely and for whom church and prayers would be a significant part of their day?" he asked.
But perhaps the best comment comes from another blogger, Mark Daniels, who reminds us, "the weekly little Easter is far more important to remember than even the birth of Jesus." Leave it to a Lutheran to remind us all that as good as Christmas is, the cross and resurrection reneactment of Easter is the real reason why we worship on Sundays.
The Cross and Resurrection. NOT being "creative" and "relevant". And if we only get one Christmas every decade or so to combine both cross and creche in one stunning feast, why on earth would we skip it for take out?
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