Closing Church for Christmas?

Our small church is closing Sunday morning.

Our doors will be open at our church. Some people only go to church on the holidays.... If the doors are shut on the holidays...

Actually it may prove to be quite revealing if people had their church building taken away from them. We're fortunate in North America to still have that priviledge, but I think we take for granted and possibly abuse that priviledge. When you remove all the bells and whistles. All the religious observances, traditions and symbolisms you really can see how much you are devoted to God or possibly far more devoted to a denomination or doctrine of belief. Christ's Church is a spiritual union from which He gathers His sheep. It's not necessarily a building in which sheep gather themselves. It could work out to be a very healthy experiment if one could see how much they need their system of religion. It would really test their devotion to God. Do they need Him or things that look like Him? Can they worship God without being led by someone into a song? Can they preach the way the Bible talks about preaching which means having a dialogue with someone else about spiritual matters? Can they search the heart of God themselves because they are filled with His Spirit or do they need someone else to give them pointers?Being without those things that have been instituted by man really demonstrates a lot about just how connected we are with God.

What if the church gets persecuted?If you are not sincere walking with the Lord (His way, not your own way) you probably don't last. People also wouldn't dare calling themselves Christians so easily as now.May we all walk with the Lord in His way in Truth and Love, receiving strength and the boldness of the Holy Spirit so we won't backout nor compromise if persecution takes off!It could work out to be a very healthy experiment if one could see how much they need their system of religion. It would really test their devotion to God. Do they need Him or things that look like Him? Can they worship God without being led by someone into a song? Can they preach the way the Bible talks about preaching which means having a dialogue with someone else about spiritual matters? Can they search the heart of God themselves because they are filled with His Spirit or do they need someone else to give them pointers?

Well the following statement is going to be harsh and possibly not overly accepted, but heres another way to look at it.... Christ-less-mas Maybe it's a good thing, in fact it could possibly be good for the REAL church if they stayed closed. So many churches today are a disgrace to the Kingdom. It's not like their going to miss God, HE'S NOT THERE ANYWAY! Stamp Ichabob on the door. With very little (if any) true gospel being preached, very few (if any) genuine conversions, and very little (if any) ministering to the needs of the congregation and community. I'm sorry if this offends, but let's be honest with each other and ourselves. Here of late the churches have fallen way short of God's expectations. Now this is not to say ALL churches have fallen away, but for the most part the APOSTATE church is here. Thank God for a website such as this where believers can get together and discuss the cry of their hearts regarding Holiness, revival, true salvation, sanctification, walking in the Spirit, prayer and last but certainly most important...proclaiming Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings. If you attend a quality church, where they comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted, where the Pastor spends time on his knees seeking God for direction and advice, where sermons are retreived in seeking the face of God and not some magazine, website, or filing cabinet, where the shepard tends to his sheep...rejoice. Give God the Glory because they are getting harder to find. HMMMM????? Scratches head Maybe thats why more and more people have elected to home church.

My home church is having services sunday morning and celebrating the reason for christmas to begin with. Forget about the christmas is or isn't christian debate. Sunday is a day we as christians have set aside time to come together as community and praise and acknowledge our Risen Savior. Is there any other better place to celebrate the Ressurected Christ? as a family or community?I personally have been greatly dissapointed at the reaction of many in the local churches here to this issue on meeting on an holy (holi-day) day.

I assume that these church are having a Christmas Eve Service. From my experience that is a very well attended service - one of the best in the year. So, I don't see why it would be so necessary to have one again the next morning. If people really miss it, they can find lots of good sermons and music on the net. And they can pray among each other, if they'd like. Nobody is stopping them .My church is going to have a service for the few who will attend. That tells absolutely nothing about their spiritual condition. Diane

I will be having service -- Its about Christ not family after all anyway.

I keep reading that Sunday is a day that Christians have set aside to worship God. That's true it is; however, is it what Christ set aside?What He expects out of worship is to do it in Spirit and in Truth. We worship Him by the way we live our life. If we're so tied to the dogma of our denominational affiliation how can we understand that worship is all the time not a specific time in the week. On the first day of the week they got together to break bread. Standards for performing religious observances have been set in stone from simple scripture like this. On the other side of the coin. Instead of running and shutting ourselves in to a building on Sunday morning and expect others to come to us, why don't we do like Christ did and go to them? We could spend that time with unbelieving family members and they may in fact be open to hearing the gospel seeing as it is Christmas. There's so many ways that we could influence others with the wonderful message of Christ rather than go and take care of ourselves. God must feel worshipped as we share with others in the way He had done. On Christmas day instead of going to the Temple, let's go to the well.

Onfire said: Instead of running and shutting ourselves in to a building on Sunday morning and expect others to come to us, why don't we do like Christ did and go to them?andOn Christmas day instead of going to the Temple, let's go to the well.Well put!!! I suspect that your words express the heart of Christ. Diane

roadsign wrote:I assume that these church are having a Christmas Eve Service. From my experience that is a very well attended service - one of the best in the year. So, I don't see why it would be so necessary to have one again the next morning. Well put. It seems really legalistic and prideful to denounce a church because they are closed on Christmas. If you are going, so be it, but don't condemn the others. That reeks of offense against Romans 14. Diane has it right, 99% of those churches will be celebrating Christmas the night before anyway. roadsign wrote:My church is going to have a service for the few who will attend. That tells absolutely nothing about their spiritual condition. DianeExactly. Revival does not come from church going, church going comes from revival. The cornerstone of revival is prayer, not church attendence.

I read one church spokesperson say that since Christmas was about family that they were justified in closing worship on Christmas sunday. Hmmmm... what about Mother's Day? New Years Day? Or even Easter has turned into a family day with all the massive Easter egg hunts that churches do? What is July 4th lands on a Sunday? Does that qualify too? From where I live, I see most people viewing Sunday AS a family day. So using the "logic" of some of these megachurches, soon we can all stay home with our families on Sunday!Another thought. Christians have historically decried the "secularization" and "commercialization" of Christmas. But with the like of these "successful" megachurches shutting down, I can hear the liberals and the media and even a few district school board officials saying, "Ha! You guys don't honor your Savior's birthday anymore than we do!"Final thought: The substitution of massive Christmas plays for Sunday worship only underlines the fact that these churches believe entertainment is how the masses will be won to Christ. Thousands of dollars will be spent on lighting, special effects, top notch singers, and the like. But I doubt its effectiveness. Anyone who comes to Christ after one of these events would likely have come to Christ in a humble church service where the people were worshipping God and hearing the Word preached accurately. All that effort, all those hours of practicing the play, all the trouble of putting it all together... and for what? Entertainment.One of these churches is a "seeker-friendly" church. That means they are more about reaching the unchurched than the churched. Ok. Then they shouldn't call themselves a church. A church by definition is a gathering of belivers for the purpose of worship, prayer, preaching and fellowship. If they don't "do church" then it is alright for them not to be open on Sunday, Christmas or not!As for us, we are having church that Sunday. Why? Because its SUNDAY !

Welcome, Richlite, It looks like you have just joined us here. That's great! Thank you for sharing your concerns about the modern day church. That is a common concern here. You said: A church by definition is a gathering of belivers for the purpose of worship, prayer, preaching and fellowship. I share a few more thoughts about fellowship here, including some thoughts about broken fellowship: Forsake not the Fellowship It is not really about the issue of closing religious institutions on Dec. 26, but hopefully it helps us keep our concerns in the right place. Diane