Worship on Christmas?

The stories have hit the media big time this year. CNN, NPR, the nightly news, and even the blogosphere are filled with folks talking about how some megachurches have chosen not to offer services on Christmas Day this year.

The critique coming back from other churches has tended to fall along several linesthat these churches are placing family and convenience for their staff above the need to offer worship on Sunday the 25th, or that they've sold out to non-church culture, that they're REALLY taking the Christ out of Christmas, or that they're setting a bad example for the church and the very people they're trying to reach. And as I've been perusing the blogosphere, the comments are better than 2 to 1 negative make that hostile!

What I'm not finding anywhere in the blogs, though, is much reflection about what Christmas worship is -- at least not what it has been in the course of Christian history and current ecumenical practice. The word Christmas is simply a shortened form of Christ Mass, which in turn is a shortened form of The Mass of the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. In our lingo as United Methodists, wed probably paraphrase it as A service of Holy Communion that especially celebrates this holy mystery we call the Incarnation, God with us, born among us.

I'm also not finding (yet) anyone answering a question I've posed twice now on the Leadership blog "Out of Ur."The question is whether churches are generally offering worship on Christmas Day (not just Christmas Eve) if it does NOT fall on a Sunday, and whether the services they offer (Christmas Day or Christmas Eve) are Christ-masses. My guess would be that many, many churches do not offer worship of any sort on Christmas Day if it does not fall on Sunday, and that if they offer services on Christmas Eve (there are many churches that do not do this either. I've served a few!), one might be a Communion service.

I'm really not interested in debating the decisions of other churches, but I would be interested in hearing about the Christmas practices of your congregation. Contact me at [email protected]with your reply.

And I'd also like to offer a bit of encouragement one year early: do offer a Christ-mass next year, on Christmas Day, in addition to whatever you may offer on Christmas Eve. Dont worry if there arent many folks who will attend. Find a time -- anytime before sundown -- that will work for even a small gathering around the Lord's Table, perhaps encourage children to bring some of the gifts they've received for a blessing. But whatever else you do, spend time with your sisters and brothers in grateful contemplation and celebration at Table for the world-changing news that in the birth of Jesus, God our Creator fully and vulnerably entered our human life.

And who knows maybe your quirky Monday afternoon pre-football Christmas Day communion will spark some new birth in those who gather to offer and receive it!

You may also enjoy reading Church. Closed for Christmas?in our Evangelism section.