Christmas Gathering

Weekly Update – December 22nd, 2022

There seems to be this growing trend among many churches to cancel services on Christmas Day.  For that matter, there are several others who will also cancel on New Year’s Day as well.  Ruth Graham of the New York Times says, “Christmas Day falls on a Sunday for the first time since 2016, and that’s a problem.”  Some pastors will give practical reasons for why they have cancelled church on these days saying, “it can be difficult to summon the volunteers necessary to staff a well-attended Christmas Eve service and then another service the very next morning.”  Others, such as J.D. Greear, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, will try to justify their decision Biblically saying that “Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and it ought to be a day you spend with the family of Christ, but I don’t want to be the Pharisees of this generation, where I turn it into some kind of rule that there’s never an exception for.”  It is interesting that Greear says this and then explains that simply cancelling church doesn’t give you a free pass to ignore the significance of the day.  He goes on to explain that he and his family will have their own worship service at home, with other spiritual traditions that they will take part in.  In my opinion, saying we don’t want to be like modern-day Pharisees, but explaining how you can make up for not going to church, sounds like a modern-day Pharisee. (You can find this New York Times article HERE)

We have opted to gather together for Sunday service on Christmas.  We will gather on New Year’s Day as well.  Lord willing, we will have services on Christmas day in 2033, just as we will have services on New Year’s Day in 2034 too.  We don’t make our decisions with the tide of the culture or based upon convenience.  Will there be a lower crowd?  More than likely.  Is it okay to go and visit family?  Yes, of course.  It is not legalistic to hold a service on a holiday.  Legalism comes into play when you try to encourage others to make up for missing church or tell someone they are in sin if they visit family or are out of town.

With this being said, let me give you five reasons why we at First Baptist Church have decided to hold services on Christmas Day:

First, it is the Lord’s Day.  The pattern set by the apostles was to gather on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2).  We don’t nullify this when an “extra special” day falls on a Sunday nor do we disregard this when we think we might have fewer in attendance.  For 2000 years, Christians have gathered on Sunday to read the Bible together, hear the Bible preached together, pray the Bible today, sing the Bible together and many times, see the Bible together through baptism and the Lord’s supper.  May that pattern not be broken because we have other traditions we would rather do.

Second, it is Christmas.  It is an odd way for a church to celebrate Christmas by cancelling service.  As Christians, we should want to rejoice and sing about God sending his Son into the world to rescue us from our sin.  For thousands of years the people of God longed for a savior to come.  God sent that savior, Jesus, to bring us back into a relationship with him.  Christmas is the celebration of God coming to dwell among us, as he calls us to himself.    

Third, worship is corporate.  The other day a lady told me that she was a Christian.  So naturally I asked her where she went to church.  She said, “oh, I worship God with nature.”  To some, that might sound spiritual, but as Christians, we gather with other believers to worship God.  Can we worship God on our own? Yes, and you and I should do this on a daily basis.  We worship God through reading his Word, singing, praying, etc.  But there is something significant about God’s people coming together as one, around his word, to worship him.  To say that Christmas can be used as a day to worship as individuals or with our families is good and we should do that, but it still neglects the call that the Scriptures gives to us to gather with the people of God (Heb. 10:25).

Fourth, a Christmas gathering can be evangelistic.  As Kevin DeYoung says in the New York Times article, throughout the Advent season we proclaim that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season,” but when churches cancel their services, the world around them hears, “Hey, Jesus may not be the reason for the season.”  Gathering together on Christmas Day is an opportunity for us to practically back up what it is we proclaim.  It is an opportunity to show our friends, family and neighbors that we worship something bigger than what Christmas has become.  After all, our mission at First Baptist Church is to speak AND to live out the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, discipleship occurs in gathering together.  Often pastors will tell parents that church needs to come before their child’s athletics or before any other priority that their children might have.  Gathering with the church on Christmas day or even on New Year’s Day is the perfect way to display to our children that our priority is worshipping with God’s people.  Often discipleship occurs in how we teach others in the church, but it also occurs by the way we live out what it is we believe as well. 

I hope that you understand my tone here when I write this.  My goal is not to heap condemnation upon you if you have obligations on Sunday morning this year.  Instead, I simply want to encourage you to remember why it is that we celebrate Christmas and consider the opportunity you have this year to gather with God’s people to rejoice, just like we do every other Sunday, over Jesus coming to live, die and rise again, so that you might know God.     

Serving Him with You,
Pastor Michael Nelson