I'll be Home for Christmas

A New Christmas Song: "I'll be Home (not at church) For Christmas"
Ray Rhodes, Jr.

It looks like church attendees of a number of the nation’s mega-churches will be home for Christmas. Christmas falls on Sunday this year and according to at least one advocate for closing up church shop on Christmas--"Christmas is a family day." And according to Cally Parkinson, a leader at Willow Creek Community Church, "If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?" (From an AP story on the CNN web-site December 7).

A couple of thoughts race to my mind.

Is going to church on Christmas Day incompatible with the family?
In some churches canceling services will indeed increase opportunity for families to actually be together on a Sunday morning. Many churches have so segregated the family that it’s increasingly rare to find a church that is in reality family friendly on Sunday morning. From the moment a family walks into the door of a typical church they immediately begin going separate directions. Children are sent to preschool, nursery, or something similar. Older children and youth have their own special place as well. And the last thing some churches want in their morning worship service are children who might potentially be distracting. Let’s face it, church is often not compatible with the family. I am not opposed to all age segregation in church but something just isn't right in a church where family is almost always divided out. So perhaps canceling church every Sunday would provide more opportunity for family time in a church where the family is seldom together anyway.

That being said, church should not be incompatible with the family. Some of the most wonderful times that our family enjoys together are at church with our church family. It should be a lovely thing for an entire family to sit together, sing together, and participate together in the services. The last thing I want on Sunday is to be separated from my wife or children. I like being in the same room, singing the same songs, and listening to the same sermon and fellowshipping with the same people--as a family. The entire family gathered together for worship is everywhere assumed in the Bible. It would have simply been unthinkable in the early church to divide up the family for the convenience of the churched or the unchurched.

Is it really our target and mission to fill the church with the "unchurched" on Sunday mornings?
Certainly a primary reason that Christ has left the church on earth is to evangelize unbelievers. However, I think that though Cally Parkinson likely has a sincere desire to reach the "unchurched" she has a faulty view of the Lord's Day gathering of the church. She says, "If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?"
I would like to respond to her question with a question of my own. How likely is it that an "unchurched" person will attend a Biblically minded church on Sunday (or any other day) anyway? That is if a church is faithful to hold up the character of God as revealed in Scripture and proclaim the need of sinful man to repent and believe the gospel--it is not likely that many unchurched folk are going to be comfortable in a church like that.
I think that one can make a solid Biblical case that Sunday is the Lord’s Day and the Lord has prescribed certain activities that His people are to engage in on His Day. It’s not about whether one should attend church on Christmas day or even celebrate Christmas for that matter. We are not commanded in the Bible to set aside extended periods of time to celebrate the birth of our Lord. We are commanded to gather with the people of God regularly. Though the early church met at a variety of times and places—it seems that the Lord’s Day was especially set apart as a day of congregational gathering for the people of God—even when it was not convenient.

Ray Rhodes, Jr. is President of Nourished in the Word Ministries where he is a teacher, writer, and church planter. You may contact him at 678.697.4495 for speaking enagements, book orders, and church information. Nourished in the Word Ministries is a ministry of Grace Community Church of Gainesville, Georgia. www.nourishedintheword.org