The calendar has caused a real conundrum for many across the country this year. Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. Now this is not a rare event. If it were not for leap years, it would fall on Sunday every seven years. However, due to the changing annual calendar, the last time it occurred was 2016 and it won’t occur again until 2033. But because it falls on a Sunday, the difficult truth is that more churches around the country will be closed on Christmas Day than ever before. Times have changed in just six short years since the last occurrence of Christmas on a Sunday. While many would not have considered closing the doors back then, more pastors are struggling with the issue now. There are now more online options available since the pandemic and many churches have already been suffering from lagging attendance since that time. Among the more liberal and non-denominational churches, the estimates are that only about 60% will hold services this year. Even among conservative evangelical churches, just over 80% will keep their doors open. What is the reason for this? There are several concerns that are causing Pastors to make the decision to close their doors on this one day of the year that is dedicated to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Some churches believe that if they were to hold services that nobody would come. Especially for small churches who rely on a few key volunteers for music, teaching, nursery and other functions, having those roles filled are vital to make their church services work. If the key people don’t come, there are a lot of “holes” in the service. One pastor in Nebraska who decided to cancel services on Christmas Day notes, “We still believe in the Sunday morning experience, but we have to meet people where they are.” Instead of facing the dismal possibility of bare pews, some have chosen to cancel.
Some pastors have tried to justify shutting their doors on Christmas Day because they don’t want to be considered legalistic about church. Prominent conservative Baptist Pastor J.D. Greear (who chose to cancel his Christmas Day services) stated, “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.” In light of the many cancelled services that occurred during the pandemic, our pastors and congregations have gotten more comfortable with canceling services for various reasons. A cancelled service almost feels “normal” for people now. Plus, if we can make the argument that it would be “legalistic” to always hold services every Sunday, we can be made to feel good about the decision as well.
Whatever the reason or justification for canceling services on Christmas Day, I see this as an alarming and concerning trend. From the pulpits of our churches we should be taking advantage of the Christmas season to remind people of the dangers of commercialism and to warn them to not allow the message of the birth of Christ drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the Christmas season. We are to remind them that “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. There is a battle going on in our culture to marginalize and demonize the message of the church. When the church is empty on Christmas Day, we are simply forfeiting the fight and waving the white flag of defeat. After all, if the church is silent in this season – who will bring this message to the world around us?
I understand and agree with making some reasonable accommodations for people on Christmas Day. Our church will be cancelling Sunday School as well as the regular evening service - but we will have a full morning worship service on Christmas Day. Yes, there may be those that choose to stay home and we might have a lighter crowd than normal. It’s OK if that happens. People make their own choices each week about what will keep them from church. There may even be those that feel we are being too legalistic in keeping the doors open. That’s OK as well. I understand that there are A LOT of other things to take our time and attention this time of year. But no matter what we are involved in this Christmas season, we must be sure that nothing takes our focus off of the birth of Christ. If we truly believe that Jesus is the “Reason for the Season”, then we should want to worship Him on Christmas Day.
References:
- Quotations and some statistics were taken from the New York Times at this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/18/us/christmas-church-service-protestants.html?fbclid=IwAR2WbuEjqYU0CqzNu7gOS4PkaI5RP501Ko5Mqyk2mANpPjtHxlnV3rVCXq4