LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — While some high-profile evangelical churches around the country are canceling their usual worship services since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year, many more are carrying on — though sometimes on modified schedules.
Leaders of the churches canceling services have cited the needs of staff and member families as key factors in deciding not to hold worship on Christmas morning. But leaders of churches staying open that day have said the family of God is their paramount concern.
Responses to a recent, non-scientific poll on the Kentucky Baptist Convention's website suggest the vast majority of churches will continue to hold worship services on Dec. 25 this year — and that most regular worshipers will show up.
The poll asked: “This year, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. Does your church plan to hold Sunday morning services?”
KBC News and Web Specialist Brenda Smith said only four of the 146 respondents indicated their church would not have morning worship. Of 134 respondents who said their churches were having Dec. 25 services, only 10 indicated they did not plan to attend.
But a spokesman for one large Atlanta-area church said that many of the staff and lay volunteers who are necessary for putting services together need the day off. “We just want our volunteers to have an opportunity to spend the holiday with their families,” said Rick Holliday, director of administration at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It would be difficult for them to get here, and we thought we'd give them a day off.”
Keith Herron, pastor of Holmeswood Baptist Church in Kansas City, Mo., sent an e-mail to church members and friends recently to explain why his congregation would hold worship Dec. 25.
“We do this because we celebrate the birth of Christ,” he said. “It is first and primarily a holy day of celebration for the One who came into the world to bring God's redemption for a sinful world.”
But, like many churches making the decision to continue meeting on Christmas, Herron's run an adjusted schedule. There will be no Sunday school classes, and only the 10:45 a.m. worship service will take place, instead of the congregation's usual two morning services.
Several Kentucky churches are following similar schedules, according to their leaders. That helps alleviate burdens on lay workers who want to spend time with their families.
Paul Chitwood, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mount Washington, Ky., said Dec. 25 “is not a day to burden volunteers” with teaching and childcare responsibilities.
Skip Alexander, pastor of Campbellsville, Ky., Baptist Church, said pastors and church staff “in the trenches” know Dec. 25 is “all about family.” Answering: “What do you change?” and “How far do you change?” is not always easy, he said. “We want to be sensitive to the family, but that is not the primary drive.
“The priority is to exalt Jesus Christ in an act of worship on the day of worship,” he said.
One Baptist worship expert suggested that churches holding worship on Christmas Day would connect Baptists more to historic Christian traditions — and less to American consumerist ones.
The last time Christmas Day fell on a Sunday was in 1994. Jim Cordell, KBC's director of music and worship, pointed out that “more liturgical” churches open their doors on Christmas Day no matter the day of the week.
“Christmas Day services have always been part of their tradition,” said Cordell, who also is serving as interim music minister at Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville. “Unfortunately that is not normally a part of our [Baptist] tradition.”
Christmas Eve services are common among many Baptist churches — and many of the churches canceling Sunday-morning services this year are substituting Christmas Eve services — but Cordell said annual Christmas Day services “would establish Dec. 25 as an important event during the church year.”
If more churches observed the liturgical season of Advent, corporate worship on Dec. 25 would be better attended “as the observation culminates,” Cordell said.
Advent begins four Sundays prior to Christmas and focuses on preparing for the celebration of Jesus' birth. A handful of Baptist churches around the country have taken on the practice of observing Advent — historically only done in Catholic, Anglican and other liturgical denominations — in recent decades.
Cordell said he believes Christmas carols of anticipation, such as “Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” feel more significant when sung during an Advent worship service. Then, he continued, waiting until Dec. 25 to sing carols announcing Jesus' birth — such as “Joy to the World” or “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!” — is a powerful testimony to the savior's arrival.
Adopting Advent's clearly defined timeline of anticipation with the culmination on Dec. 25 is difficult “when you see Christmas trees in the stores in August,” Cordell said. “We've let the secular world influence our celebration of Christmas.… We tend to go more with convenience.… The holidays are such a busy time anyway, by the time you get to Christmas morning, everybody's just worn out.”