no church on christmas
obviously this story has been making the rounds... and while it may not seem like a big deal to some people, i find the move culturally significant.
When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off
One of my favorite professors (who was incidentally very influential on my course of studies) was quoted! On the front page of NY Times!
John D. Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College, asked: "What about the people in society without strong family connections? The elderly, single people a long distance from family, or people who are simply lonely and for whom church and prayers would be a significant part of their day?"
I think he makes a particularly good point - when I was living alone in Switzerland last year and unable to come home for Christmas, the community of my church and participating in the events there were very important to me not having some sort of emotional breakdown on a day that is very hard to be alone.
Beyond that though, the big deal is a cultural change in our country - putting "family time" above worshipping and participating in the community of Christ on a Sunday which is also an important religious holiday. While there are services all week, cancelling church on Sunday is a significant change in the way our society views church and its importance. And many of us take issue with these megachurches for lots of reasons, but this in particular makes yet another big change in tradition.
Tradition isn't always good, but there are many reasons that we worship on Sundays... not just because our grandparents did. There are so many layers of meaning in worship and one of them is that worshipping on Sundays reminds us of Christ's resurrection EVERY week, not just on Easter... Also, worshipping on Sunday honors the 7th day of rest - not that we fulfill this perfectly, but it honors that we follow God and not our own schedules... We can schedule a day of rest whenever we want, but vacation isn't the only idea in the 7th day of rest. God didn't give our modern calendar on stone tablets, but church has worked out this tradition by following communally defined ideas about the call to worship, the call to rest and cycles of work and worship. Changing it to fit whats important to us is a change in the idea of church.
These churches have thousands of attendees and while I am not happy that they are taking a leadership role, they do have the voice to speak out - due to their numbers and influence. That is an important role of power that they should not take lightly... and by not having church on Christmas, they are making a statement - whether they wanted to or not.
This isn't to say you can't worship on days beyond Sunday or that you MUST worship on Sunday... but it is a part of the Christian tradition. Changes in this tradition are significant and I think that noting these significant changes is important. Nobody would notice if my church didn't have a Sunday service, but these relatively new phenomena - the megachurches - get noticed... and noticing when they make a change in a tradition is an opportunity for us to think carefully about what it means to be Christian, what it means to follow church traditions, what it means to worship and why we worship on Sundays and to think about how culture affects church and church affects culture.
view this post on my webpage
When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off
One of my favorite professors (who was incidentally very influential on my course of studies) was quoted! On the front page of NY Times!
John D. Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship at Calvin College, asked: "What about the people in society without strong family connections? The elderly, single people a long distance from family, or people who are simply lonely and for whom church and prayers would be a significant part of their day?"
I think he makes a particularly good point - when I was living alone in Switzerland last year and unable to come home for Christmas, the community of my church and participating in the events there were very important to me not having some sort of emotional breakdown on a day that is very hard to be alone.
Beyond that though, the big deal is a cultural change in our country - putting "family time" above worshipping and participating in the community of Christ on a Sunday which is also an important religious holiday. While there are services all week, cancelling church on Sunday is a significant change in the way our society views church and its importance. And many of us take issue with these megachurches for lots of reasons, but this in particular makes yet another big change in tradition.
Tradition isn't always good, but there are many reasons that we worship on Sundays... not just because our grandparents did. There are so many layers of meaning in worship and one of them is that worshipping on Sundays reminds us of Christ's resurrection EVERY week, not just on Easter... Also, worshipping on Sunday honors the 7th day of rest - not that we fulfill this perfectly, but it honors that we follow God and not our own schedules... We can schedule a day of rest whenever we want, but vacation isn't the only idea in the 7th day of rest. God didn't give our modern calendar on stone tablets, but church has worked out this tradition by following communally defined ideas about the call to worship, the call to rest and cycles of work and worship. Changing it to fit whats important to us is a change in the idea of church.
These churches have thousands of attendees and while I am not happy that they are taking a leadership role, they do have the voice to speak out - due to their numbers and influence. That is an important role of power that they should not take lightly... and by not having church on Christmas, they are making a statement - whether they wanted to or not.
This isn't to say you can't worship on days beyond Sunday or that you MUST worship on Sunday... but it is a part of the Christian tradition. Changes in this tradition are significant and I think that noting these significant changes is important. Nobody would notice if my church didn't have a Sunday service, but these relatively new phenomena - the megachurches - get noticed... and noticing when they make a change in a tradition is an opportunity for us to think carefully about what it means to be Christian, what it means to follow church traditions, what it means to worship and why we worship on Sundays and to think about how culture affects church and church affects culture.
view this post on my webpage