Church Service on Christmas Day?

[Geoff LaLone]

This post is geared primarily toward pastors, but all opinions/suggestions are welcome. Is your church having a service on Christmas morning? If so, what will it entail? I had thought about having drop-in communion Sunday evening or perhaps a candelight service, and then maybe provide instructions for family devotions for Christmas morning, in the event that a family does not already have a tradition of reading Scripture, etc.

[Barb Bouldrey]

Christmas Day is a Monday.

We will have a one hour Christmas worship on Sunday morning. No Sunday School, no evening service. And we will do nothing on Christmas Day.

Barb

[Wilson L. Deaton]

We do not ordinarily have an evening service but on Christmas Eve we'll meet from 4:00 - 5:00 for worship. We actually conduct this service in an assisted living apartment building chapel instead of our normal worship location so the residents can attend. (We also meet there for Good Friday service every year.)

We will not anything as a group on Christmas Day.

Wilson

[Marg Webb]

We do not ordinarily have an evening service but on Christmas Eve we'll meet from 4:00 - 5:00 for worship. We actually conduct this service in an assisted living apartment building chapel instead of our normal worship location so the residents can attend. (We also meet there for Good Friday service every year.)

We will not anything as a group on Christmas Day.

Wilson

That is great Wilson. Because of no family of our own and all relatives in other states, it is quite a quiet place here on holidays.
You are a very thoughtful pastor.!!!
I think it is rather dreadful for people, especially those unmarried and others with no family to realize when holidays fall on Sunday that nothing is offered .
I think communion would be nice.
Nearly ALL of our neighbors are Catholic or Lutheran, they really do their thing at church at holiday time.
I often say, now why was I not raised a Catholic. They do so much.:) We have had someone in at Christmas, but now it is not recommended because of our safety. I mean someone off the street or at a homeless shelter.
We are not up to doing the volunteer work anymore.
But it is just twenty-four hours and wham it is over.
I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU AND I KNOW OUR FATHER IS TOO!!!

[Billy Cox]

This post is geared primarily toward pastors, but all opinions/suggestions are welcome. Is your church having a service on Christmas morning? If so, what will it entail? I had thought about having drop-in communion Sunday evening or perhaps a candelight service, and then maybe provide instructions for family devotions for Christmas morning, in the event that a family does not already have a tradition of reading Scripture, etc.

I perceive that in many ways Christmas has become 'Easter Lite'. Today, I saw an advertisement on TV for a church's Christmas drama...complete with a bloody crucifixion scene. Can we not find something meaningful in the Christmas story apart from the story of Jesus' death?

In light of that, if it were up to me, I would do the candles, but not the communion.

[Jeremy D. Scott]

We're gathering together on Christmas Eve (the Sunday) both in the morning ("regular" morning worship gathering) and a candlelight communion service in the evening.

- J

[Donna Adams]

We will have our regular Sunday School, morning worship and a very special family Christmas eve service. Why shorten things on Sunday because it's Christmas?

[Marg Webb]

We will have our regular Sunday School, morning worship and a very special family Christmas eve service. Why shorten things on Sunday because it's Christmas?


THIS IS WONDERFUL DONNA.
I think we live close to your ministry?
If we drove at night we just might have dropped in.

[Barb Bouldrey]

We shorten things when Christmas or Christmas Eve is on a Sunday. We do that for several reasons:

1. So Sunday School teachers do not have to work to prepare for that day...it gives them more time for family things.
2. So many of our families travel away for Christmas or have so many family members arriving that day that our attendence is WAY down in Sunday School. But when we have a one hour worship service at 10;00 a.m. we have a wonderful attendence and wonderful Christmas worship.
3. With no Sunday School on Christmas Day it allows families to open presents and have breakfast together casually and then come to church and relax and worship. Then they have time to get home and finish cooking Christmas dinner with no rush.
4. We have tried Christmas Eve communion times or candlelight sings, but only a handful ever show up. We always wonder how many showed up because they felt obligated to...not because they really wanted to.
5. We take time to worship the ChristChild, but we give the rest of the day to families.

Christmas is about worshiping Christ, but it is also about family.

And I would rather have NO Sunday night service than plan something special and only 1/4 of the congregation show up. That is discouraging to me...and it has happened too often.

Barb

[Cindi Hammons]

And I would rather have NO Sunday night service than plan something special and only 1/4 of the congregation show up. That is discouraging to me...and it has happened too often.

Barb

I like your idea about not having Sunday School. However, I disagree with you about Christmas Eve. We had a former pastor (he would be ok with me sharing this) that sometimes would have C.E. services and sometimes would not (due to being out of town). One time we were talking about it and he said that "nobody came." In fact, about 30 people came including our family. My husband looked at him and said, "I came, and I am somebody." The point was not to be sarcastic, but to point out that the service was meaningful for those who did come. We have a lot of former Catholics and Lutherans in our church and many feel it is just wrong to cancel services at this time of the year. We had this discussion last night at our board meeting and it was unanimous that we will have a C.E. service.

This is not a condemnation to other churches who are not having a C.E. service, just another view of why we are having one. The C.E. service, for me, is one of the most meaningful services of the church calendar. Jesus made the choice to come to us in a darkened world...even though he knew the consequenses and couldv'e chosen to stay put.

[Barbara Moulton]

I like your idea about not having Sunday School. However, I disagree with you about Christmas Eve. We had a former pastor (he would be ok with me sharing this) that sometimes would have C.E. services and sometimes would not (due to being out of town). One time we were talking about it and he said that "nobody came." In fact, about 30 people came including our family. My husband looked at him and said, "I came, and I am somebody." The point was not to be sarcastic, but to point out that the service was meaningful for those who did come. We have a lot of former Catholics and Lutherans in our church and many feel it is just wrong to cancel services at this time of the year. We had this discussion last night at our board meeting and it was unanimous that we will have a C.E. service.

This is not a condemnation to other churches who are not having a C.E. service, just another view of why we are having one. The C.E. service, for me, is one of the most meaningful services of the church calendar. Jesus made the choice to come to us in a darkened world...even though he knew the consequenses and couldv'e chosen to stay put.

We have always had a Christmas Even Service so we will have one this year. Christmas doesn't start for me until I have sung Silent Night by candlelight :-)

Because we will have had a Sunday service in the morning, it's possible we might not have as many people out as we normally have on Christmas Eve.

But that's ok.

[Bruce Carriker]

When I was a senior pastor, we did a Christmas Eve candlelight service every year, but we did it at 7:00 pm, because we had a large number of seniors in our congregation and they didn't want to be out at midnight. That was fine with me. I went and joined the Lutherans or the Catholics or the Episcopalians at 11 PM. :)

While I was a senior pastor, Christmas did not fall on a Sunday. When I was on staff, our senior pastor changed nothing. It was, IMO, as it should be. What better way to celebrate Jesus' birth than to have unabbreviated worship of Him?

[G R 'Scott' Cundiff]

We'll have a Sunday morning worship service and then a Christmas eve bi-lingual service. No activities on Christmas day.

I think think those who don't have a Christmas eve service are less spiritual than we are -- and I don't think that those who have a Christmas service are more spiritual. :cs03

[BobHunt]

(grins) tell your husband I am glad to meet somebody! (grins and runs for cover!)

[Donna Adams]

Very well said Cindi. I agree with your post. And Barb..I love you anyhow...LOL!

[Barb Bouldrey]

I,Barbara Bouldrey, do not decide on the schedule of services at our church any time of the year.

The pastor does not decide it all by himself. He always discusses it with the board. And they decide together. Often, he takes a show of hands asking, "How many of you will be able to be here the Sunday evening of Christmas Eve?" And then he and the board decide if they should have a service or not.

So, we do what the majority of the congregation desire to do.

When Christmas Day is on a Sunday, it is JOHN's desire to just have a 10:00 a.m. worship service, but the board approves and so do the people.

Having a one hour worship service is not abbreviating worship. Sunday School class is not worship. ( and I know someone will say, "Oh, but it can be.")

Barb

[Roland Hearn]

Growing up in Australia gives me a slightly different slant on the question. In Australia all churches, until recently, had a service Christmas day no matter what day of the week it was. As children we would wake early, get our parents up, open our presents and then go and get ready for a 9:00 am worship service. We would endure the service and then head home for Christmas lunch. It was the only way you could do things. When I became a pastor I saw the numbers on Christmas day beginning to wane and I recognized that more and more people were just simply not hanging around for the Christmas day service. They would head off for relatives homes or the beach (it is summer in Australia at Christmas). I started a Christmas eve service, at first many thought the world would come to an end, but what we discovered was that many more people would come, we could have a longer, more involved service. People would sing carols until way into the night. It became a wonderful part of Christmas. I'm very much in favour of Christmas eve services.

[Meghan Schoonover]

Well, growing up Lutheran I love the Wednesday advent services with the soup supper, and the Christmas Eve service with Lutherans coming out of the woodwork, and yep, Christmas morning service complete with a tree covered in foam Christian symbols (you've got to see it to believe it!). I love all the services and if our church doesn't hold them (depends on the year) I will go to a different service. Last year I went to my friend's Brethren church, although I usually would go to a Lutheran one b/c of my heritage.

This year we are having Sunday morning as usual (still advent), a CE "candlelight" service, and no services on Christmas Day.

[Regena Torres]

Two week before christmas we go into a housing compex and invite ,last year we had over 20 visitors including some Hindu people . Our Christmas Service is always on the 24th at 8 P.M. We have lots of worship then the children put on the christmas drama, my husband or I bring the message. We have a dinner and give gifts to all the children, the board, leaders, teachers, seniors, bus driver. everone ends up with something it costs money but we have the best people in the world. Then we have some games where people win prizes. we usually go home around 1 a.m. It is one big family event . Last year a little Hindu boy decided to be a part of the nativity play, his father was so proud taking pictures of him.
We encourage the people to spend Christmas day as a family and to invite someone who is alone to join them so everyone ends up being part of a family on Christmas day. We usually spend Christmas day with some of our children.

[BobHunt]

sobering thought......a holiday doesnt make any difference to the devil....he keeps tempting and testing......a holiday doesnt mean anything to those terrorists who hate America, they keep on hating.

[Ian Newton]

I always love Christmas, the Christian aspect at least. As a Pastor I tell the people, come if you want to come, stay at home if you want to stay at home. There's no guilt. I will be opening the church building for those who want to come together and worship the Saviour in this place. No one else need show up because we use midi files for the music and so we don't need to put muscians or anyone else out.

We have Sunday morning and evening services on Christmas Eve at the usual times and Christmas Day morning worship. Apart from the fact that I want to be in a place of corporate worship at these times, reducing them to me sends a message that Christmas is less Christian. That's just my view and it's not meant to offend. When the Church Board wouldn't have a Christmas Day service I went to the Baptist church because I wanted to be in a place of corporate celebration of the first Christmas.

New Year's Eve last year my wife and I were the only church members who showed up to our church's worship service but numerous people from the community also came. Their churches were closed and they wanted to begin the New Year in corporate worship so they came.

As I Pastor I feel that it is my place to offer people the opportunity to worship the one whose birth brought good news of great joy. For me, it sends a message to my family that my faith is central.

So if anyone is in Leeds, England feel free to come together.http://www.bramleynazarenechurch.co.uk

And wherever you find yourself may God always grant you the richness of His grace.

[Laurie Florence]

Christmas doesn't start for me until my Pastor's wife sings Oh Holy Night!
Blessings,
Laurie

[Barbara Moulton]

Thank you Laurie.

My daughters feel the same way. And it has to be the Twila Paris accompaniment track for them :-)

[Terri Knoll]

Barbara, you need to record them and youtube them and share them with us! (one of my fave songs too)

[Larry Wilson]

This post is geared primarily toward pastors, but all opinions/suggestions are welcome. Is your church having a service on Christmas morning? If so, what will it entail? I had thought about having drop-in communion Sunday evening or perhaps a candelight service, and then maybe provide instructions for family devotions for Christmas morning, in the event that a family does not already have a tradition of reading Scripture, etc.

In our pastorates we have always had a Christmas Eve service. Families differe in their traditions, and some are away, but we encourage people to make church part of their family celebration on Christmas Eve. We keep it short (1/2 hour) and simple, reverent and devotional, but family oriented. We don't stress out about who comes or who doesn't, but feel it is important to provide the worship opportunity at the church. I think it has been meaningful over the years.

[Mike Schutz]

We are doing a "regular" 4th Sunday of Advent service on Christmas Eve morning. On Sunday evening we will have our traditional Christmas Eve candlelight service, which is for us an outreach event, as it is a great service to invite friends, neighbors, and also visiting family members.

[Walter Palmer]

a practice we started a couple of years ago is to get together at the ch around 5.00 or so each family brings a plate of cookies we divide the cookies up and deliver them to places where people hae to work on c. e. it has been really neat to watch as you hand a total stranger a plate of cookies and tell them this i sto say thanks for being at your post tonight. we introduce ourselves and give them a card from the church. we have witnessed countances actually change as some had had a very hard day.

then we go back to ch for a time of telling our exoeriences and to a time of worship. the service usually lasts about an hour.

[Wilson L. Deaton]

a practice we started a couple of years ago is to get together at the ch around 5.00 or so each family brings a plate of cookies we divide the cookies up and deliver them to places where people hae to work on c. e. it has been really neat to watch as you hand a total stranger a plate of cookies and tell them this i sto say thanks for being at your post tonight. we introduce ourselves and give them a card from the church. we have witnessed countances actually change as some had had a very hard day.

then we go back to ch for a time of telling our exoeriences and to a time of worship. the service usually lasts about an hour.

I love this idea!

Wilson

[Laurie Florence]

Hi, Wilson,
This sounds like an awesome idea. You guys are bringing a little cheer and warmth to people who are probably missing their families on Christmas eve.