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A while back I came a cross a story that said that megachurches like Willow Creek were closing for the summer because it was bad for people’s schedules. Turned out the story was a satire by The Holy Observer but many of us bought because it sounded so incredibly plausible.

Willow Creek closed

Well, satire has become reality. If you haven’t seen it, some megachurches have announced that they will not hold Christmas Day services this year. The reasons vary – to allow people to travel to be with families, not having enough volunteers to staff a Sunday morning designed for 8,000 people, they just had worship the night before.

You can check out one version of the story here on ABC News.

What do I think? I come out of tradition where we normally did not hold Christmas Day services and the only time we cancel a Sunday service is because of blizzard (up here in NW Ohio) or a hurricane (growing up in Florida).

I guess what bothers me is the convenience factor, the message that worship or really any spiritual practice is a matter of convenience rather than lifestyle. Considering that Superbowl Sunday is a day when attendance goes down noticably, perhaps cancelling would be a good idea. Better yet, put the game up on the worship projection screen (actually, since I don’t have a widescreen TV…).

The other bothersome part is that by their sheer size, the megachurches become slaves to their facility. Cost effectiveness is more important than people and relationships, which may explain why most postmoderns tend to stay away from these places. They are more about boomer entertainment than real relationship and interaction, which you can’t do as a face in theater among thousands. Better to find a small gathering that offers a decent latte than that.

Worship is not about a doctrinaire imposition of worship on Sunday alone, blue laws, and that old custom. But setting aside time to gather with others on the journey, to put God and matters of the spirit first in life one block of time out of the week, makes much more sense then the usual “what I do is between God and me” and “I can worship anywhere, anytime”. That all kind of smacks of making God into my image, which in the end is really no god at all. Just a thought.

6 Responses to “How The MegaGrinch Stole Christmas?”

  1. Jen says:

    I think you nailed this one right on the head. Oh, wait we are talking about Christmas, aren’t we. You definitely know your holly and ivy.

    I think Christmas is what you make of it. However, in these discussions, we are not talking about individuals who wish not to partake in the true Christ-mass, these are Christian churches that feel Christmas is more about me than about He (Jesus). (In essence, the true clandestine War on Christmas.)

    What does canceling normal Sunday services, let alone closing church the day of Christmas, one of our holiest of days, say to the non-Christian community (or even to God) about our Christian ways? Is the Christian faith a convenience or a conviction? What is the focus of Christmas? The gift of a Savior or the gifts under the tree?

    For more rantings about the War on Christmas and other thoughts, go to indigolake.blogspot.com

  2. Jen says:

    I think you nailed this one right on the head. Oh, wait we are talking about Christmas, aren’t we. You definitely know your holly and ivy.

    I think Christmas is what you make of it. However, in these discussions, we are not talking about individuals who wish not to partake in the true Christ-mass, these are Christian churches that feel Christmas is more about me than about He (Jesus). (In essence, the true clandestine War on Christmas.)

    What does canceling normal Sunday services, let alone closing church the day of Christmas, one of our holiest of days, say to the non-Christian community (or even to God) about our Christian ways? Is the Christian faith a convenience or a conviction? What is the focus of Christmas? The gift of a Savior or the gifts under the tree?

  3. Brian Spahr says:

    This same article was handed out in one of my seminary classes this week and has now also been forwarded to me by several friends, so I thought it was time that I chimed in with my two cents…

    At risk of being kicked out of the post-modern club I guess I find myself seeing some contradictions in the criticisms post-modern people have in regard to Willow Creek and places like it. We love (and I include myself in this “we” and all the “we’s” throughout this post) to say things like,

    “They are more about boomer entertainment than real relationship and interaction, which you can’t do as a face in theater among thousands. Better to find a small gathering that offers a decent latte than that.”

    We make statements like this while at the same time we value things like empowering the laity and anti-clericalism. We are working very hard to help or churches become less “pastor driven”, right? Now I’m sure Bill Hybels cannot look across the auditorium at Willow Creek and name everyone who is sitting there but, as the pastor is his knowing and having personal connection with everyone present the most important thing? I would venture to say that a good majority of the people sitting in those chairs (which are quite comfortable I might add) are there because a personal connection with someone else in that faith community… it may be a pastor, but it doesn’t have to be. I also know that Willow Creek invests a huge portion of their resources into helping people connect with smaller communities outside of the worship gatherings. So, in my understanding the reason Willow Creek is so huge is not because Bill Hybels is a good preacher (which he is) or because they have good music (which, while it’s a little ACC for my taste… they do) but because they have invested a lot of time and energy into empowering the laity to be in relationship with their friends and co-workers and encouraging them to invite them into the community of faith. I believe that one of the reasons Willow Creek has grown to be what it is because people are finding connections there. I don’t think they could endure the way they have if they have if they were simply putting on an entertaining show. So yes… Willow Creek is huge, and the Pastors don’t know everybody, and I’m sure some people get lost in the shuffle, but this happens in communities of 50 as well… no matter how good the coffee is.

    ”these are Christian churches that feel Christmas is more about me than about He”

    Statements like these also present an interesting contradiction in our criticism of moderns. We have this notion that moderns are so “me” driven (by the way, as post-moderns aren’t we supposed to be critical of labeling), yet we are working to create communities that facilitate more personal, intimate interactions with God and each other. It sounds like in some ways the things that we value and crave are every bit as “me” driven as the moderns we are so eager to criticize.

    I’m really not here to be a Willow Creek or mega-church apologist. I am just committed to being a voice in the midst of this post-modern conversation that chimes in when it feels like we are simply putting on an alternative set of blinders. I would much prefer to be a reformer than a separatist. The point for me is not to be anti-modern, but to learn from the good and the bad of modernism without casting stones so that we as post-moderns might become a more authentic reflection of who we were created to be.

    As far as the question of having church on Christmas day… Many mainline church folk that I know are quite critical of this decision. My class laughed this off as just another of the crazy antics of mega-churches. Most of these same people, however, are part of congregations who, if Christmas Day was not a Sunday, normally would not have a worship gathering… and if they do, they are very sparsely attended. As a Lutheran Christian my definition of the church is in accord with the 7th article of the Augsburg Confession which says, “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.” It doesn’t say anything about Sunday or high holy days. In fact, it goes on to say later in the article, “Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike.” December 25th is a day set aside by humans as the traditional celebration of the birth of Christ. In my understanding, the point is not in the “when”. The point is that the telling of this story… the entering into the narrative… the mystical connection we experience with the “already” and the “not yet”… happens. Willow Creek is celebrating the same way we are (well… maybe not exactly the same), just on a different day. December 24th, 23rd… whenever. Oops! I have to run. I hear the sirens. The liturgical police are coming to haul me away and beat me into submission… again.

    Peace,
    Brian Spahr

  4. jen says:

    Oops! Sorry about the two posts from me!

    It is always a battle for Christian Churches to be in the world, but not of the world. And, more so for the MegaChurches, since they try to appeal to the non-churched who are of the world. However, there is always the tendency of when you are trying to save someone else, that that person you’re saving may just pull you down with them, instead. (If you have ever been a trained lifeguard, you’d understand that analogy.)

    God commands us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Cancelling Sunday services is one thing, doing so to take part in a materialistic, secular tradition, is quite another. So, do you think opening presents is a holy activity for the Christian Sabbath?

  5. Brian Spahr says:

    I agree. It is a very difficult line to walk… and your lifeguard analogy is a good one. I would argue, however, that Sabbath is less about a specific day of the week and more about a lifestyle. The commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” It doesn’t say, “Remember Sunday and keep it holy.” As one who has worked in the church for eleven years… and one who will work in the church for the rest of my life, I have found it very difficult for Sunday to be a time of Sabbath. Responsibility often gets in the way. So, my wife and I have intentionally set aside 4PM Saturday – Sunrise on Sunday as our Sabbath time. The TV is off, we don’t go to movies… we often go to a worship gathering, read our Bibles and other faith stimulating books, etc. The point is that we intentionally set aside that time to be as free from “the world” as we can (although that concept could be a whole other discussion entirely). But also, even with that time set aside, we find ourselves needing Sabbath-like experiences to help bring our focus back on God’s presence all around us.

    So… your question, “do you think opening presents is a holy activity for the Christian Sabbath?” really is not a simple one. On the surface it would be easy for me to just say yes, I agree with you. Christmas isn’t about what commercial culture has made it into. But, at the same time I wonder if the giving and receiving of presents could sometimes also be a “holy” activity. I agree wholeheartedly that people often go overboard in the greed department… and that our culture often manipulates and reinforces that greed, but I have to say getting an Ipod for Christmas last year was a “holy” moment. That might sound strange, but let me explain. I am a seminary student with no consistent income. Since I started school 1 1/2 years ago my wife has been working several odd jobs to help us make ends meet. I have always been a music lover, so an Ipod has been a major want for me for the last few years. It wasn’t a need… and having one was certainly not a priority, so it remained on my list of things I’d enjoy having someday. My wife, however, really wanted to give one to me as a gift so she saved for several months in order to get me one for Christmas. I had no idea. So when Christmas morning came around (my Lutheran Church which is not a mega-church was not holding services) and I opened the box I was floored. The Ipod is great, but what knocked me over was the sacrifice that my wife put forth to give me such a gift. It was a material gift of an unnecessary gadget, but more so it was a reflection of her love for me… which is a gift from God. So as strange as it may sound, that gift receiving moment for me was a “holy”, sacred moment… and I know for my wife it was a “holy” moment in the giving. The love that we experienced in that moment was a reflection of the love that came/comes to us through Jesus.

    Again, my point is not to be a mega-church (or now commercialism) apologist. I just don’t see this as churches secularizing Christmas. In fact, the New York Times version of this story says that Willow Creek has been handing out DVDs that share a Christmas message to assist families in taking time out from presents and such to focus on the true meaning. It might not be the method we all would prefer, but it is still an example of the Word being proclaimed. I’m not asking anyone to agree, I’m just offering some food for thought. God’s Peace.

  6. Tom Lyberg says:

    Good points. Good discussion. I think this one deserves a podcast. Watch for it this weekend.

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