We went today and it worked out for the glory of God. The kids got up early. We did Santa and our gifts to each other. Bathed and left for church at 9am church started at 9:30 am. No stress at all and a wonderful service. The pastor ask some folks to stand and tell about their favorite Christmas memory. It was nice. I would have loved to have time to have everyone tell a story but of course not enough time for that. Lorna
My SIL and I discussed it today. HER husband is a pastor who said they pastors all felt it was "for the better". My SIL wasn't pleased. We definately feel that if the WOMEN were in charge it would have been done differently!!!
for the better not to have service? Wonder what non christians think about churches who don't care enough to celebrate Jesus' birthday when they celebrate everything else in sight. Folks sure wouldn't miss it if a free gift or meal was included.
Us ladies would tell those men to GET THIER ACT TOGETHER and show up!!! Dinner and presents can wait that long!!!
We also had a baptism today. It looked empty there, though. Heidi- what did you mean 'church third?' How do you separate that from God, who of course is 1st? Do you mean the busy-ness and hustle of getting there?
Becky, I am not Heidi but I think she meant it that God created the family before he created the church. God is to be #1 in our life. Our family as in speaking dh, dc are to come 2nd. Our church family should come 3rd. Our church didn't have services today. I didn't have anything to do with that decision. If we had had service I would have attended. I could have rearranged my day but some people can't do that.
What I meant was, you can get so caught up in the hurrying and stress of getting there that it takes away from why you're there. Our former pastor used to preach about being careful to not get so caught up in helping at church that the helping becomes your focus- not God, who you are serving by doing the work. Does that make sense? It's a thing of your focus changing, is a good way to say it.
That is so true Becky... If you have one of those hairy mornings getting everyone ready for church or bickering and arguing about things to wear, etc... by the time you actually get to church usually the last thing on your mind is on pure worship - you're still working on getting over the hustle and bustle of getting ready (which is what Satan loves). Serving in a church should be a call to serve God, not doing something to be noticed by others... I'm blown away at the number of churches who didn't have service yesterday... the "Reason for the season" is Jesus - what a poor witness to those who don't believe and who are watching us... speaks a lot doesn't it...
To my pleasant surprise, church was actually quite packed yesturday. I do wish I would't have had to sing though. I had to be there at 8am, rehearse, get ready WAY early to do "santa" and such. It just seemed way too busy, but the service was still quite enjoyable and I am happy I was there.
Sara and I were going to attend church Sunday, I called to see what time the service was. They cancelled services. I said Jesus is the reason for the season and you are cancelling services??? What's up with that dude??? Sara was rolling in the floor laughing at me. I was in a house full of people I told them. It is an oxy-moron.
I totally agree Skippy. What does it show non christians in this world? That God isn't very important and that we do not care enough to celebrate Jesus' birthday!!!! Poor judgement on the churches. God wasn't impressed with it either I don't think!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The church up the road from us cancelled services Sunday as well. They are a community church...semi-mega church. I wil admit I didn't think it would be very packed, but I was proven wrong and there was practically a full congregation at our service that morning.
New here Hi, I was looking around at homeschool forums and stumbled in here. I know I'm a little late on this topic and hope you all don't mind if I put my 2 cents worth in. I happen to observe a Saturday Sabbath but I do attend a wonderful church for worship and fellowship on Sundays. My church had a beautiful candlelight service on Christmas Eve (which I attended), cancelled Sunday School because they felt the family at home was more important but did have a 10:30 worship service (I did not attend). My thoughts are as follows: It bothers me to see us be so hard on our brothers and sister on this issue. Whether we have a church service or not is really not what is important. Christ does not live in the church building. He lives in our hearts. My Christmas was a wonderful sacred time with my family at home. We worshipped and expressed our thanks and love to our Heavenly Father for the gift of his Son. You don't need to do this only at a church service. I know many other christians who chose not to go to church did the same thing. Don't forget, someone has to organize the service, provide the music, prepare the sermon, clean up afterward etc.......Sometimes and for some people, church isn't the best place to truely be worshipping because of all the work. Our pastors, deacons, elders etc. are no different. As far as non believers accusing us of being hipocrites for cancelling services, well, they would likely do that either way. To have a service just because of what someone else would say or think is to have it for the wrong reason. I bet Satan is just gloating and laughing his head off to see us torn apart, arguing and critisizing each other over this. Let us support and lift up each other in Christian love and understanding. Thanks for letting me speak my mind.
Hi, Vicki, and welcome! I do know you're right in all the trouble that goes into having a service...all the people involved, etc. And that is especially true for the "mega"-churches. Something else pointed out to me is that those "mega"-churches would have been very hard-pressed finding workers for the Sunday School classes. I suggested cancelling SS, and letting the kids go into the service, but was told that if all the kids attended service, there wouldn't be enough seats. I also agree with you that there's nothing "wrong" with attending some other day than Sunday. I've also been to some lovely Christmas Eve services. And many of these "maga"-churches hold regular services on Saturday night to accomadate those who cannot attend on Sundays for whatever reason. There will always be those who chose not to attend a Christmas service on Sunday because of family, etc. And I would hope I'd never condemn someone who made that choice. But it's still the OPTION of the individual to attend or not. When my church cancelled the service, that option was taken away from me. I was no longer given a choice to celebrate with my church family. And I do believe that's wrong. BTW, my pastor called the day before Christmas Eve, wanting to know if we'd be attending the Christmas Eve service. We were not planning on being there, as we have always gone to my parents' on Christmas Eve, and usually attend the service at their church. Our pastor was looking for a family to do the Bible reading. I was a VERY GOOD GIRL and kept my mouth SHUT and didn't give him my opinion of us not having a service Sunday AM. And Vicki, some of the gals who have been around a while can testify to what a miracle THAT was, LOL!
Vicki, I see your points and I don't believe that this thread was about that. I use to attend church on a Saturday evening as well until we found the church we attend now. The thing is, usually when people attend Saturday, they do not attend Sunday morning as well. It's usaully either or. It is a church's duty to observe the holy day, period. And by cancelling it they are not doing their job as a church. I would never condem anyone for missing the Christmas service...we had elders who were not there at ours. But for a church to cancel it's services is not giving people the opportunity to worship that morning in their church. Also, when people take on the responsiblity of a pastor, music director, whatever it may be, they are silently agreeing to occasions such as this that may come along. The church's that cancelled the services should have at least given their fellowship the choice to go or not. With all the anti-Christmas messages going around, what does that tell people about us? I also don't think having a Christmas service once every 7-8 years is that much to ask for.
Thanks for explaining JenPooh. I really didn't start this thread to start a debate on when we should attend worship, I just thought it was a "hot topic" for the time. I think Jackie said it best when she said: I just get concerned when we start adjusting our worship schedule to fit in nicely with everyone's holiday calendar.
