Do Christmas Programs Still Work?
The answer seems to be yes.
In the latest Time magazine article, the author explores the popularity of such programs saying, “Christmas Eve services — with their pageantry and familiar traditions — became just one part of the celebration, after the family dinner and before the opening of presents.
That schedule of Christmas events is now the default tradition for most Americans.”
Most church leaders have known for sometime that most people who call themselves “Christians” are CEO (Christmas and Easter Only) Christians. These are people who are not normal church-goers, but will attend on one or both of those dates. That’s why most church put most of their financial resources towards big programs on these two dates.
But what I thought was most interesting about this article, was the suggestion that what most people seem to expect in a Christmas service is that they will be able to sing some of the traditional Christmas songs, light some candles, and greet each other with “Merry Christmas.”
I think there’s a refreshing simplicity in that.
What kind of Christmas program does your church use? What do you expect and enjoy most in a Christmas program?
No related posts.
Well my dear Pastor, Thank you for allowing me to take part of this blog, however, I must tell you that just yesterday, I was watchng the History channel with my family, the program was about Rome “Underground Cities” (something like that) to my surprise, I was shock when the host of the program mentioned that December 25 was adopted by Constantino as the day of Jesus’ birth as mean to match some dates that were already part of pagan cults. In this particular case, Dec 25 was the birthday of a pagan god that the Romans worship and sacrificed humans. So, it was kind of “convinient” to do the mix here. I confess that I have not being to careful in doing some reliable research on all these festivities. My 8 years old daughter when she heard it and saw it, she just look at me with dissapointing eyes and aks me, so Dad? aren’t we going to celebrate Christmas any more? This is something that made me reflect more in depth about Christmas celebration. Should we begin to make a difference on this too? I would say yes. What do you think?
Hey David. The article I wrote was addressing a different issue than what you mentioned. I was pointing out the interesting fact that coming to church on Christmas eve has become a fairly ingrained part of American Culture. We should, therefore, capitalize on that.
The question you bring out, though, is important as well. I believe the underlying question you bring up is, “can a pagan symbol be redeemed for Christian use?” I would say the answer to that is yes. It is quite common knowledge that Jesus was probably not born on Dec. 25, and the connection of the pagan origins of that date. But can we still use that date to lift up Christ and to point to the fact that He was born? I do believe we can.
I think this is a biblical principle. In the garden of eden, Satan inhabited the form of a snake to tempt and bring down humanity. Ever after that moment, the snake became a symbol of evil and “paganism.” However, when the Israelites were being bitten by snakes in the desert, what symbol did God tell Moses to make and put on his staff? A snake. God loves to redeem pagan symbols for His use. I believe as Christians it us our duty to do the same.
Yes, He was not born on this date. But I think it would be irresponsible of us to throw away an opportunity where people are already thinking spiritual thoughts and thinking about the birth of Jesus, just because we know that He wasn’t born on that date.