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Are you doing anything special at your church for the day after Christmas?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by annsni, Dec 1, 2010.

  1. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    We're trying to figure out what we want to do that Sunday. Hubby would like to make it a little different and we had thought about bringing our home church's children's pageant out but we're not going to be able to do that. So he's trying to figure something out and I just can't think of any suggestions. Our home church is having a bagel cafe and then instead of two services, they are going to do one. But we're already at one and we can't bring in bagels. Hmmm....
     
  2. menageriekeeper

    menageriekeeper Active Member

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    I doubt it. Generally the Sunday after Christmas is a low attendance day, though if Christmas lands on Sunday, we usually ahve a good attendance.

    If I find out different I'll let you know.
     
  3. John Toppass

    John Toppass Active Member
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    Just curious, why can you not do bagels? We have thought about doing a "why we believe what we believe" morning service with participation from congregation. This may be a good Sunday morning for it.
     
  4. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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  5. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    We meet at a hotel and we can't bring in any food. We COULD ask them to provide it but to have coffee and bagels, it's $200 for about 60 people. Quite costly and the last time we had them get us bagels, they were terrible. I mean we live in NY and are used to good bagels and I would swear these were from Oklahoma or something!!

    I like that idea of 'Why we believe what we believe'. I think that would be a great idea for you guys. :) We are just going through the God Questions series (What would you ask God if you could ask Him anything?) so it's kind of heavy stuff and hubby was thinking of something fun and maybe a little lighter. A lot of our plant team will be gone so we're guessing it will be a much smaller group and we'd love to not even have nursery but have everyone together, you know?
     
  6. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    We'll consolidate to two services and keep it pretty simple. Nothing out of the ordinary.
     
  7. targus

    targus New Member

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    I have never understand that one.

    Christians that are so overwhelmed by celebrating a day of rememberance of the birth of our Savior that they feel compelled to skip church the next Sunday?

    "Well enough thinking about Jesus for a while. Let's sleep in on Sunday so we can get a break from it."
     
  8. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    Lot's of folks travel and are still out of town for Christmas.

    :jesus:
     
  9. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    We will see a lot of this. We are located right outside a metropolitan area and see a lot of people who travel during the holidays. Since our attendance is primarily young families with elementary aged children or younger a sizable amount will head out of town to be with grandparents.

    As a side point, why is it that Christianity is defined by how often we show up to church? I mean every year I take off at least three or four Sundays. From my daily practice my relationship with Christ is not defined solely by how often I check the attendance box at a local establishment. Just saying...
     
  10. preacher4truth

    preacher4truth Active Member

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    Well said.

    I agree. There is such a judgmental spirit, always looking, accusing, and slandering others. Then the never wrong attitude. How Christ-like.

    I think we need to start looking at ourselves, and quit slandering others, get the mote out of our own eye.
     
  11. targus

    targus New Member

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    When my wife and I are away from home on a Sunday we enjoy worshiping at a church local to where ever we are.

    We aren't members at those churches but we still hear the Word and a message. And that never hurts.

    So on the Sunday after Christmas when some regular members are away visiting family - why are those numbers not made up by visitors?
     
  12. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    Well that's nice, but not a standard that everyone believes in.

    I don't doubt that you hear a message but I listen to about 10 sermons a week via podcasts and such. I don't need a Sunday service for that when I take a vacation.

    We don't have a lot of older members so we don't see a reciprocation where those who go out also come in. It's not a bad thing imho, I mean let people spend the time with family. If you attend a church where the visitors swell automatically when members are gone that's pretty interesting. Of course our high attendance weeks (not counting Easter) aren't around holidays but are from August through September and then January through March. Given our context it isn't surprising.

    Also, as a tidbit of info we actually run numbers and make projections about the rate of attendance we see on a given month. Now a lot explanation goes into this but given our context, in a suburban area with a highly mobile younger crowd, we generally get about 2.5 visits a month from most families. (Now if they are covenant members of our church that number goes up to 3.5 but we have unique process for covenant membership.) Lots of reasons for that, but suffice to say on any given Sunday about 1/3 of the people present weren't there last Sunday.

    We've got a great ministry dynamic but to suggest that it is normal, reasonable, and expected to have a family (or anybody) consistently show up every Sunday 52 weeks a year isn't living in reality. One's Christian commitment shouldn't measured in when they show up but in their voracity of the Gospel in their every day life.
     
  13. targus

    targus New Member

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    Didn't say anything about attendance as a measure of commitment.

    Growing up my family attended 52 Sundays a year.

    I have practiced that my whole life - so maybe it's just a family habit or something.

    I dunno.
     
  14. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    We tried to visit churches when we're away on our vacation on the boat and you know what? Churches in New England that are near the water stink. Plain and simple. So we have our own church. Hey - we have a worship leader, a pastor and a congregation of 6!!
     
  15. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    But if you do attend a church that "stinks" you will be brining the Holy Spirit in with you - a booster that church just might need!:praying:
     
  16. annsni

    annsni Well-Known Member
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    Oh - I don't know if I want to sacrifice the family for that. If it were just hubby and I, it might be OK but the kids? They shudder as well.

    Besides, trying to get to church when you're on a boat is usually pretty hard. Many towns don't have anything "churchy" near the water and when they do, most of the towns have had Catholic churches and a couple of Episcopal churches. There was one church on Martha's Vineyard that we found that was pretty good but they moved from the building to have church outside that one Sunday and we spent $70 to get to church with cab fare. LOL So it's just best for us to do church on our own. If there is another family that wishes to join us, we'll have them come too. :)
     
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