Would you cancel?

I think it is utter madness to cancel church on or near Christmas, but I consider Christmas a religious holiday that is most appropriately celebrated in church. Maybe these people don't see church services as an integral part of Christmas.

 

Let me start off by saying that I am not a pastor, but a God called youth minister. My answer is, I do not know if I would cancel or not. Here in upper East TN there is a fine line between being legalistic about not calling off services and looking for an excuse to not have to go. In saying this, I attend Sunday morning and Sunday evening worship (youth group on Wed.), so a Sunday morning being cancelled would not drop my attendance for the month from four times to three or even less.

 

We had a Christmas Eve Service and will have Sunday morning worship as usual, however, if I read my newsletter correctly all other services this week are canceled for the express purpose of giving our staff a break, well, except for the ones that are going on the church wide ski trip. Hopefully they won't get a break!

 

From the bulletin of CROSSCHURCH (formerly known as FBC Springdale, Ark.):

:applause:

 

Canceling service for us is not something that I agree with. Where is the honor to God?

 

Let each local church be moved as it wills. Baptists refer to it as "local autonomy" and it is one of the Baptist's steadfast doctrines.

 

We are canceling our P.M. service tomorrow night. We added a number of services this past week leading up to Christmas and we know that a large number of our congregants are either heading out of town or are having family coming into town. We are encouraging them to bring their family to the AM service, but we want them to have family time as well. Besides, our staff need family time as they have put in a great deal of hours lately. God bless and I pray for you each to have a blessed Lord's day tomorrow.

 

Just got off the phone; we might cancel service tomorrow morning.
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...not because of Christmas events but because we're expecting 6 to 10 inches of snow starting 3 AM tonight.

Rob

 

I hope that you are well stocked...

 

The only time we've ever cancelled church was because of two bad blizzards.

I know I say this every time such a question is asked, but we're so far out in the sticks that they don't plow our roads. Last year, we had two bad blizzards back to back and had to cancel two weeks worth of services and classes because the roads were impassable.

But in this case, when I hear about Joel Osteen and Perry Noble cancelling their church services, I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I kind of wish they'd cancel more of them.

 

This is a local church decision. If your church decides to meet then great. If not, then that's your congregation's right. Maybe it would be better if we paid more attention to our own congregation instead of worrying about what one is doing down the street let alone in another state.

 

This isn't thinking outside the box. It's bashing the church that, god forbid, chooses not to have a service due to a holiday. After all in I Opinion 2:45 it clearly states, "Thou shalt not cancel meeting together for any reason."

 

When church becomes so institutional that some consider it almost a sin to cancel a service for any reason, then we have forgotten what the true definition of the church really is. It does not bring God any more or less honor to celebrate the birth of Christ in a church building or at home with family.

Our baptist churches more resemble the Catholic church with popish pastors & a church-centered gospel. To say that God will honor you more if you worship under the authority of your church reveals a lack of understanding. Under the New Covenant, all believers are priests under the true High Priest with personal access to the true Holy of Holies. God's "honor" is not dictated by any man or so-called "man of God".

This is not a personal attack against any single person, but a refutation of unScriptural traditions of men which are taught as doctrines of God.

 

Christmas is usually considered a family day, and a holiday with Catholic roots. We never celebrated it at church. Sunday service is far more important than the celebration of Christmas that has its roots in paganism.