At the Risk of Making People Mad...

I have had quite a few people calling, texting and emailing me wanting to know if we are having church this week. I'm sorry, but am I missing something? Why would we not have church? God forbid that we interupt the Christmas celebrations with some crazy notion of having church the day after Christmas.  Before the folks at Harvest Church have a cow about me "outing you", let me tell you, you are not alone. I've talked with several other pastors today, here in town, in cities across Illinois, and several other states and others are reporting the same thing; that people do not want to have church the day after Christmas. I am just stunned. What in the world has happened when the church wants to omit going to the house of worship as a part of Christmas. And this is the day after Christmas! Next year Christmas falls on Sunday. Are we going to skip our time of worship of the Christ child on Christmas? Persish the thought... but I guarantee you that we will be dealing with this issue next year. I'm going on record right now as saying that next year, Christmas 2011, our church doors will be open and we will be there worshipping the Lord!

There has been some reports from friends in the ministry saying that their people were furious at the idea of not having church this Sunday. Thank God! I'm glad that there are people who have their priorities right and have not given in to the commercial take over of Christmas. I have to be honest... this issue has just made me sick. I'll be honest enough to say that attendance at my church has been absolutely pitiful during the month of December, and the weather has not really been an issue. The one week we had snow, the fact is the roads were not bad and people could have made it in. Bet they'd have made it to work under those conditions.

Anyway... I'm so stunned that people want to exclude going to church as a part of their Christmas celebration. When I was a kid growing up, Christmas and Easter were the two high attendance days for the year in church. Now days, they are some of the lowest, because we've made these days more about family than about Jesus. There is something BAD wrong with this picture. I feel like Charlie Brown screaming out, "Isn't there anyone can tell me what Christmas is all about?"