No room for Jesus at mega-churches: Kevin McCullough slams decisions to shut down worship services

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Saturday, December 10, 2005 | Kevin McCullough

[JohnHuang2]

I had just hung up the phone with the Washington Post religion reporter Alan Cooperman. He interviewed me this week looking for a reaction to the fact that the White House Christmas card, for the fifth year running, had no mention of Christmas on it.

I am after all a natural to ask about it. I am the one who is trying to spearhead the effort to get ardent fans of Christmas to send Christmas greetings to the scrooges at the American Civil Liberties Union's national headquarters in New York City.

I told Mr. Cooperman I was disappointed with the White House's choice to bypass a true Christmas greeting on the card. I also explained that there is a significant difference between an aggressive ACLU organization which is looking to litigate against every municipality, school district and government employee who dares to celebrate Christmas on the public dime, and an elected leader who truly wishes more than a million supporters of many various faiths a prosperous holiday season.

Mr. Cooperman ended up not using my comments in his piece, however WorldNetDaily Editor in chief Joseph Farah represented what I thought very nicely in the same column.

Moments later, I was perusing the news of the day and ran across a piece from the Associated Press that ran in hundreds of newspapers that day. The story was highlighting the fact that many mega-churches will be closing their doors on Christmas Sunday this year.

The story highlighted churches with several thousand congregants who are making the educated guess that attendance would be low and are deciding not to offer their members the opportunity to worship Jesus on the day of His birth.

The most nakedly exposed pragmatism came from Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill.

Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church said "church leaders decided that organizing services on a Christmas Sunday would not be the most effective use of staff and volunteer resources."

She went on to say, "If our target and our mission is to reach the unchurched, basically the people who don't go to church, how likely is it that they'll be going to church on Christmas morning?"

Ask anyone who walks if there are two specific times that the ''unchurched" would be more likely to attend church and you will hear the words, "Christmas" and "Easter." If this isn't an interesting, yet pathetic snapshot of what the Seeker church movement has turned into ...

A church, by definition, is an institution ordained by God to be a place of worship and learning, helping those seeking the truth about God and pointing them in the direction they should go. Seeker-friendly churches seem arrogant enough to believe that until they arrived on the scene nobody ever had meaningful searches for God.

But to add insult to injury, here we are attempting to prick the ACLU with a bit of God consciousness this year, and wish them a merry Christmas by explaining what Christmas means to us, and yet those places that should be an open door to understanding that are locking down their operations on Christmas Sunday because they are unwilling to put in the time and spend the money it would take to do so (by their own admission).

As I raised the issue on my broadcast this week, one very nice lady called in from the Bronx to explain that her family is one of those volunteer families who works when they are at church, and that she would personally love to have the idea of the day off to not have to worry about those services responsibilities. "It's just so hard to get up on that day," she said.

Hard?

Too hard to prepare a message, if you are a pastor? Too hard to sing a song, if you are a worship leader?

Hard is not quite what I envision.

Hard is seeking a place to give birth in the dead of winter, and being told that not even a hotel room is available. Hard is being forced to experience labor on sticky, uncomfortable hay, with the smell of animals, and only a manger to lay your newborn in. Hard is not having the conveniences of the hospital delivery room, but instead experiencing your bloody, and messy delivery in a stable.

Hard to me is also dragging a cross upon One's back up a path of suffering, only to be nailed to that same cross on a hill called "the skull."

Maybe mega-church is synonymous for mega-wimps. For when we start talking about the amount of effort to worship the Christ of Christmas on His day, and we say its too hard, I'm afraid we've lost our grip on reality.

Here's hoping that you so seek an open door to a house of worship on Christmas Sunday morning, that in fact you are able to find one!

[Cindy]

HONEST OPINION: If my church ever closed for Christmas and/or Resurrection Sunday (some call this Easter); I know I would be looking for a new church. We always have time for Jesus.

---

http://www.truthusa.com/CHRISTmas.html

[GeronL]

OK, he shouldn't have put the Inn and manger scene in the dead of winter, it could of actually happened in the summer.

[GeronL]

Its a great column, though!

[CyberAnt]

Hmmmm?? I have a different take .. if churches have a Christmas Eve service and allow families to spend time with each other on Christmas morning .. I don't see why that is such a big deal. You don't lose your Christianity just because of a change in the service. If missing one service is going to cause people to lose their faith, then they didn't have very strong faith to begin with.

It makes no difference to me .. I don't have small children at home.

[xzins]

Most folks go to church on Sunday, plant themselves in a pew, and wait for the entertainment to show up. They watch it, drop in their dime, and hit the road...better for the experience, do doubt. That's the standard church.

What's different about the Willow Creeks of the world is their insistence that the membership NOT be the ones planting themselves in the pews and enjoying the entertainment. As an outreach to the unchurched, these folks dedicate their Sundays to doing the work that makes all those folks able to attend. They sit the nurseries, park the cars, run the kids church programs, man the choirs, run the cameras & lights, burn the DVDs, take the data, count the cash, etc., etc.

So, the next time someone feels smug about their willingness to pack a pew on Christmas morning, let them be the voluteer who sits the nursery that morning and doesn't see the show....and then continues to do that same thing for the next 52 weeks in a row.

And those folks are doing that so some seeking person can sit there without being distracted by his kids -- all in the hope that that person will come to Christ.

Or as they say in politics: "What have YOU done for HIM, lately?"

Colossians 2: "16 Therefore don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day. "

[Tazzer]

Mega-church bashing...

[Caipirabob]

Wow, that's really great. Thanks for the info on what they do. Serving their fellow man enabling their salvation. Err...money in the bank? You know what I mean...

[trickyricky]

"OK, he shouldn't have put the Inn and manger scene in the dead of winter,
it could of actually happened in the summer."

The New Testament doesn't tell us the day, month, or even year of Jesus' birth. Period.

It doesn't tell us how tall Jesus was. What color eyes or hair he had. What the Bible doesn't tell us could fill libraries.

What it does tell us is all we need to know.

[Free Baptist]

"OK, he shouldn't have put the Inn and manger scene in the dead of winter, it could of actually happened in the summer."

Most likely Springtime. But he makes the right point as regards what is an inconsistent witness of the Christian faith in a world every increasingly antagonistic to Christianity.

This inconsistency and compromise with Paganism and Hedonism (e.g. "Let's never say anything or do anything that might offend the unbelievers, even if it is the truth.") is what I see in the Seeker movement megachurches, and Seeker Megachurch wannabees (there are many around here--small churches going deeply in debt trying to imitate Willow Creek and Saddleback).

Now, I am not concerned about the observance of holidays. per se. They are not mandated by Scripture. But the Seeker movement appears to lean into the world until there is no difference between them and the world.

Willowcreek interested in unbelievers? I wouldn't know. But in everyday Christianity, I consider those interested in the unconverted who are out making some attempt to reach them with Bibles, literature and personal witness for the Person and Redemptive Work of Jesus Christ.

Having served inside Communist countries and watching the experience of underground Christians, the idea of it being too hard to get up on ANY Sunday (or at other times) and try to go and minister to people (the unconverted and/or the saved) indicates a rather meaningless Christendom being perpetrated.

[KeyWest]

I did not realize that you need to go to church on Sunday only. So we can do away with all other services.

I think I would be more interested in the reason someone attends rather than what day they attend church. What is left out of the article, but appears in most others, is the churches are offering a Saturday service- either Christmas eve or during the AM or both. So for one day we all get to be just like Jesus, Jews and Seventh Day Advent members and attend on Saturday.

Plus, the issue here is mega-churches that require a load of volunteers to man all sorts of jobs.

Many families, mine included, gather on Christmas morning to share gifts. This year we will do so after church, but I do not see any problem with others staying home or even canceling a service as long as the church offers a Christmas eve service (which I prefer anyway). Let all those volunteers spend some time with their families.

[DH]

Big Churches = Big Money. Nothing more. The "bottom line" means more than the principle they were founded on.

[GeronL]

I have read they probably were traveling to pay taxes and that other travelers had filled up the Inn. Well, the Romans probably made them travel a ways just to hand over their wealth to the emperor.

goodnight/morning

[joesbucks]

if churches have a Christmas Eve service and allow families to spend time with each other on Christmas morning .. I don't see why that is such a big deal.

Bingo! this is a bunch of hype about nothing. These churches represent the members. Are they wrong. I'm not sure. But that is between them and their Savior. They have to answer for their actions.

[stopem]

"Big Churches = Big Money"

You're right. We have a mega Church close to our home, it is ostentatious. The Pastor rides around in a limousine and he has his own TV program.

When I say Mega Church that is putting it mildly. It covers an entire city block square. It has a school, football fields, several of them, a gym with the latest equipment.

Individual People aren't their main interest but having millions visit on sunday and show them the money is definitely the crux of their Christianity religion.

[Free Baptist]

"So, the next time someone feels smug about their willingness to pack a pew on Christmas morning, let them be the volunteer who sits the nursery that morning and doesn't see the show....and then continues to do that same thing for the next 52 weeks in a row."

You seem to be very defensive of the Seeker movement churches.

The things that you mention being done by the volunteers at "the Willow Creeks" are not unique to "the Willow Creeks." I was in a church two Wednesday nights ago that had a teaching session on these things (using Rick Warren Material), and I didn't see why anyone would think that people keeping nurseries, parking cars (I wouldn't want anyone to park my car, frankly, and many would feel the same way), working lighting and sound systems, duplicating recorded materials, distributing literature, and on and on would be considered things new or unique.

We have been around churches for 28 years in the ministry that do these things, and that try to be very friendly and welcoming to people who come in seeking the truth of the Gospel.

Are the TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST and PREACHING ALL THE COUNSEL OF GOD, and EDIFYING THE BELIEVERS the important issues at "the Willow Creeks?" From what we have seen, the latter two are really lacking. (I admit that I have never been to THE Willow Creek, only to some who are trying to get with the same program.)We observe that in the churches in our areas that are tired of being small or average in size and are trying to imitate "the Willow Creeks" (many of them going deeply in debt to get with the program too quickly), that their DAY-BY-DAY witness is not very credible. "Or as they say in politics: 'What have YOU done for HIM, lately?'" What Christians are to do for "HIM" (our Lord Jesus are found clearly pronounced in the New Testament. None of the things you have mentioned carried out by the volunteers at "the Willow Creeks" or even in the other churches that have been doing these things for decades before "the Willow Creeks" were in existence, are NOT necessarily mandated in the New Testament. It seems that in "the Willow Creeks" as well as many other churches, the day-by-day things that we can be doing as believers to influence our neighbors for Jesus Christ are being overlooked for the big production stuff in the "big theater" church. You mentioned people waiting for the "entertainment to show up." Isn't the entertainment style of church program really what is being practiced at "the Willow Creeks?"

[Cvengr]

The irony to rescheduling a Christmas church service is that the justification to place a morning family period ahead of Godly worship has already transformed a day to worship Christ into a 'winter holiday' worshipping family relationships above a relationship with God.

[Dallas59]

I'll be going to Mass at roommates Church.

[CyberAnt]

I don't agree!

God created the family first (Adam and Eve) .. then the church (Jesus' resurrection).

If you don't have a good family relationship .. 20,000 hours of church won't help you.

One year when New Year fell on Sunday .. our church held a candelight New Year's eve service. We brought our kids in their jammies - lots of finger foods - and we watched Carmen videos; we sang; our Pastor preached, and we fellowshipped all night.

Then, we had a pancake breakfast in the morning and everybody went home to get some sleep. I'd do it again in a heart-beat!

[xzins]

Thanks so much for a generally kind and insightful post.

I gather from your post that you do think that folks who perform these ministries make it possible for others to become involved in their worship experience. You laud the efforts of others who have done the same thing.

So do I.

I also think that type of involvement is the exception rather than the rule.

I notice you did not engage Col 2:16.

I've also noticed that many, many pastors lament what they call "Sunday morning" Christians. Have you ever heard that expression before?