[Capriole]

Our church is not planning to have its usual three services on Christmas morning, and some of us protested. This morning the pastor addressed the subject. He said that holding a service requires the assistance of about a hundred volunteers--people to run the child-care ministry and Sunday School, people to serve as ushers and musicians, folks to handle the horrendous parking and traffic-flow issues, to control the lights and sound and electronics, to drive the buses to and from distant pickup places, to clean up after the services, to provide security in the face of recent threats. In addition, they have to pay a lot of overtime to the local cops who try to manage the traffic nightmare the thousands of churchgoers create on local roads each weekend. He said it just wasn't possible to round up this volunteer staff on Christmas morning when people wanted to be with their children and could not be constrained to appear as paid employees could be.

Do I buy his argument? Well, in fifteen years I've never found this man to engage in untruths or half-truths. If he says there are serious logistical problems with managing a Christmas Sunday service, he knows more about running a big church than I do.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Interesting point.

My church is maybe 120 people on a good sunday. We need the guy who leads our songs, one of the two sound people (me or my replacement), and the pastor. I guess we need a parent to volunteer to sit in the nursery as well. Then we would need sunday school teachers if we didn't cancel sunday school.

If they were consolidating services and cancelling sunday school and other ancillary activities, I wouldn't comment.

Of course, since I don't go to a megachurch, I guess I don't appreciate the effort that goes into having a worship service. We've come a long way from the time everybody just showed up at the house and Paul led them in a multi-hour sermon.

[TheCrusader]

"If he says there are serious logistical problems with managing a Christmas Sunday service, he knows more about running a big church than I do."

"Serious logistical problems"? Time to find a new church, I'd say. Imagine if the Apostles put their mission on hold due to 'serious logistical problems'? How many times was Paul shipwrecked, stoned, arrested, beaten and thrown out of town to spread the gospel?

[PAR35]

He said it just wasn't possible to round up this volunteer staff on Christmas morning when people wanted to be with their children and could not be constrained to appear as paid employees could be.
Do I buy his argument? Well, in fifteen years I've never found this man to engage in untruths or half-truths.

You have now. In the past week, I've been to functions at 3 megachurches of 2 denominations. The first, 20,000+ members SBC - the pastor made sure to work in an invitation that they would be operating Christmas day. The second, a smaller SBC with I would guess about 4000 members - also let it be known they would be operating Christmas day. And my own church - definitely not Baptist - will have two morning services with child care for up to 2 year olds, with older children attending with their families instead of children's church or Sunday School.

As far as I know, all the smaller churches are having services that day. The only ones around here that are cancelling are those which are market driven rather than Bible driven.

There are bound to be many churches in your area holding Sunday morning services that week. Try one out. The worst thing that could happen is that you would like it so much that you would want to stay.

[TruthSetsUFree]

"He said it just wasn't possible to round up this volunteer staff on Christmas morning when people wanted to be with their children and could not be constrained to appear as paid employees could be."

This is truly troubling also, that the staff of a church cannot bring themselves to be there on a Sunday, holiday or not? Above and beyond the fact that December 25 this year is a holiday, it is the Lord's Day, and should be observed no matter what.

It's not that families can't still be together on Christmas Eve. And besides that, there is the rest of Sunday to be together. It's not like church lasts all day, just usually the forenoon, even when there are three services.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Why does holding a service require so many volunteers? Beside the babies, children can sit with their parents. You only need one musician to lead the singing. The only lighting work needed is to turn on the lights. Turn on the microphone. The elders can teach the Sunday school classes.

How did Whitfield, Spurgeon, Wesley and Calvin lead their congregations with hundreds of staff?

[swmobuffalo]

"just wasn't possible to round up this volunteer staff "

So why didn't he ask then and there for volunteers to commit to helping on that particular morning?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

How about simplifying things for a change? Open the doors, turn on the lights and sound, (don't bother with the church school or church nursery for a change....), get the organist (or a sub) there - the preacher preaches, everybody sings, listens to his sermon, and a few volunteers stick around to help the custodian to "clean up".

[cherry]

reading about the lights and the security and the musicians and the daycare and the parking and the the buses makes me think that maybe our church services are way over the top ......

cancel the daycare, notify everyone that there will be no buses and the songs will be song solely by the congregation.....