There’s a lot of blogdom ink spilling this week about churches being closed on Christmas day because, well, it’s Christmas, and….
Ben Witherington’s post on the subject was one of the first, and I agreed with it when I read it. It’s just plain backwards for churches to close on the day that the “C&E Christians” will show up, just when the community is looking to them.
Then merely a few moments ago, I had another thought. Maybe they’re onto something. Maybe they should shut down the churches and encourage members to instead spend that time with family, with one another, with friends, with neighbours. Get out in the world, be the church, and make a difference. Change the world, bit by bit. Not just on Christmas, but every day.
Of course, this is not the point of them closing on Christmas day, this is not their view of the world. On the one hand I want to say it’s a good thing, go with the churchless faith plan. On the other hand — and this is where the reality lies — this is a major paradigm failure on their part.
Of course Churches should close on Christmas day, why change now ?
Churches not opening on Christmas day is the ultimate sellout, and final proof (not that any is needed) that the church is spiritually dead, lacking spiritual leadership, but over endowed with modern management leadership techniques. Yet oddly, it’s the same churches who refuse to believe that they should be part of modern culture, who can’t see that by closing on Christmas day they have finally given in,and joined in with a modern culture.
Although one can argue that the real church takes place away from the actual church building, to non Christians, not opening on Christmas day makes us look even more hypocritical, who can accept Christianity when we don’t do anything different to the rest of the world?