One of the craziest articles I've ever read confirms my ill feelings toward seeker-friendly worship services. Yesterday a story entitled "Some Megachurches to Close on Christmas" from the AP ran in newspapers and on news websites all over the country. The basic gist of the story is this—since Christmas falls on Sunday this year, many megachurches who design their worship service around "seekers," have decided to not hold a worship service that particular Sunday.
"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?" Cally Parkinson, a spokeswoman for Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., is quoted as saying in the article.
I agree with the first part of Ms. Parkinson's statement. Churches are to be involved in the mission of presenting the gospel, but the term "mission" implies being sent somewhere. Worship on the other hand should have no focus other than God. It seems to me that churches like Willow Creek are worshipping the gospel rather than the author of it and given their misguided notion about who should be the focus of worship, they are actually going to cancel their worship service on Christmas morning.
According to the article, Willow Creek isn't the only church doing so. Here's a list of more churches closing on Christmas morning, taken directly from the article:
"Among the other megachurches closing on Christmas Day are Southland Christian Church in Nicholasville, Ky., near Lexington, and Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, outside of Dallas. North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., outside of Atlanta, said on its Web site that no services will be held on Christmas Day or New Year's Day, which also falls on a Sunday. A spokesman for North Point did not respond to requests for comment."
I don't think any comment would suffice.
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