Dec. 25th is on Sunday this year

So some churches are scaling back or even closing to let staff have the day off. At Get Religion the reaction to this news is Put Christmas back in the church. Ben Witherington is on fire over this. He writes, "What we are dealing with here are churches whose priorities are so askew that they somehow think it is more important for the church to serve the wants of the physical family than the other way around. This is a far cry from the pattern of the original disciples of Jesus who were seen leaving homes, relatives, jobs to come and follow Jesus. What kind of message does it send to our culture when churches close on one of its highest holy days? That it is o.k. to stay home and do one's own thing even on Jesus' birthday?" I guess it all depends on what following Jesus really means. If it doesn't mean woshipping him together as a family and giving gifts like he did but instead means having to dress up and drive and deal with parking and weather instead of Sabbath then I might not fit well in his church. it seems so uptight.

I think i'm going to church that Sunday, but we are having only one service without Sunday school so the families are all together. I teach sunday school to 3rd and 4th graders also, so, i'm thankful for the break.

you should see Spurgeon's comments on Christmas here.

the internet monk turns this into a rant against mega churches.

the best part of all these blogs is the commenters. make sure you read those comments. don't forget the World Magazine blog.

now am i going to have a conclusion extolling the virtues of house churches here? no. i doubt its an issue for alot of them, though. they have other issues.