"How did we get to this place where our hearts are owned by family values rather than Jesus Christ."
Tim Bayly on this year’s Christmas rush to not hold services on Christmas day.
An anonymous commenter on this recent post went as far as to say that Christmas is about “relaxing and spending time with family.”
Funny, I thought it was about God sending a Savior. And didn’t that Savior say that following Him might involve forsaking mother and father, sister and brother? When it is worship versus family, worship wins hands-down.
An anonymous commenter on this recent post went as far as to say that Christmas is about “relaxing and spending time with family.”
Funny, I thought it was about God sending a Savior. And didn’t that Savior say that following Him might involve forsaking mother and father, sister and brother? When it is worship versus family, worship wins hands-down.
posted on 12/07/2005 | permalink | more bloggy goodness
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3 Comments:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10355438/
“We believe that you worship every day of the week, not just on a weekend, and you don’t have to be in a church building to worship.”
Anonymous,
What I want to gently ask you to consider is why, if cancelling a Sunday service has *not* been the practice of the church throughout all of history, why is doing it now suddenly theologically appropriate?
This discussion isn't about being in a building or whether or not we are supposed to worship every day. Scripture is clear that Christians are the building and that worship is to be in all of life.
This discussion is about the fact that the church has come to value individualism above corporate worship.
From the article you cited:
“This is a consumer mentality at work: ‘Let’s not impose the church on people. Let’s not make church in any way inconvenient,”’ said David Wells, professor of history and systematic theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, a leading evangelical school in Hamilton, Mass. “I think what this does is feed into the individualism that is found throughout American culture, where everyone does their own thing.”
This is something we need to confront, not welcome with open arms through theological jimmy-rigging (which really seems to be what these pastors are doing to justify the cancellation).
Even the arguments you have given in your comment (not about the building, worship is to be everyday) must ultimately be arguments for corporate worship.
If we are the "living stones," are these stones not called to join together as a spiritual building in physical space and time? Of course.
Are we to take the truth that worship is an everyday activity and, reducio ad absurdum, be led to believe that therefore corporate worship is unnecessary? Of course not.
We are talking here about replacing the "Day of the Lord's Resurrection" with commercialism and "family time". Is that not significant?
Here, here. I too read the article on WorldMagBlog earlier in the week and posted these comments on the Christmas Consumer Orgy.
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