Pews or PJs?

This year as Christmas Day will fall in Sunday for the first time in 6 years, more Protestant pastors are canceling Sunday service.

Below has been excerpted from a NY Times article written by Ruth Graham. The article appeared December 18, 2022. Link to the full article here.

“We still believe in the Sunday morning experience, but we have to meet people where they are”, said Mr Chitwood, executive pastor at StoneBridge Christian Church in Nebraska. And where they are on Christmas Day is usually at home, in their pajamas. 

If everyone from the pews to the pulpit would rather stay home, what is a practical house of worship to do? This year, some Protestant churches are deciding to skip Sunday services completely.

This year, more Protestant churches seem to be making the decision to simply opt out. Though a clear majority will meet in some form on Christmas Day, fewer will do so than in 2016, when 89 percent of Protestant pastors said they were holding services, according to a survey by Lifeway Research.

Among nondenominational evangelical pastors, who tend to be informal and pragmatic in their approach to church matters, the numbers hosting Christmas Day services are significantly lower: Only 61 percent say they will do so, according to Lifeway’s survey.

For some critics of this flexible spirit, having Christmas fall on a Sunday presents a stark example of something many Christians have heard about countless times over the years: the choice between the spiritually thin cultural Christianity of stockings and eggnog and the “true meaning of Christmas” — a day to celebrate Jesus’ birth 2,000 years ago in a stable in Bethlehem.

It’s hard for a pastor to tell people they should prioritize church over other, often worthy activities if the pastor capitulates on Christmas Day of all days, said Mr. DeYoung, pastor of Christ Covenant Church in North Carolina. He posted “a plea to pastors” online in 2016 urging them not to cancel, which he recirculated this year.

Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below. Are you planning on Pews… or PJs for Christmas Day?