I’m not a huge rule-maker. I like to operate in freedom and so I try to leader others that way. I’m strict about very few things.
(Can I be completely honest? — I’d rather break a rule than keep one. Certainly I love to write better rules.)
I’m a little different on Christmas Eve.
I’m strict. I write rules. An ole’ controlling leader.
Our ministerial staff works on Christmas Eve.
Period. No excuses.
That’s harsh, isn’t it?
Christmas Eve is a big deal in this church. Always has been. Long before I became pastor.
We now have 3 services to accommodate crowds, but the church has always had one packed service, which is live on television. Near 100,000 people in our region watch the show and the past couple years we’ve rebroadcast the show several times on Christmas Day. It’s somewhat of a community event.
But, there’s another reason.
Culturally speaking, Christmas has in many ways become the new Easter.
Not theologically of course. You can’t trump the resurrection, but as an opportunity to reach lost people.
They’ll come at Christmas. It’s a culturally acceptable thing to do. A familiar affair. Get dressed up (or not) and gather together to sing familiar Christmas songs. It’s a great family tradition. (I read recently – 57% of people say they’d visit church at Christmas if someone they knows asks.)
And, who can’t love a baby in a manger story? You can attract people at Christmas like no other time of the year.
Think about it: We would never think of staff missing Easter. It’s an “all hands on deck” kind of day.
So, I make Christmas Eve a priority and require our staff to be here.
(Now, in complete transparency, if there were extenuating circumstances with a staff member we would certainly consider them.)
And, sure, it’s difficult on families to understand. I get that. My family has to sacrifice also. We live 4 hours from our family and we now miss Christmas Eve together.
But, if we had a job as a policeman or at a hospital emergency room, no one would question why we had to work. It comes with the job.
And, in church work, Christmas Eve, if it’s done well, can be a great part of the job. Lives are at stake. It’s a vital work. An “all hands on deck” kind of day.
The Gospel is our mission and it shares well on Christmas Eve.
What are your plans for 2016? And what are your thoughts on Christmas Eve Ever vs. Christmas Eve? Any data to support one over the other?
I wish I was that far planned ahead, but it looks like a great weekend to share the Gospel. I could easily see a service opportunity on the 23rd next year. Haven't tried it myself but know lots of churches do.
I can't think of a better way to spend a Christmas Eve than serving in the church with my friends and family. 🙂
I think you are dead-in here. There are multiple times in a year where ALL HANDS ON DECK is a must. At the campus I am at, we will do 2 services on the 23rd and 4 services on the 24th. For sure it’s all hands…no question.
But I think what you are saying revolves so much about perspective and expectation. Leaders set the tone for what is expected and how the expectation is viewed. This is why we say we never say, “Our people (attenders) won’t or don’t.” We say, “We haven’t led them there yet.” We hold the responsibility as leaders to cast the vision and set the pace no matter the season.
As always good stuff Ron.
Sorry for typos…commenting from phone
Thank you. I appreciate this.
I have a hard time with this because when it comes to my wife, she comes first before the Church. I have heard of pastors marriages falling apart because they loved their ministry more than their wife. I don't see anything wrong with this, but I think you need to be careful. Many pastors wives work outside of the home, they deserve to have a say in where there husband spends Christmas eve.
I think Churches need to be careful not to get too legalistic on these matters, that's all I'm saying. In America, we tend to work too much to the detriment of our family time. My church does not offer Sunday evening services for this very reason. Spend time with the family!
How do you answer that for a police officer or a nurse who works the emergency room? You would totally have to talk to my staff to understand how I work to protect the family and and to mound family to learn how I do this in my own life as well but that does not eliminate that I need to do a job. It makes us work even harder to protect our family with our job. What if your wife wanted you to stay home on Easter Sunday? Or work Sundays for that matter? That would be something you have to work out as a family but if you're in ministry chances are you going to work Sunday and what I'm saying is Christmas eve is one of those important dates in the life of the church right now that we have to be a part of. You can't use one principle to dismiss another principle. Protecting the family first absolutely. Being strategic with how you use your time. Absolutely. Being Kingdom builders. Absolutely. That's why we have to get smarter and work more efficiently. The good thing about ministry is that if we do it well we have more than enough time to invest in our families. Ministry can actually be more flexible than some secular jobs. But it requires intentionality on our part.
The thing that you seem to overlook is that not every police officer or nurse or (fill in the occupation) works on Christmas Eve (or any other day). There is an attempt in these other occupations to allow as many people to have the day off as possible and still provide appropriate coverage. In most of these occupations, there is also an attempt to make sure that everyone gets some of these days off. Your comparison to these occupations is a false position (the way you have set up your staff on Christmas Eve).
Now, if you had compared them to teachers on the first day of school, you would have had more validity.
That's a good point – and I have considered this before, but struggled to determine who is off and who is on. We don't require all employees – just all ministers.But, I think we could analyze it a lot of different ways. I would, for example, say this also has to do with the size of the city. If they are 3 policeman for a city perhaps all would take an 8 hour shift. Maybe it has to do with the size of the church and staff as well.But, I still go back to my comparison to Easter. Would you be in favor of working to allow some to be off on that Sunday?Thanks for your comment.
Amen
Amen! It's the gig, as a friend of mine often says. Having spent nearly 10 years on church staffs, I was absolutely befuddled when many of the staff and pastors at one church would take Christmas Eve (and often, Easter) off. I was the technical director, and not only was I there for all 4 services every year, but usually worked 70-80 hours leading up to it. It was hard at times, but it's the gig. NASCAR drivers don't take Sunday's off during race season. And pastors work Christmas Eve. It's the gig.
Yep. Glad you see it that way. You would make a great team player. Hope you got some time off after the gig
Love to see you treading out there on the thin ice… It's good for the cause of Christ and reaching the lost!!! Keep it up.
Ha! Is it that thin? 🙂
It's thin because lots of churches don't do it, and love to see you going there and laying it on the line.
Yep
That sounds very reasonable to me. The previous church I served on staff has a similar tradition. When I started there, I was bitter about that tradition because it interrupted family traditions I already had in place. But after a year or two, I really grew to love that service. I miss it now.
I am at a different church now. This is my second Christmas here. This year, our deacons thought we begin offering a 10am Christmas morning service for those who can come. (and no one wanted to be the guy to say lets not worship on Christmas) Yet again, I find myself bitter. I'm hoping I'll grow to love it, but right now it looks doubtful. This will be one of those moments when I have to set aside my own feelings and lead worship because He is worthy, regardless of my situations.
It should be noted that it is important to vision cast why Christmas eve is important. I do have a harder time with Christmas day because I don't think it's in the mind culturally of people to attend something like that. I could be wrong.
Yeah, my husband is a pastor and he's required to be there for Christmas Eve too. Sometimes it's hard as I spent a good 20 years going to my grandparents every Christmas Eve (and my grandma still hosts it!). But I agree that Christmas Eve provides wonderful opportunities to reach out into the community and I'm happy my husband can have a part in that.
And honestly, we've used it as an excuse to spend Christmas Day with just our little family. Which has been so relaxing and fun and has reduced Christmas stress tremendously. Plus our church is gracious about time off so it's a good trade off.
Absolutely. And like I said in the post there are plenty of other careers where this impacts also. It's part of the job. And it's a very rewarding job. Got bless you.