CREEDE HINSHAW: ‘Tween Christmas and the new year

Once every seven years, 2016 being one of them, Christmas falls on a Sunday, an occasion mostly challenging for the church. The problem is that the ushers aren’t setting up folding chairs for the overflow crowd when December 25th arrives on a Sunday.

The crowds will throng to church on Easter, which always falls on a Sunday, and the crowds will surge on Mothers’ Day. Usually there’s a bigger-than-average crowd on the Sunday after we turn the clocks back an hour, an extra hour of sleep seeming to put more folk in a mood for church.

But when Christmas falls on a Sunday? Don’t worry about finding a space in the parking lot or fighting for a seat on the back pew. You can almost always count on empty congregations on one of the holiest days in the entire church year.

It’s enough to make the Grinch happy.

There may be many reasons for such absenteeism. The emphasis on family gatherings and gift-giving probably has a huge influence. People are relaxing at home, sitting around a fireplace, eating sausage and egg casserole, or feeling a little bleary eyed from such an early start to the morning.

Ironically, another factor contributing to such tepid attendance may have to do with the church’s success in a previous service.

Christmas Eve communion services have become highly successful. A candlelit service in a darkened and hushed sanctuary with the congregation singing “Silent Night” is one of the highlights of the church year. For six years, this December 24th service doesn’t drain folk from the next Sunday service. But when Sunday rolls around less than 24 hours after the final Christmas Eve service, droves will choose the Christmas Eve service over the Christmas Day service.

Two worship services in less than 24 hours is more holiness than many people need. They’ve already sung the songs and the preacher isn’t going to have anything new to say anyway.

When Christmas arrives on Sunday it carries a double whammy with it: that means that New Year’s Day falls on the very next Sunday, practically assuring that, for two Sundays in a row, only the most committed of faithful will be in church.

So, the vagaries of the calendar means that the last Sunday of 2016 and the first Sunday of 2017 will be back-to-back two of the least attended Sundays of either year, hardly a good way to ring out the old and ring in the new. No football team wants to suffer through two blowout losses in a row and no church wants to celebrate two very important and meaningful Sundays in hollow sanctuaries.

If you were one of those who skipped Christmas Sunday, why not make up for it by making a determined effort to be present on New Year’s Day? You may be astonished by what God might have to say to you through that service.

I can almost guarantee you that your pastor will be astonished to see a huge crowd this Sunday.

Email columnist Creede Hinshaw, a retired Methodist minister, at [email protected].