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Willow Creek Closed On Christmas


MOW

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I just saw on the local news here in Chicago, that Willow Creek Community Church will be closed on Christmas day this year. For those of you outside the Chicago area Willow Creek is the one of the largest megachurches in Illinois with an attendance of 20,000 . According to their communications director, they will hold a series of sevices prior to Christmas , which will be available on DVD.

 

I'm not judging them, and they can do whatever they want . I'm an organist and choir director , so I'll have to be in church . Two services on Saturday and then Sunday morning . I was just wondering how many of you ,who still attend church, will be going this year, since Christmas falls on Sunday.

 

MOW

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our church talked about not having services on Christmas but the worship committee decided to have one service at 11:00 and cancel Sunday School

 

we will produce a "home worship packet" that people can use at home with their families if they do not come on Christmas

 

i'm not exactly sure what a home worship packet will look like but i have to come up with something in the next couple of weeks

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Closed on Christmas, eh? Making a DVD available of the preceeding services, eh? How commercial, eh?

 

I'm not Canadian, and I will have to be working on Christmas. I try not to be judgemental about anything, but it seems incredulous to me that a church that has 20,000 worshipping believers will not hold a service on a Sunday Christmas.

 

I remember a radio spoof years ago that was played on radio about this time of year called "Green Christmas". I know some of you who have been around a while will remember it if you appreciate good satire. I want to say that it was Alan Sherman, but I don't think so. Someone help me out if you remember it. I can hear the guy in my head, but the name's not with it.

 

By the way, wasn't the pastor of Willow Creek one of the people Clinton looked to for spiritual guidance during the Monica thing ? Just thinking out loud again.

 

flow.... B)

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Closed on Christmas, eh?  Making a DVD available of the preceeding services, eh? How commercial, eh?

Does seem that way, eh?

 

But given that Willow tends to have rather performance- and drama-oriented worship services, a DVD might be just the right medium. And for only $9.95 we'll also send you a bonus disc, which includes outtakes, interviews, and an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how the annunciation scene was shot.

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Closed on Christmas, eh?  Making a DVD available of the preceeding services, eh? How commercial, eh?

 

I'm not Canadian, and I will have to be working on Christmas. I try not to be judgemental about anything, but it seems incredulous to me that a church that has 20,000 worshipping believers will not hold a service on a Sunday Christmas.

 

I remember a radio spoof years ago that was played on radio about this time of year called "Green Christmas". I know some of you who have been around a while will remember it if you appreciate good satire. I want to say that it was Alan Sherman, but I don't think so. Someone help me out if you remember it. I can hear the guy in my head, but the name's not with it.

 

By the way, wasn't the pastor of Willow Creek one of the people Clinton looked to for spiritual guidance during the Monica thing ? Just thinking out loud again.

 

 

 

 

 

flow....  B)

 

 

I think the person who did "Green" Christmas was Stan Freeberg or something like that. I'm not sure though.

 

MOW

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Willow Creek's decision doesn't surprise me.

I try not to be judgemental of other people's worship choices.

But, I really struggle with the whole Willow Creek concept.

I have attended their church, and a couple like it. When I saw the Star-bucks and Mc Donalds in the narthax, and saw the person sitting next to me eating their sausage biscuit during the service - I could only think of one thing - Christ driving the money changers from the temple. So - I am biased against Willow Creek and the Mega Churches to begin with.

 

But - I don't get churches that close on Christ's MASS.

I mean the whole holy day is about Christ's mass.

So - to NOT worship BECAUSE it is the day of Christ's Worship just floors me.

 

I understand the idea of family time, etc. . . But shouldn't divine worship be the primary part of family time on Christmas? And, certainly there is enough time in the rest of the day for the other things.

 

Sorry for the personal rant - but it is one of those things that bother me.

FWIW - Our church cut out Sunday School that day - inspite of my comments.

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I could only think of one thing - Christ driving the money changers from the temple. So - I am biased against Willow Creek and the Mega Churches to begin with.

 

It's an apt description. I'm just surprised more Christians (including the ones that attend such churces) don't see it. :(

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It's an apt description. I'm just surprised more Christians (including the ones that attend such churces) don't see it.

 

Amen. I do not understand why churches feel the need to bend over backwards to look like "the world" and make people feel so comfortable. What we end up with is a bunch of comfortable Christians, who are always looking to have THEIR needs catered to. The church ought to offer something different than what people can get at the local mall. We ought to be "strange" to a world caught up in consumption, materialism, greed, etc.

 

All that to say, I am all for the church being RELEVANT to the culture they are trying to minister in. Dress styles, music styles, etc. change, and the church can too.

Edited by darby
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Ahh, nothing says majesty and wonder quite like a sausage biscuit.

 

I'm lovin' it!

 

 

All of the majesty and wonder of the sausage biscuit began to give me moderate cases of acid and heartburn a while back, so I've switched to egg-onlys.

 

Haven't had one lately.

 

Maybe I'll celebrate Christmas with one since I'm working that day, and then, HEY !, I'll be in a sort of communion with the Willow Creek crowd. Maybe it'll almost be like being there in the narthex with them !

 

Wait a minute ! They won't even be there on Christamas ! Foiled again by the deceptions of money-changers !!! And I was all pumped-up to do some serious metaphysical mythologizing !!! GRRRR !!!

 

flow.... :P

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am actually excited and looking forward to going to church on Sunday. Partially because I really, really like my church but also because Christmas day is so darn borning. It will kill over an hour! :P

 

We are also going to see Fun with Dick and Jane on Sunday. Not sure what else we have planned. My favorite line from the trailer is "I think we're in a little bit of a pickle, Dick!"

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I understand the idea of family time, etc.  .  . But shouldn't divine worship be the primary part of family time on Christmas? And, certainly there is enough time in the rest of the day for the other things.

 

That is what I'm thinking. It is especially odd since some Christians are so up in arms about the Happy Holiday. While I celebrate Christmas as a family holiday those who claim to celebrate it as a religious holiday are being rather hypocritical (imho) if they don't go to church on Sunday! :o

 

Maybe they are different people?

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Don't you think that's what tends to aggravate us?????? Make it (your faith life) look pretty and important, but don't actually go out of your way. An outer change, not the inner compelling one. Showing up at church every Sunday is just a habit to get into and sets you with the group in many places... but on Christmas?!? Very inconvenient.

 

Of course, I've read lots of CS Lewis and now am in the middle of People Of the Lie by Scott Peck.... perhaps my view is colored :D

 

Ok, on the less cynical side - pastors and church staff serve all year, have probably had crazy schedules over the holidays and deserve to get to celebrate their savior's birth with their families??? Eh, I'm not buying it :)

 

life altering faith is inconvenient by nature. ;)

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Of course, I've read lots of CS Lewis and now am in the middle of People Of the Lie by Scott Peck.... perhaps my view is colored

 

I'm in the middle of The Screwtape Letters right now, and I keep finding myself saying "Crap, Screwtape could be writing to Wormwood about me in this letter, because the circumstances fit so well." :o He, Lewis not Screwtape, has a way of putting things that make me feel so guilty (in a good way). :rolleyes:

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He, Lewis not Screwtape, has a way of putting things that make me feel so guilty (in a good way).

 

 

I had the same experience! I found it to be a very humbling book. Try The Great Divorce next... perhaps your mind will join my twistedness in finding it hilarious and humbling. The first chapter is about people in line for a bus to heaven. I can't read it (or even think about it) without laughing out loud!!!

 

Have you seen Narnia yet? Pretty good. Can't, of course, compare with the book, but a good show overall. With the current zeitgeist the Christian points are emphasized! ;)

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When I started reading Screwtape yesterday I realized it was the wrong book. Meaning, I had intended to buy The Great Divorce, but somehow picked up this one instead. I was mildly dissappointed at first (because I was looking forward to the bus ride), but soon got over that.

 

I haven't seen Narnia yet. I'm looking forward to it.

 

I'm still in the middle of The Road Less Traveled, but my husband appropriated it from me, and so I had to move to another book. I don't know whether to read Further Along the Road Less Traveled next, or People of the Lie.

 

Recommendations?

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Ok Flow - I'd love to know your reactions to People of the Lie. Honestly, it's kind of freaking me out. :blink: He's basically making a case that evil is a subset of narcissistic personality disorder - that I can buy... but now I'm sensitized and hear all self-serving statements as possible evil. Yeesh! Cracked! As we all know, people tend towards self-involvement!!!

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Cynthia:

 

It has been some time since I read People of the Lie, about twenty five years or so. But I had just gone through a really horrible family breakup that pretty nearly destroyed me, until I read this book and discovered what was really going on around me. I read this book before The Road Less Travelled and recognized traits in supposed friends that operated to pull me into their realities and it was not a healthy thing for me and my wife, so that ended badly.

 

It did distort my opinion of some of my interactions with others afterwards, but that is the beauty of the book. He is so right on in describing how evil operates in the world through interpersonal relationships that are really gamesmanship in the striving to better one's neighbor and friend in material indulgence. I found that to be the really corrupting behavior pattern that dirtied everything in my life eventually.

 

The trying to tear down another's joy evoking activities in order to enhance one's own personal self image I found to be the key factor in the process. Turning one's life into episodes of suffering to provide schadenfreud pleasures for another's apparent self-gratification was prevalent in my experiences. Kind of like the animated movie, Monsters Inc. There are evil people in the world, and knowledge and experience can enable the recognition of patterns in others' behaviors that seem designed to pull us into an abyss where one's recognition patterns become so distorted by what's going on that we become twisted and misled in the extreme.

 

I agree, such knowledge makes life more difficult, but then those are the opening words of The Road Less Travelled. I have, over the years , retained much more in the way of living skills from The Road Less Travelled than from People of the Lie because life is lived more fully through openness and vulnerability than through judgement, fear, and loathing.

 

I also found that reading The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli was very informative regarding just what goes on in the manipulative behaviors of others, but if you feel threatened by the knowledge, just drop it.

 

flow.... :rolleyes:

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Thanks Flow. The knowledge is threatening, but in a "true" way. It does much what AR and I had mentioned about CS Lewis... basically makes you take a good hard look at the little behaviors of yourself and others... and realize that the little things do count and inflluence. A push towards living more mindfully. Valuable but uncomfortable. I'm planning to reread The Road Less Traveled next!!!

C

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