oasisCHURCH

"Just Read" - Sunday Morning Adult Bible Study

Details in the poster...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click here for a printable version of the "Just Read" poster.

Church on Christmas Day?

This article is likely to offend someone. How’s that for a hook?

Before anyone asks the question I will answer it. “Yes, there will be an Oasis worship gathering on Sunday, December 25—Christmas Day” (additionally, there will also be a worship gathering on New Year’s Day the following Sunday). The sign in the photo is a fake. It's merely a way to display and introduce the irony in this topic.

However, there has been an abundance of discussion, debate, criticism, etc. all over the country about churches who are canceling services on Christmas Day and whether or not it is right or wrong, etc. I am not sure I would go as far as to say it is “right” or “wrong”. I don’t think it’s a “right” and “wrong” issue. But I do think it is important for us to consider a few questions in context of Christmas Day falling on Sunday. Ponder questions such as: 

1. What do I truly cherish most about Christmas?
2. Why do I truly celebrate Christmas?
3. Who do I believe the Christmas holiday is most for? Family? Jesus? Both?
4. Which family is Christmas mostly about? My birth family? Or my re-birth family?

Much is communicated every year about Christmas in regards to what the “reason for the season” is. Some shout aloud about “putting Christ back in Christmas,” while others bemoan the fact that retail stores are “pushing Christmas out” by replacing the term "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" in their ads. Still others grumble about the increasing "secularization" of Christmas as they seek to remind us that, "Jesus is the reason for the season!" Everywhere you look, there seems to be some complaint about Christmas and how it's to be celebrated. And (don’t miss this) religious people are the ones who scream the loudest.

Yet, it is these same people who are concerned about this year’s Christmas Day because it happens to fall on a Sunday. How inconvenient.

Do you see the rub?

Ed Stetzer from Lifeway research says, “According to a December 2010 LifeWay Research report, 74 percent of Americans agree (strongly or somewhat) that ‘Christmas is primarily a day for religious celebration and observance,’ yet 67 percent of all Americans also agree that, ‘Many of the things I enjoy during the Christmas season have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.’”

Aha! There’s the rub.

If the most enjoying, precious, treasured aspect of Christmas were truly the celebrating of the fact that Jesus Christ has broken into this world by leaving heaven and being born into humanity in order to save us from our depravity and sin, then rather than bemoan the fact that Christmas Day is on Sunday we would long for Christmas Day to be on Sunday; or at least we might expect that the family Jesus came for—his family—would gather on that much anticipated day and celebrate His coming and His presence in our lives.

Perhaps what the “religious people” are saying during the holiday Christmas season is somewhat true. Competing forces are encroaching on the meaning of Christmas. The holiday is taking on other meanings, other significances. Certainly the retail marketers hope so. The multiple meanings of Christmas are compatible and uncontested as long as they don’t meet head to head. BUT when they coincide on a Sunday, it spells disaster for the Christian significance of the day.

In which case we should probably admit the truth about Christmas and why and how we celebrate it. The celebration of Jesus’ birth in a church gathering on the day of the holiday is less important than the commercial importance of giving and receiving gifts. Celebrating communion with our “blood of Christ” family is less vital than rekindling our nuclear family connections around a table loaded with food. Worshipping the one for whom the holiday is named is less essential than filling the day watching parades and football games on TV and tearing open needless gifts and gadgets.

Maybe there is some truth in familiar holiday songs that there is no place like home for the holiday and the idea that Christmas is primarily for the family.

How does a celebration of Jesus’ birth compete with these ideas? Apparently, from my quick research this week, it doesn’t fare well at all for a significant percentage of Christians—at least in the Protestant church. Interestingly, among our Catholic brothers and sisters, attending a worship service on Christmas Day is nothing new. In fact, they do this every year regardless of what day of the week the holiday falls on. For as much grief as Protestant Christians have given to Catholicism over the years, when it comes to Christmas Day I can’t help but think they’ve had it right all along.

I began this article by suggesting that it would likely offend someone. It certainly was not my intention to offend. But hopefully you have been challenged to take some time in the next few weeks to contemplate the four questions that were asked in one of the earlier paragraphs. If Christmas Day is not really about the worship of Jesus, then we Christians probably shouldn’t be so adamant about insisting that the world recognize Jesus in Christmas. Or, when it comes to Christmas, are we merely proclaiming with words something that we do not actually intend to practice with deeds? Are we proclaiming one thing while actually practicing another?

“Jesus is the reason for the season! Keep Christ in Christmas!”

Are we sure?

If the primary “reason” for the season that the world SEES us celebrating (not HEARS us celebrating, but sees us celebrating) is our nuclear family, parties, gift-exchanging, decorating, eating, etc… then the proclamations in the above statements are quite frankly not true. In fact they are hypocrisy—meaning, we shouldn’t make such statements if we know it would be an inconvenience for us to have to practice what we preach.

To make a more true statement we would have to say, “Jesus is part of the reason for the season,” and “Add Christ to all the other things we love about Christmas.”

Pause for a moment this year and reflect on all of your various Christmastime rituals. Then ask yourself, what is MOST meaningful to me about all of it? The answer to that question is your own personal true “reason for the season.”

Oasis will have two Christmas weekend celebrations. One will be on Christmas Eve from 5:00pm-6:00pm. The second will be on Christmas Day from 10:00am-11:30am.

Merry Christmas!

 

MP3: Prayer Meeting Encouragement From Chris

 

Click to listen to a brief word of encouragement about prayer.

 

This Wednesay night, November 30, from 6:30-8:00pm at Jimmy and Julie Durst's house Oasis Church will begin a weekly gathering to just pray. Come join us.

Just Pray... Mid-Week "Hour of Prayer" Begins November 30

Details in the flyer...

8th Annual Oasis Christmas Party Is December 10

Here is the invitation for this year's Oasis Christmas Party. Share it online in all your socia networks. Hard copies will be available at all Oasis gatherings and meetings between now and December 10.

REMINDER: "Fall" Back One Hour Tonight

Be sure to turn your clocks back an hour tonight and get an extra hour of sleep. If you don't you might just be very early for church in the morning... which would be just fine. :)

A Concert of Prayer Sunday, Nov. 6 at Oasis

At tomorrow morning's worship gathering we will be doing something very special. From time to time at Oasis gatherings we have conducted what we call "concerts of prayer." Throughout the worship in song we will also be guiding the gathered church in specific prayer focuses.

Concerts of prayer have always proved to be meaningful Sundays for those who have experienced them. We hope you will come to the Sunday worship gathering with your heart and mind prepared to personally meet God tomorrow.

Audio From Sunday's Teaching Is Posted

Click here to listen to the sermon from this past Sunday, October 23.

John 11 Sunday Morning -- This Sickness Is For the Glory of God

This Sunday we will dive into John chapter 11, which contains one of my favorite events in all the Bible, the raising of Lazarus after four days of being dead. Before Jesus did that miracle, however, he made a very scandalous decision and very intriguing statement. That's what we will discuss this Sunday at the Oasis gathering.

Hope to see you at the Pomeroy Senior Citizens Center at 10:00am this Sunday.

Small Groups Tonight - Church In A House

This evening there will be two small group meetings, one in Middleport and one in Athens.

Bill & Rochelle Lawless will continue the study series they have been leading. The group will start at 6:30pm and conclude at 8:00pm at their home - Ash Street in Middleport.

Chris & April Stewart will lead another "I Am Second" study at their home - Nurad Road in Athens. Their group will start at 6:00pm and concludes at 8:00pm.

Take advantage of the opportunities for growth, accountability and relationship building that attending a small group provides.