The Church is Decorated for Christmas!

I live in a small, middle Tennessee town in a county of about 65,000 people. There are over 50 "churches of Christ" in our small county, it being the dominant faith here. These congregations span the gamut from ultra conservative to ultra liberal in their thinking.

One of the congregations that is in the center of downtown, one of the oldest, is in my way of thinking somewhat liberal and yet they have a number of older members who have resisted the full blown liberalism that so many around here practice and teach. (My 87 year old neighbor is a member there.) I have had a number of discussion about the liberalism creeping into the Lord's church with my neighbor and she has expressed concern for the congregation of which I am speaking.

Yesterday, as I passed through town, I was a little taken back by what I saw--Christmas wreaths decked out with holly and bright red velvet bows streaming down on each of the eight doors leading into the church auditorium. The church is decorated for Christmas!

Don't misunderstand me...I love to decorate for Christmas--my home is decked out with poinsettias, Christmas lights inside and out and stockings hanging from the mantel. But I have a difficult time seeing how it is the place of the Lord's church to participate in the secular things of the world. Neither do I see how the Lord's church should involve itself in things we have no authority for such as celebrating a special holiday for the birth of Christ when the Bible is silent about such celebrations.

It was quite noteworthy that the wreaths and bows on the doors of the church of Christ looked just like the ones on the Methodist's and Presbyterian's buildings just down the block. I was reminded of the verses in 1Samuel 8:6-20 where the people of God said give us a king that we might be like the nations around us. Even in this town dominated by believers, the church is being influenced by the denominations around it.

I love this time of year and the spirit that pervades it, but I fear when the Lord's church leaves its God given purpose and role and involves itself in things secular or unauthorized. I will go worship our Lord and King on Christmas Eve, but not because we will be having a special Christmas service or pageant, but because it will be on a Sunday this year and I always go to worship on Sundays...that is what the Lord has commanded. And I will continue to worship Him throughout the year, not just during the month of December.

What do you think??

Dana Burk