National Holidays Observed in Church?
I know it's been a few days since Sunday, but Chris Roberts of Hoosier Pastor asked a good question yesterday that I would like to echo today. He asked if our churches did anything special for Memorial Day. I would like to take this question a little further and ask how you and your church handles national holidays such as Memorial Day, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Fourth of July, etc. If you are a preacher, do you preach a topical sermon on them? Do you think that we should remember the holiday in some way other than preaching on it? Does it have a place in worship at all?
What are your thoughts?
Hat tip
posted by Greg Hazelrig @ 8:22 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
i was head deep in boxes.. so no church participation for me. although i did hear a small parade going down the street a few blocks away.
i'm a big promotor of the Christian calendar, ala lectionary teachings. i think it helps to set us apart from secular-ness.
that said, i don't get bent out of shape if people alter or morph a sunday or church happening to support a national holiday. not my biggest battle i suppose
i get annoyed in summer because it seems like every other sunday is a holiday. if i'm trying to preach a sermon series, i don't want to feel the pressure to preach on the holiday. personally, unless God is leading for the holiday to be incorporated into the service, i would say, mention it, then just worship God as usual.
I was visitng my home church over the weekend. The tech team put together a slide presentation, and it was used at the end of worship, after even the benediction. Win-win situation as far as I am concerned-- the holiday was marked, but it didn't interfe with the worship or the Word.
Generally no, particularly not in worship. We maybe have a mother's day breakfast, or father's day picnic, which is ok, but in worship, we follow the church calendar only. Maybe possible exception is new year's day, which we might use for covenant renewal purposes. I'm particularly uncomfortable with the combining of religious calendar and patriotic holidays. I think that's a dominantly, perhaps not exclusively, American phenomenon.
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