The phenomenon of supposedly Christian churches choosing not to gather for worship on Sunday morning simply because a holiday happens to fall on that day reeks of idolatry. I mean, what better way to celebrate the birth of the living God than to cancel worship service and hang out with pagans all day?

That’s apparently the motivation for many churches this Christmas. I don’t want to engage in a discussion about the origins of Christmas and whether or not Christians who celebrate it are worshiping pagan deities. For those who want to explore that idea further, I recommend watching this video and being mindful of Colossians 2:16.

That being said, that doesn’t mean that certain practices themselves can’t be judged—and one of those practices that should rightly be judged to be ungodly is churches canceling worship service on the Lord’s Day simply because that day happens to be Christmas. Why? What is the point? We Christians want to argue that Christmas is about Christ yet when Christmas falls on the Lord’s day, should we neglect to worship Him corporately with our spiritual family?

One author at The Gospel Coalition explained why he planned to cancel worship on Christmas day. Here’s his reasoning:

Like many church plants, we meet in a shared space. We can’t just roll up on Sunday, flip a few switches, and be ready for a church service. We need to put out chairs, set up sound equipment, and place signs outside. While we have less work to do than many church plants, there’s still a considerable amount of setup required. Many churches in our context meet in public spaces where meeting on Christmas Day is just not an option.

There is absolutely no reason why a little bit of setup work should prevent a church from holding a worship service on Christmas. Setting up chairs, sound equipment, and signs is a common task for churches that meet in shared spaces, and it is not a valid reason to cancel a worship service on Christmas. In fact, the effort required to set up for a worship service could actually be seen as a way of demonstrating the importance of the occasion and the dedication of the church community.

The actions here certainly speak volumes about the priorities of this church.

“The transient nature of our city also means many of our most committed members are traveling around the country or world for Christmas and are unable to set up chairs and run sound,” the author continued. “It’s not simply that people wouldn’t come to a Christmas Day service because they’re staying home for their family traditions. If our people were in town, they’d almost certainly come to any service we put together! The problem is around 80 percent of our church travels for Christmas.”

Okay, if that’s actually the case, and only a handful of people would show up, then why do you need sound equipment? Can’t you just gather together, open the Bible, and preach the word of God? But that really isn’t the reason why. The real reason is laziness and priorities—a lack of reverence to render unto God what is due to Him.

He continued:

The secular nature of the city also means our neighbors are uninterested in visiting our church on Christmas morning. Our area is so far post-Christian that it’s exceedingly unlikely a sudden influx of non-Christians will wake up to visit our church on Christmas Day.

Really? Since when did local churches depend on an influx of non-Christians waking up and walking into their worship services on Sunday morning in order to worship rightly in Spirit and in Truth? The purpose of a worship service is to provide a space for believers to come together and worship the risen Lord regardless of whether non-believers are interested in attending.

“Let him who has never missed a church service throw the first stone!” he said, suggesting that it is acceptable to cancel church services and skip church simply because others have done so. He then cites Romans 14:5–7 suggesting that people can esteem the Lord’s Day as whatever they want and that we are not to judge them for it. Of course, this is absurd and would suggest that we never have to attend church so long as we don’t esteem the Lord’s Day an important day.

No, it isn’t sinful to miss a church service occasionally so long as you are not breaking the writer of Hebrews’ command not to neglect the regular assembly. Providential hindrance happens and sometimes travel happens. But for an entire church to shut down services on Sunday so that people can worship themselves rather than God is, well, ungodly to say the least.