WEEKLY ARTICLE

On the Christmas Eve Service

by the Rev. Matt Kennedy

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Dear Good Shepherd,

As many of you know, I’ve decided to move to one primary Christmas Eve service this year. For the past three years there were two services: a family service at 5:00pm and the traditional midnight mass at 10:30pm .

When I arrived at Good Shepherd, the midnight mass was the only Christmas Eve service and it had been for almost a century. Most who’ve attended Good Shepherd since childhood, grew up with the midnight mass and so, as you can imagine, it holds a cherished place in their hearts.

At the same time the service in large part depends on the ministry of people who are either new to the Christian faith and/or new to Anglicanism and for whom the idea of staying up until 10:30pm on Christmas Eve is quite foreign. For these, the family service has been a great resource and the midnight mass somewhat of a burden.

In the middle are those who do not care one way or the other.

The Numbers:
When I arrived at Good Shepherd in the summer of 2002 as a newly ordained deacon, I was told that the Midnight Mass would be packed out; that cars would be lining the streets and that we may need to plan for an overflow crowd.

I was very excited at the prospect because I was going to be ordained to the priesthood on December 22nd and the Christmas Eve mass would be my first celebration of the Eucharist since my ordination.

We spent a good deal of time practicing and planning. We trained a large number of acolytes, LEM’s, choir-members, subdeacons, etc…. In all, we had approximately 20 people taking part in the service in some way. 12 Choir members and at least 10 people on the altar including Anne and I, 5 acolytes, 1 LEM, and a subdeacon.

Moreover, a large family passing through the area that year asked to have their baby baptized on Christmas Eve. We counseled them to make sure they had a church and were planning to raise the child in a Christian manner and then eagerly agreed to do the baptism.

When the evening finally arrived, it was far different than we thought it would be.

There were a total of 70 people present. But this number is deceptive.

10 of those were there for the baptism and at least 10 were out of town family members or visitors from other parishes.

There were approximately 50 parishioners present. Of those 50, 20 were in the service itself. 30 parishioners in the pews.

Looking out over the congregation that night was a very bleak experience.

I looked back over the numbers for previous years and the average was somewhere between 60 and 70 with a steady decline beginning about 10 years prior.

The service was dying.


Crisis:
The next year, 2003, made things more difficult.

Due to the fallout from the stand Anne and I took with regard to consecration of an unrepentant and non-celibate man living in a homosexual relationship to the office of bishop, Good Shepherd lost approximately 30 long time members.

Thankfully, the Lord blessed us and that same year, we gained an almost equal number of new members, many of them converts to Christianity.

Almost all of the 30 who departed for other parishes were faithful attendees of the midnight mass.

That would have left about 20 people who were familiar with the midnight mass tradition.

Of the 30 who joined that year, none of them were raised Episcopalian and none were used to the idea of staying up that late for church at midnight on Christmas Eve. Many of them had younger children.

So that year we made a change.

Instead of putting all of our eggs into the midnight mass, we decided to add a family service into the mix.

Why?
The New Testament is very clear and places great emphasis on hospitality and discipleship for new believers.

There are certain things that cannot ever change and ought never to be compromised. The Word of God is chief among these.

However, believers are called to change the way the Word of God is presented in order to help those in the world, come to a deeper faith.

“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (1st Corinthians 9:19-23)

Paul says that he became all things to all people so as to win a few to the gospel. By being all things to all people, Paul does not mean that he changed the message. Rather he means that he was willing to make dramatic changes in the way the message was presented in order to reach a culture and a people who were unfamiliar with Jewish traditions and the scriptures.

And once you reach a certain point in your Christian walk, that is your calling too. No longer to do you primarily seek to be served and fed, you seek to serve and feed. That service becomes a source of joy and growth.

The Church does not exist to serve the needs of those who already believe. It exists to equip those who believe so that God can use them to bring the lost to faith in Jesus Christ and raise them to be disciples.

“Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

For that reason, a church full of mature Christians should never ask new believers and converts to conform to their traditions if they want to know Jesus. That is getting the gospel exactly backwards.

Rather, mature Christians like Paul, must be willing to become all things to all people so that the gospel can be communicated effectively and powerfully to those who have not known it or been trained by it.

We added the family service to reach those new believers and new members with kids who wanted to know what Christmas was all about but who would never go to the midnight mass.

Problem:
But a problem arose. Many of the people who used to serve at the midnight mass had left the church.

That meant that most of the acolytes and servers at the midnight mass were necessarily taken from the new people who were also attending the earlier family service.

So, in the event, it turned out that about 15 new believers or new members who had already taken part in the family service celebration pulled double duty to serve at the midnight mass.

In trying to serve and disciple the new believers, we were actually placing great burdens on them for the sake of those mature members of the congregation who attended the midnight mass.

The two service system worked with regards to numbers. For the last three years that we have had both a family service and a midnight mass, we have had an average of about 100 total attendees approximately 50 at each service.

However, remember, the 50 at the midnight mass is comprised partly of people pulling double duty.

So the real number for the midnight mass is, on average, about 35 and dwindling.

The Principle:
Generally speaking, I have no problem holding a service for 35 people. I do it every Sunday for fewer people at the 8:00am service and I would never take that away. I want the Word of God to hit people and if people want to come to church at 8:00am , I’ll be there too.

Moreover, the Lord was very clear, “Where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there also.”

If it were just a matter of me doing a service at 10:30pm on Christmas Eve there would be no question.

However, it is not just a matter of me doing a service at 10:30pm . It turns out to be a matter of new believers and members bearing the burden to serve mature believers.

This is the exact opposite of the New Testament model described above. The mature are supposed to be sacrificing and serving to help the immature grow in their faith.

Moreover, the longer these two services go on the more disparate and separated the mature and newer congregation becomes.

One of the reasons people have such fond memories of past midnight masses is because it was one of those special times of the year when all the parishioners met together at one service.

The Vision:
In thinking and praying about Christmas Eve this year, I came to the conclusion that the best way to honor the traditions of the past and to honor the New Testament emphasis on discipleship and sacrifice for new believers would be to combine the family service and the midnight service into one worship gathering meeting at an earlier time that would meet the needs of everyone.

The vision is not to close down the midnight mass, but to merge the midnight mass tradition with the Christmas play so that believers of all ages and maturity levels would be able to participate and be nourished together on Christmas Eve.

The service will begin with a grand procession, complete with a figure 8, incense, the procession of the baby Jesus and the kids costumed for the play.

After the altar has been sensed, in place of the readings, there will be a Christmas play with approximately 20 well practiced kids taking part. The play will be like the passion play during Easter and set the stage for the sermon.

As soon as the play is over, the kids will go down stairs to take off their costumes and enjoy refreshments while the adults remain upstairs for the sermon. When the sermon is over, the kids will return and join their parents for the rest of the service.

The remainder of the celebration will be exactly like the midnight mass with all the usual ceremony and pageantry. There will be incense, bells, candles…and candle-lit closing hymn, silent night.

Including the best aspects of both the family service and the midnight mass, this new Christmas Eve service, ideally, will bring us together as a parish.

Why?:
We are in many ways a new church. The majority of the people who attend Good Shepherd regularly joined in the last 4 years.

Not only have we gained a lot of new members, we have taken on a new mission, to reach the lost for Jesus Christ.

Sometimes this mission calls for sacrifice, especially from those who are mature in their faith. I believe that this is one of those times. I understand that it is a difficult thing to ask people who have grown up doing the same thing every year. I wish that I had understood the depth of emotion attached to the midnight mass. I would have been far more sensitive in the way that I have presented this change.

At the same time, I am persuaded that this change is the best way not only to reach more people for the gospel of Jesus Christ but also to bind us together.

The hope is, that since we are a new church, this one large service will help create a deeper sense of community between the life-long members and the new members and establish a new tradition that will one day grow to be as well remembered and cherished.


What I ask:

I am asking the mature believers who have traditionally attended the midnight mass, to make a sacrifice and support this new service for the sake of those who are just beginning their journey of faith and for the sake of those children who have not known a Christmas Eve tradition.

I know it is difficult, but please come to this service and commit to building up a new tradition that you can present as a gift for those many generations of parishioners who will come after you.

Will there be a later service?:

Yes, as I said above, if it were just me, there would not be a problem.

I have offered to be there at 10:30pm to serve those who will not attend the primary Christmas Eve service.

It will not be advertised in the paper so as not to draw visitors away from the primary service.

Rather, it will be a very quiet Eucharist with a sermon much like the 8:00am Sunday service.

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