Easter might be the day that the most churchgoers show up at the same time, but Christmas Eve is probably the most likely day for an unchurched person to walk through a church’s doors, according to Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources.
‘Incredible opportunity’
“It is an incredible opportunity for most congregations,” he wrote on thomrainer.com.
There are five key reasons for that phenomenon, according to Rainer:
1. Christmas brings extended family members together from different places, and often both churched and unchurched people are among them. Those who don’t attend church are often invited to a Christmas Eve service by their Christian family members, Rainer wrote.
2. Most unchurched people “have some sentimental attachment to Christmas,” he wrote. “They may not be overtly religious, but they have some warm memories of Christmas Eve and the entire Christmas season.”
3. Most people who don’t go to church know and like Christmas songs, according to Rainer, and they feel confident they can go to a Christmas Eve service and hear those songs.
Looking for hope
4. The unchurched “are looking for hope in the Christmas season,” Rainer wrote. “Many of them come on Christmas Eve expecting to hear a message of hope or to sing the songs of the hope-filled message of Christ’s birth.”
5. Christmas is one of the few moments that most people have fond feelings about tradition, he wrote. A Christmas Eve service is a place they expect to be a part of those traditions, “to sense, hear and embrace” them. (TAB)
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