Church - A Big Production?

[Doll]

Today I went to a special Christmas service at a huge church near my school.

By huge, I don't mean slightly big, I mean gigantic.

This service wasn't just a little service with singers and a simple nativity.

No. There were strobe lights and people dancing all over the stage and flashing things everywhere. It was like a rock concert.

Anna and Elsa and Olaf made an appearance, and at one point, paper fell from the ceiling to replicate snow.

There were comedy bits, and the nativity was only on the stage for like 5 minutes, and the focus was on the real animals on the stage.

For me, the whole thing seemed flat.

It didn’t seem like they were emphasizing the reason for the season, they were emphasizing how big of a production they could make it so people would come back next year or come to their church because of how much like a concert it was.

They had pictures with Anna and Elsa outside the service, and they have a Starbucks in the lobby.

SO I guess my question is, how much is too much?

This service I think was definitely too much, but maybe I’m just old-fashioned in that I’d rather not have 3 huge high def screens behind the huge stage and rock versions of classic songs and more emphasis on guitar riffs than the lyrics.

[Connie G.]

I probably would have agreed with you. I don't mind large and elaborate, but only when what's important is what's emphasized in a large and elaborate way.

[Pound Foolish]

Starbucks in the lobby!? I mean, the service sounds meh, but Starbucks in the lobby!? And you complain!?

It depends what you mean by making an appearance. If Elsa and Olaf were worked into the homily somehow, briefly, I could maybe see that. I don't knowww. As for photographs, that sounds great. I love the idea of paper snow, that sounds just gorgeous and moving. That's what Christmas is, snow and surprises and happiness. Jesus wasn't what people expected.

But strobe lights and dancing... no, so much no.

In other words, I'd love to go to a more elaborate Christmas service, just for a change, but there's a limit somewhere.

[kait]

This sort of thing always felt really wrong to me when I was growing up in the church. Perhaps it's because my family always belonged to really small churches who could never afford elaborate sound systems or production value for anything. The most we had was a couple of people on acoustic guitar and a 30-year old projector with the hymn words.

My husband, on the other hand, went to a pretty huge church and they have the FANCIEST services. There are expensive lights and fancy sound equipment and an entire band and it's just a whole freaking production every week. That just never made sense to me. Like ... why are you spending money on a show? Wouldn't that money be better spent somewhere else? Like feeding the homeless or supporting missionaries? Like, this church probably expended hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year on stuff that was just fluff. Packaging. Shininess.

I always felt it sort of missed the point.

[MnM]

WOW. That, in my opinion, is ridiculous. I think, for a big church, snow, lights, and stuff would be good, but strobe lights and dancing? Thaaat's ridiculous. And then I got to where they included Anna, Elsa, and Olaf. WHY? It's a church, not a Disney fiasco! I say that that is crazy. I get the snow, lights, etc., but I say, do that with a modern version of the nativity or something! But including things like Frozen and crazy noise and light? It just ruins the whole reason that Christians celebrate Christmas. Throw all that into a church, and you have a recipe for making everyone forget the reason for the season. But... that's just my take on it.

[Blitz]

Disney isn't even all that great... I mean nevermind.

I've never been to a large church that does that. The largest church I have been to was at I think either 3000 or 10000 people (They redirect traffic because of the size). They weren't even that flashy. I don't have a huge opinion of that, but it feels over the top...