A Different Kind of Christmas

By Rev. Mia M. McClain

This December, with my guidance, the Riverside Baptist Church Worship Team, Trustees and Deacons decided not to host inperson worship on Christmas Day. This is for several reasons:

The pandemic has taught us many things, primarily that God’s spirit dwells beyond the walls of our sanctuaries. While many of us professed to believe this before March 2020, the extended quarantine really made us look at how we walk this journey of faith. It also opened us up to many possibilities that included, but were not limited to, gathering on Zoom, pre-recording worship and having coffee hour virtually, and doing in-home Advent and Lenten rituals. This year, because Christmas falls on a Sunday and my very small but mighty ministry team will have a busy January ahead of them (my Installation Weekend is January 7-8, 2023), I decided to not put strain on those few but mighty people to make worship happen. They have gone above and beyond since my arrival. My gift to them this Christmas is a Sunday off so that we can show up strong in January with renewed energy.

Christmas morning worship can be more of a burden than a blessing. We have leaders in our church who have small children who will be opening gifts that morning. We also have many folks traveling to be with family. To carry out an elaborate service would involve finding coverage for musicians who will be away, volunteer audio and visual folks, and security. Would that be worth it for 15 or 20 people? Could we do something more streamlined instead? Smaller congregations must pay special attention to what showing up costs us, literally and figuratively. While we are not a church that is struggling financially, it costs to put on worship, and if the people are open to an alternative, we must allow ourselves to explore it.

This year, we will be pre-recording a worship service that will air at 10 a.m. on Christmas morning on our YouTube channel. I will also be hosting an inperson Christmas Morning Mingle with pastries and coffee for those who want to gather, have a time of prayer, hear a short homiletical reflection, and sing carols together. I look forward to that intimate gathering in addition to our virtual offering. God is doing a new thing in the world and in our faith; it would behoove us to listen to the needs of our individual congregations.

Rev. Mia M. McClain is the Pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Washington, DC.