Home Christian News Lifeway Research: Pastors Say Christmas Eve Is Most-Attended Holiday Service

Lifeway Research: Pastors Say Christmas Eve Is Most-Attended Holiday Service

For the third week, Pentecostals (45%), Restorationist Movement pastors (37%) and Baptists (35%) are more likely than Presbyterian/Reformed (20%), non-denominational (17%), Methodist (13%) and Lutheran (7%) pastors to have the largest crowd of the season.

Lutherans (84%) are the most likely to say their high-attendance event this season happens on Christmas Eve.

Restorationist Movement churches are unique in that 1 in 5 (21%) say their most popular service is an event the first week of January, the most of any denominational grouping. Dobbs says there is a resistance to celebrating Christmas among the autonomous Christian and Church of Christ congregations. “That is based on the truth that we are never actually told in Scripture to celebrate the birth of Christ,” he said. “In addition, if we were to celebrate during a particular season, He almost certainly wasn’t born in December and surely not on December 25.”

Still, Dobbs noted that pastors and churchgoers have diverse opinions on how to approach the Christmas holiday. “Churches of Christ are a pretty autonomous group,” he said, “the diversity is both amazing and mystifying.”

While many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in January, the first part of the year also provides a natural time of reflection and focus for many congregations. “Given the aversion to holidays among many traditional and conservative churches, a day of renewal and beginning again becomes a day of emphasis and engagement,” Dobbs said.

At Harrisburg Baptist, attendance on the Sundays closest to Christmas and New Year’s Day are some of the lowest attended of the season, according to Armstrong, as many are out of town visiting family. Despite what may be smaller crowds, he still believes churches should gather on those days. “Churches should have worship on Christmas Day or any Sunday close to it,” he said. “It’s OK to have low attendance on those days because people travel.”

“Pastors are always eager to see people attending church services, and the Christmas season is one time of year they get to see most of their congregation as well as visitors,” McConnell said. “But the nature of those traditions varies by church with some seeing attendance culminating in a special Christmas Eve service, others a Sunday morning service and others a special musical experience.”

For more information, view the complete report.

This article originally appeared here