Answers to Common Objections
1. Seriously, isn’t this a Catholic thing?
By the second century, Easter was celebrated as a 50-day season. The full Christian Year was developed by the fourth century. As our Worship and Arts Pastor, Mike Cosper, wrote in Rhythms Of Grace: How The Church’s Worship Tells The Story Of The Gospel:
“To many Protestants, the church calendar may seem like an arbitrary regulation, a testimony to authority and micromanagement from Rome, but for its authors, it was designed pastorally. The church calendar was designed to walk believers through the story of the gospel every year, from the incarnation to the ascension. If we allow historic prejudice to color our perspective too heavily, we lose sight of the brilliant, pastoral creativity that shaped some of the church’s inventions.”
Since the Reformation, many church leaders have found the Christian Year to be helpful for their congregations—Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and other denominations and movements.
And ironically, the “civil” calendar of 365.2425 days from January to December can be considered a “Catholic” calendar just as much as the Christian Year. This civil calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, is officially called the Gregorian Calendar.
2. Aren’t seasons like Advent and Lent too dark, requiring us to plan worship services that treat the cross and resurrection as if these events haven’t already happened, and Christ isn’t already victorious?
We would never live and worship as if Christ hasn’t come, or ask people to refrain from basking in this good, good news! Remember that Christians began worshiping together on Sunday because it is “the Lord’s day”—the day Christ rose from the grave. Every Sunday, regardless of the season, is a “little Easter.”
In fact, the Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter are not counted as part of the “40 days of Lent.” We do craft our services with a “Lenten focus” because corporate worship on Sundays should, in part, prepare people for worship Monday through Saturday. But our Sundays always include Communion, and always include celebrations of assurance that Christ has died for our sins and is risen from the grave, seated at the right hand of the Father.
