You can't please everybody...

I spoke a couple of weeks ago on how Jesus handled critics.  I made the point that if you do anything noteworthy, not everyone will agree.

His first sermon in his home synagogue started out pretty well:

Luke 4:22 (NIV)  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.  "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.

That didn't last...

Within six verses "ALL" the people in the synagogue got so mad at him they tried to throw him off a cliff...I guess he didn't make anyone happy that day!

We've picked up a few critics along the way.  You can read an interesting one here.

Along the same lines...CNN ran a story on mega-churches that aren't having services on Christmas day.  You can read it here.  Our local news just interviewed me about it...(we are not having church on Christmas Day...we are, however, having 16 services on Christmas Eve).

I was going to write my response to critics about the Christmas issue, but my friend, Perry Noble, from New Spring Church in Anderson, SC does a great rant about it...it is a fun read.  Click here.

Comments

[Darrell Jordan]

I attend one of the mega churches who are not going to have service Christmas Sunday and our Sr. Pastor is going to address it more this weekend. The sad thing is he was planning on talking this weekend on what he wants us to do over Christmas so now it's going to look like he did this in response to the stories.
dj

[Don Fort]

If you tried to please everybody, what a lukewarm "happy holidays" air we'd have.

Considering the source, one blogster, when challenged in comments, said that he had listened to "most" of the series without quantifying that "most". Maybe it is the learned parsing of a past President's remarks, maybe it is what wasn't said in broad inflammatory strokes.

Had he listened to most of the parts of all of the series he didn't like or had he only listened to most of those series?

I can't answer that. I can recall Grouch Marx sitting in on one newspaper's editorial board's meeting in the early 1940's, when one of the theater reviewers was proposed as a war correspondant, Groucho chimed in, "Suppose he doesn't like the war?"

Minds, like parachutes, work best when they are open. Some jumps are on a static line, which opens a chute shortly after jumping, some are deployed after a freefall including High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) and High Altitude No Opening (hope for a halo, not a pitchfork).

Maybe the afforementioned blogger isn't ready to hear the messages that he's listened to. I'll add to Geoff's pig and note that, unless you're called to teach a pig to sing, you can't. You probably have a better chance of having a donkey talk to you.

[Tim Creedon]

The inability, of the body, to focus on the real mission had a lot to do with me running as fast as I could from the Church twenty years ago. Whenever I think maybe I should come back all I have to do is listen to two pasters on the radio chopping each other up, to change my mind.

I'm certainly not an expert on the Christian life but a Paster in Lakewood tried to teach me about living a Christ like life 24-7-52.

The Building and sunday morning meeting are simply a matter of making it less complicated for people to get together and minister to each other as they whorship their God. What is more appropriate that celabrating the birth of Christ with your family where ever you choose to do it?

I wonder why some men of God find it so important to spend their time monitoring everyone else rather than ministering to those that need it. Whatever the real reasons, it's still disheartoning to me.

tc

[Diane Green]

Hey Greg, the last time we held Christmas services on a Sunday was in Gillespie, Illinois...guess how many people showed up? Maybe 10? And we gave up our Christmas trip to be with family because we didn't want to desert the church on Christmas Day, and ended up eating Christmas dinner at a greasy diner in Gillespie (you know how nasty that must have been.) Oh well...this year, we are new as pastors of our church, so we didn't want to rock too many boats by not having church on Christmas Day. Once again, our trip to be with family at Christmas will have to wait until church is over...then an 8 hour drive to Michigan on Christmas Day! Next time this happens, we'll probably be retired, laying in the Florida sun, so WHO CARES! In any case, we are proud to say you used to be our pastor. Have a great Christmas, wherever you spend it!

[Don Fort]

After further review, is this the same secular media that will hype "The Da Vinci Code" after intimating anti-semitism and the threat to the Hollywood system of Mel Gibson's "The Passion"?

The ruling on the field stands... consider the source, they probably don't like the Broncos either.