Thursday, December 24, 2015

For Christmas vacation, we are spending time with the in-laws. We decided this year to find a protestant church to attend instead of going with the in-laws to their Christmas Eve Catholic Mass. I was hoping that going to a protestant church service would be better for the kids, as I was worried they might get confused with what occurs at Catholic Mass.  I searched the web for local services, trying to gain a brief glimpse into a church that would teach some sound doctrine. I have done this a lot over the years, and in all honesty, you learn nothing about a church from their webpage.


We ended up going to Venture Church. Just a year ago this church was known as First Baptist Church of Hattiesburg, and they recently changed their name because they added extra campuses. I grew up going to a Baptist church, so I figured this was fairly safe.  We did drive by and go inside a few days prior, and that gave me the impression that this had become a seeker friendly church. For those that don't know what a seeker friendly church is, I suggest here, here, and here.  Our choices were slim, so this is where we attended Christmas Eve service.


I was so disappointed by the end, that I wanted to cry. My heart truly hurt for what was presented.


Before we went in, we all received a little cup of grape juice that also had a wafer in its seal. Evidently, per the pastor, passing the large tray of juice and bread was always awkward when he grew up.


It was a packed service, and we started by the typical seeker friendly 'concert style' music: it was dark, overly loud, and was more about who was on stage than anything else. We sang three songs (O Holy Night, Silent Night, and I don't recall the third).  The pastor then got up, and started hurrying through his message. You could tell time was a factor for him, not the content of his message.


The message boiled down to why we were taking communion of the New Covenant. The pastor turned to Mark 14:22-25, and gave us a very brief history of the Jewish Passover meal before reading the passage. He didn't go into much detail, just telling us what the Apostles would have expected to occur with a Passover meal (he missed a few items) and then briefly explained what Christ changed and 'meant' by giving us only the bread and wine.


The bread, the pastor explained, was symbolic of Christ's body, and the wine was for Christ's shed blood. There was no explanation of why we needed Christ's "body" or why we needed Christ's "blood", just that it was a substitute for us. Why we needed a substitute and what we needed a substitute for was also not mentioned. We were to take the bread and wine to remember what Christ did.


There was no explanation of what Christ did, and why He did it. There was no mention of sin, of punishment, of grace, or of faith. I don't even recall hearing the word Savior.


In the end, after we took the wafer and drank the juice, he thanked everyone for "participating in the New Covenant".  I sat there in stunned silence. We sang one more song before being dismissed.


As everyone quickly left, we slowly started walking towards the exits. I saw that leaving was going to take awhile, so decided to take the opportunity to teach my kids the true meaning of communion. I sat down, had them gather around me, and went through the beautiful and precious sacrifice Christ made for us. In the end, I asked them how they truly 'participated' in the New Covenant, and they promptly said 'by faith in Jesus'. Amen!

Billy W.

Christmas Eve Service

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