What happens when Christmas falls on a Sunday?
People keep asking me about Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services.
And, turns out, the vast majority of churches have services on both!
Here’s the data from LifeWay Research:
Christmas Eve
African-American pastors are less likely to say their church will hold services on Christmas Eve (50 percent). By contrast, 71 percent of all pastors say their church will hold Christmas Eve services.
Pastors of larger churches—those with 250 or more attenders—are more likely to say their church will have Christmas Eve services than pastors of small churches (64 percent) with fewer than 50 attenders.
Christmas Eve services are more popular with pastors in the Northeast (86 percent) than with pastors in the Midwest (77 percent), West (71 percent) or South (63 percent).
Lutheran (93 percent), Methodist (90 percent) and Presbyterian/Reformed (85 percent) churches are more likely to have a Christmas Eve service, according to their pastors. Baptist (65 percent), Holiness (62 percent), Pentecostal (54 percent) and Church of Christ (46 percent) congregations are less likely.
Christmas Day
LifeWay Research surveyed 1,000 Protestant senior pastors. Eighty-nine percent say their church will hold services on Christmas Day.
Leaders of Lutheran (94 percent), Church of Christ (93 percent), Baptist (91 percent), Presbyterian/Reformed (91 percent) and Holiness (92 percent) churches are most likely to say their church will hold Christmas Day services. Pentecostals (79 percent) are less likely.
Small churches and large churches are slightly less likely to be open for Christmas.
Eighty-four percent of pastors whose churches have fewer than 50 attenders say their church will hold services on Christmas. So do 85 percent of pastors with more than 250 …
