Congregations need to be educated about traditional Christian worship days, so that they can better understand the history of those days and how they have been used by Christians. As our members understand the truth about Christian festivals, they will be better able to respect other Christians, and they will become more comfortable with days we formerly condemned, whether or not they choose to celebrate on them.

We also want pastors to provide worship services on, or in connection with, traditional Christian festivals for all who choose to celebrate them. Still, as we have explained many times, pastors are not to abandon those who wish to meet on the Israelite festivals. That is because we believe 1) the Bible teaches us that days do not define the Christian, and that 2) we can better serve people's spiritual needs in the context of what they are used to and comfortable with when it comes to culturally conditioned matters that are not sinful.

We have no evidence that Paul, for example, ever demanded that the Jewish Christians, whose history and habits were to celebrate the Israelite festivals, stop doing so. We know only that he said that they put no such demands on the gentiles, and that they accept the gentiles as full members of the household of God without the festivals and other customs.

We believe it is wrong to demand, in the name of religion, that people put away things that are not sin. We have put away the legalism and judgmentalism associated with the Israelite festivals, but there is no need for the church to demand that all its members completely abandon festivals that have become a part of their personal history.

People who insist on making the festivals a matter of legal requirement to belong to the body of Christ should be dealt with the way Paul instructed, as division-makers. But those of us whose faith is in Christ and who celebrate the Israelite festivals, and who respect the views of fellow believers who don't celebrate them, are every bit as Christian as those of us who celebrate Easter and Christmas.

Question: Some members are using the policy of providing for the worship needs of all the members as a shield for their practice of trying to declare that the Hebrew festivals are required for Christians. Is this what was intended?

Answer: Certainly not. Church doctrine is that neither Saturday keeping nor holy day keeping are required for salvation. If members are expounding to others that Saturday or holy days are required, or even that Sunday is required, then church policy is that those members should be counseled by their pastor to desist from such divisive activities, and if they persist, that they should be removed from fellowship.

It is one thing to prefer a day and to meet on that day and to respect one another's preferences (the principle in Romans 14); it is quite another thing to insist that a particular day is required for salvation. To meet on Saturday or Sunday, or to prefer Saturday or Sunday, is fine. But to teach others that Saturday or Sunday are required is contrary to church doctrine.

We need to understand and bear with one another's differences in these choices of days, but we are not to bear with false doctrine that is contrary to the gospel. The church has changed its former error regarding a day being the sign of who is a true Christian, and it cannot permit that error to be perpetuated. Church policy in this matter is based on Jesus' command that we love one another. We can meet on either Sunday or Saturday or both, but we cannot hold up any teaching that a day defines the true Christian or is required for salvation.

Question: Isn't the church policy about allowing both sets of worship days a non-decision?

Answer: We do not consider church policy on worship days a non-decision. We consider it a reflection of the sound theological principle that the substance of faith is more important than the forms in which that faith is expressed.

Question: Why don't we just get off the fence and come down with authority on either one set of festivals or the other? Otherwise, how can we have unity?

Answer: We realize that there could be more apparent unity in the church if it commanded everybody to do the same things. However, we do not think that is what God wants his people to do. We believe he wants us to learn how to get along with each other in spite of our differences.

The church does have rules about sin, of course, but when it comes to things that are not sinful, we have to give each other a little slack. So many of our members are used to meeting on the Israelite festivals that it would be wrong of us to force them to stop. It was the attitude we had about the festivals that was wrong, not the festivals themselves.

We taught that Christians who didn't keep the Hebrew festivals were sinning and were not even true Christians at all. That was wrong, and we have repented of that attitude and that teaching. But now, with that attitude and teaching gone, what day members meet on is not a matter of sin, but a matter of choice.

We allow the Israelite days because that is what a great many of our members have done all their lives, and there is no biblical reason to make them stop — Romans 14 teaches us that principle. But we also provide for our members who want to celebrate Christmas and Easter. We provide for both, because one is part of our history, and the other is part of Christian history in general. The Bible tells us to love one another and to not condemn each other over days we devote to God. That is what we are teaching our members. We pray that in time all of our members will be able to respect each other's decisions in these matters.

Question: Shouldn't we uphold the holy days to other Christians as a special blessing that allows us to better understand Christ?

Answer: Pastors should certainly pour appropriate Christian content into whatever days the congregation chooses to meet on. However, as we have explained before, even if we did have something to offer regarding the holy days (that messianic Jews do not), it cannot, indeed must not, come at the expense of manipulating people into keeping these days. The Bible does not uphold the festivals as having any sort of extra or special value to Christians.

Question: I believe in the Romans 14 approach to our festivals and agree wholeheartedly with our church policy of ministering to all of our members, but what about resources? I can't be everywhere at once. How can I hold twice as many services when I can barely keep up with the ones I have now?

Answer: This is an important question. In many cases, the minority group in a congregation, whether Saturday or Sunday, will have to understand the pastor's limitations and realize that he will not be there every week. The group, with the pastor's guidance, will have to work out an arrangement for their worship service that uses lay leaders, tapes, alternate formats, etc. so they can meet successfully when the pastor cannot be present. Yet, the pastor will still provide the mentorship and supervision to help them be successful and accountable. Primarily, he will spend time with the main leader or two, who will have to carry the ball. These leaders should still be involved in the leadership meetings/training the pastor has for the leaders in the majority church.

The pastor should also arrange his schedule so that he meets with every group from time to time. The larger congregations should naturally get more of his time, proportionately, than the smaller ones. Still, the smaller groups should not be neglected, and the pastor should arrange to meet with them as his time warrants.

For example, a pastor may have four church groups in a wide area for which he is responsible. One group may have 80 people and meet on Sunday. One group may have 60 and meet on Saturday. The other two groups may have 15 each, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. The pastor might arrange his schedule so that he alternates weekly between the two larger groups for eight weeks, then alternates between the two smaller groups for two weeks. In this way, each of the two larger groups have the pastor present four times in ten weeks, and the two smaller groups have the pastor present once in ten weeks.

Of course, if the congregations are reasonably close together, the pastor might realistically be able to meet with more than one in a given weekend, depending on what he does with them in addition to the regular worship service. Each congregational situation varies, and the pastor can find what works best for him and the congregations.

The pastor might then also hold a monthly leaders' meeting in which the leaders of all four churches would meet for feedback, discussion, prayer and training to ensure unity and coordination between all the groups. Occasional combined services or socials might also be planned a couple of times a year, perhaps on a day such as Pentecost, or on a mutually agreed upon Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon. The key is this: We care about all our members and we shepherd them all. We can't realistically meet everybody's expectations all the time, but we can genuinely shepherd them.

Question: It seems that some people expect the impossible. They want the pastor to be there for them every Saturday or Sunday just as though they are his only congregation. Can we really make everybody happy? If we try to do so, we wind up hurting everyone.

Answer: This is true. With loving explanation to the congregation of how the pastor will use his time in leading all the members he is responsible for, those whose hearts are tuned in to kingdom thinking will understand that compromise in the face of diversity means everybody must sacrifice somewhat in order to achieve the goal we all want. One key is gentle and loving education and communication to increase understanding of the factors and ramifications, coupled with the clear message of caring about everybody, even though not everyone's desires can be realistically met.

Question: The large majority of one of my congregations wants to meet on Sunday. When I discuss a change to Sunday with them, I plan to explain to anyone who wants to continue to meet on Saturday that they may do so — but that we will need to work together to come up with a volunteer leader or bi-vocational pastor, worship leaders, speakers, etc. They will need to become a new, "self-sufficient" church, and I will do all I realistically can to encourage and mentor their leaders. Is this a sound approach?

Answer: This is exactly how such a change should be handled, since in this case, the Saturday group will be a small minority. They need to know you are "on their side" in the sense of loving them and being their leader, that you are all for their success and blessing. But they also need to understand that they must not have unreasonable expectations. A small group cannot have the same configuration as a large group, nor should it. The same would be true whether the small minority meets on Saturday or Sunday.

Question: How can I come up with the necessary leadership? A few of these people do not believe any of our new teachings. They will probably go to splinter groups. I don't know what the few others will do. I hope they will come along with us.

Answer: Do what you can do, not what you can't. Those who wish to go to splinter groups have that option. We can only lead the horse to water, so to speak, but we can't make it drink. The key is to help them understand that they are not "being abandoned," but rather, they are being cared for in meaningful ways appropriate to the size of the group, very much like we have done for small "outlying Bible studies" in the past.

Even if there is no one who can serve as a bivocational pastor (you might consider a leader from among the Sunday group who would be willing to pastor a Saturday group), you might still find a volunteer leader who could receive and play tapes, and open and close the service, and stay in communication with you.

Question: Do I really want to encourage the formation of a separate Saturday church? We have people who prefer Saturday but would probably be fine with attending on Sunday. If they are given an option, however, they may continue to go on Saturday. I feel their progress will then be impaired.

Answer: You may be right. However, their progress might be impaired even more by not having that option at this point in their Christian journey. We want them to have the option, and we want to do what we realistically can to shepherd them, even when they are a small minority. We were a Sabbatarian church for some 60 years, and most people cannot change habits overnight, even when they intellectually understand that their habits were originally ill-founded. Let us not forget that there are many among us who vigorously opposed our doctrinal changes at first, but over time, with patience and love from the church, came to the emotional point where they could study them in the Bible and eventually understood and accepted them. But we must also consider that it has been a good number of years that we have been teaching against Sabbatarianism.

Question: How far should I go? What if there are only one or two who want to worship on Saturday?

Answer: If there are only one or two in a congregation who want to meet on Saturday, and still want to be members of the Worldwide Church of God (and are not among those who cause division), simply meet their needs appropriately and realistically. Be sure they are provided with sermon tapes, announcement bulletins, and an occasional phone call or visit, just as you would a shut-in.

Copyright 1999 Worldwide Church of God

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