10 Reasons to Celebrate the Church Calendar

I wanted to make these reasons succinct enough to prepare you for the weeks ahead. I hope they are helpful rationales for following the Calendar and sharing with friends.

The Jesus Calendar

Advent is only a few days from us. The pro-calendar apologists have started to fight for their cause. The anti-calendar intoleristas are in full Puritan gear, armed to fight for their white walls and the right to preach on Leviticus on Christmas morning. I can sympathize with the Puritan approach. They want a regulative principle of worship, but the regulative ways do not go far enough. They need to include the structures of the Old Testament system and the redemptive patterns of all of history. In sum, my case for the Church calendar is Jesus. He is the fulfillment of the scarlet thread and the embodied liturgy of his people. If we follow the steps of our Lord, we must follow the life of our Lord.

This is why I side with the pro-calendar party. We can make America great again by incorporating a heavy dose of Jesus throughout the year. My claim is that many evangelical churches that share a slight or supreme Catholic-phobia towards the Church Calendar are already drinking much of the calendar. Most Baptist churches here in the South—who have always celebrated Christmas and Easter–-are now adopting the Advent wreath by prominently displaying it on Sunday morning. I propose encouraging these churches to take a few more steps.

I should say at the outset that I have no intention of taking this to the “next level.” I am a happy ecumenical Protestant who has zero interest in jumping onto the Vatican bandwagon. I say this to stress that I am not advocating the officialization of the celebration of saints and their pets into the life of the Church. I think the Church does best and remains most faithful to the Holy Scriptures when she sticks to Jesus and his life and its effects on the world. Keep it simple, kids!