5. The Hallmark Calendar

The Hallmark Calendar

If worship services do not adhere to a liturgical calender, what about the Hallmark Calendar?

You know, the one where worship services are regularly patterned after Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Day, July 4, Labor Day,  and whatever event and holidays the Hallmark Gift Company, history, and others can make a part of our calendar?*

Perhaps you have been in churches whose worship is focused not on events in the life of Jesus but on  events that are part of the "Hallmark Calendar."  Congregations that may never think of adhering to a liturgical calender often do follow the Hallmark Calendar!

My answer and practice is short and simple: those events may be referred to without making them the overriding theme of worship. Again, it's best to keep the focus where it needs to be: simple, spiritual, Scripture, Christ-centered worship that exalts God and which transcends customs that are merely local and nationalistic.

We can give thanks on Mother's Day for the godly ladies of our congregation.  We can give thanks for Fathers on Father's Day and pray that God will make them into the leaders of their homes that He calls them to be. We can thank God for our country on July 4, sing a patriotic song, and pray for His mercy to our land.  But we should not let those things determine the focus and pattern of our worship services.


* To be fair to Hallmark Cards, an article on Wikipedia under the topic "Hallmark Holiday" states that the company itself refutes having any role in the creation of the holidays that bear the name "Hallmark Holiday."