COMMENTARY: Welcoming the Chreasters

c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Church attendance will double, even triple this week, as so-called “Christmas-and-Easter” Christians find their way to Holy Week services. What do we make of these twice-yearly participants, whom some have dubbed “Chreaster” Christians? Are they “members” or “tourists”? Is their usual absence an indictment of the congregation’s offerings, or […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Church attendance will double, even triple this week, as so-called “Christmas-and-Easter” Christians find their way to Holy Week services.

What do we make of these twice-yearly participants, whom some have dubbed “Chreaster” Christians? Are they “members” or “tourists”? Is their usual absence an indictment of the congregation’s offerings, or a sign of hypocrisy, a consumer mentality that savors the “show” but evades its deeper meaning?


The usual response of church leaders is, “Oh well, at least they get it right twice a year.” Maybe a good show will change their behavior.

I would like to offer three perspectives on this Chreaster phenomenon:

First, being on the fringe of church life is just as worthy as being at the center.

Second, congregational leaders need to learn from irregular attenders.

Third, irregular attenders need to examine their own reluctance to dive deeper.

Core-group members who run churches assume that being in the center is better than being on the fringe. That attitude, in turn, assumes that faith leads necessarily to church participation. In fact, faith leads in many directions. Some have nothing to do with hearing a Sunday sermon, attending Sunday School or making a financial pledge.

Many faithful people want nothing to do with church life and its endless battles over sex, privilege, buildings and prickly traditions. In fact, the Holy Week story suggests that it is the nature of religious establishments to stifle the Messiah, not to honor him.

The locus of faith isn’t necessarily a pew or church parlor. It’s the home, where people try to make responsible decisions about parenting, spending and sharing. It’s the workplace, where believers pursue honesty, justice, probity, and loving (not exploiting) their neighbors. It’s the marketplace, where decisions about war or peace, oppression or justice, cruelty or mercy get worked out.

If we listened, we might learn that many Chreaster Christians take those faith venues seriously. They do their best to “walk in love.” They just don’t see a connection between responsible Christian living and coming to church on Sunday, especially if what they find on a regular Sunday is uninspiring and self-serving.

At the same time, I think twice-yearly Christians should ask why it’s twice, not monthly or weekly. If it’s dull offerings at the corner church, they can shop around. If they see hypocrisy in their pulpit, they should seek the genuine elsewhere. Accusations of dullness and hypocrisy, I think, are just a cover for consumer religion.


Many modernists have come to see faith as one more consumable, alongside cars, schools and fast-food. This shouldn’t be surprising in a culture where everything else is a commodity.

Problem is, being a consumer means being in control, but being a Christian means yielding control, dying to self, living for the other. This isn’t some fine point of doctrine. This is the very core of the Christian gospel. Whether the putative believer comes twice a year or 50 times, the message is always: “Thy kingdom come,” not mine. “Thy will be done,” not mine.

Self-denial is profoundly counter-intuitive, especially in a consumer culture. I don’t know any way to learn it except in the melting pot of a healthy faith community. Rather than blame their nominal parish for not doing more to earn their business, the irregular attender should ask themselves this: What life am I squandering by not venturing outside my sphere of comfort and control?

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE/RB END EHRICH650 words

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