Seems as if this whole “no church on Christmas” thing is generating a lot of discussion. Even national popular press stories are appearing, such as this on one MSNBC.

Chuck Russell, my fellow Appian Way blogger, linked one of his seminary professors, Ben Witherington, who really blasted churches for closing. Ben’s post drew a lot of comments.

Another perspective is from Perry Noble who explains why he decided not to have services on Christmas. Perry also takes the opportunity to poke fun at the controversy.

And then there’s Rich Tucker who linked a very old story about Resurrection explaining that we’ve bucked the trend by being traditional in some ways, yet we’re still successful. By the way Resurrection is having worship on Christmas Day, and so is my wife’s church, Living Water. So hey, if your church is closed, you’re always welcome here. 😉

Kevin D. Hendricks of Church Marketing Sucks points us to a new report on the results of a survey on church marketing of over 500 church leaders across the country. This short report is worth a read.

Kevin says, “It’s not Barna material by any means, but it is some interesting stuff.”

Tony Dye of Perimeter Church just completed a great series of blog posts about what a good Church Management System (CMS) should do and how it should work. This is great reading for any of you who are considering installing a CMS or changing your existing CMS.

I wonder if any of the CMS companies out there are sophisticated enough to be paying attention to this discussion in the blog world. Some of Tony’s comments seemed aimed directly at the vendors of popular systems. Are they listening?

Six months ago the closest thing to retail at Church of the Resurrection was selling CDs and videos of sermons. Today we have a bookstore (that sells our own CDs, videos, etc. as well as other typical Christian bookstore stuff), a ticketing system for selling reserved seat tickets to events in our main sanctuary, and now a coffee shop. Whew! I’ve never managed technology in a retail operation before, so it’s been a learning experience.

For the bookstore we’re using Booklog software and have been happy with it. For ticketing we’re using Wintix and Webtix from Center Stage Software. It is functional but unimpressive (ask me for more info, if you’re interested). For the coffee shop we’re in the process of installing Restaurant Manager. Should have it running by the middle of next week.

In the process of installing all of these retail systems, we have discovered a great Internet vendor called POS Micro that sells all of the required specialty hardware such as cash drawers, barcode readers, keyboards, receipt printers, etc. They have stuff in stock, can ship overnight, can take orders until 8:00 pm Eastern time, and are inexpensive. Highly recommended.