Church Marketing Sucks recently posted about a church near Christmas, Florida that it looking to raise $12 million dollars to build a year-round Christmas theme park for terminally ill children. Complete with reindeers and Santa, the Covenant Community Church hopes Christmas Dreams can be a good outreach tool for families. Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Orlando Sentinel:

The group's vision is for families to spend several days at the park after taking a "time machine" limo from the airport to Christmas.

The park would be built inside a large warehouse, where reindeer would fly in the snow to Santa's house. The park would feature a giant Christmas tree, 25-plus feet high.

Group president LeeAnn Stayer said that if her dream comes true, families with a terminally ill child could celebrate the holiday any time of the year.

"This all comes out of the idea that we are called to make the world a better place and that the world should be better for us being here," said Stayer, an associate minister at the Covenant church.

What do you think about the idea? Is it good outreach to sick children who may not make it to Christmas? Or is it another church getting caught up in the commercial, Santa filled holiday?

I tend to agree with Joshua Cody’s conclusion over at Church Marketing Sucks. I think the church has good intentions and is trying to show God’s love by trying to help families find some sort of joy in fairly rough times. But in the end, I’m not sure spending millions of dollars on a secular Christmas project is good stewardship.

What do you say?

Topics: Culture At Large, Theology & The Church, Faith, The Church, Christmas & Easter