I have been spending a lot of time looking at church websites. We have visited all of the churches of Christ in Colorado Springs and I was interested if there are any nondenominational churches we could visit that still would fit into our belief system. The most important being that they practice baptism. Yesterday I came across this statement on one churches website ""We value punctuality at Christ Church, contributing to a spirit of excellence. As such, all services and events start on time." I thought it was interesting that this would be on their homepage. I heard a speaker at a workshop years ago say that a church will only be as good as the bar that is set. This church obviously lets people know one bar anyway. Is it the most important one? Probably not, but nevertheless at least they recognize being purposeful as a sign of excellence.
I posted this on my FB page and here are some of the comments people made?
"That church is, obviously, NOT in New Mexico!"
"Have they ever been to church? No one is on time!"
"LOL, I'm sure they have the same number of late folks as everyone else"
"um...makes you wonder, do they tell everyone that events start an hour earlier than they actually do to ensure punctuality?"
Isn't it interesting that we just accept the standard of lateness when it comes to church? How many people have that attitude towards work or school? How many people show up late for a wedding? What about a sporting event or concert? If we were told we were going to have the opportunity to meet an important dignitary would we be late? And yet, week after week people think nothing of being late for worship. Would you say that is putting our best foot forward for the Lord?
I know as a Bible class teacher this used to be so frustrating. Starting your lesson and then having to catch several children up as they came in late so that they would understand what was going on. We would start out each year explaining that importance of punctuality to parents and it would start out better but get worse and worse as the year progressed. You really couldn't fault the children, they didn't have a driver's license.
In looking for churches you also find that there are several that they have labeled "anti churches": anti Bible class, anti children's homes, anti multi cup, etc. Well today the church we visited wasn't an anti church but we noticed on Sunday mornings they have about 200 in worship.....last Wednesday night?? 47. To which Steve said "they may not be anti Bible class in theology but they are in practice."
Yes, it is easy for me to be critical, the harder thing is for me to personally strive for excellence in my own life. "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Philippians 4:8. I can't control what anyone else does, all I can do is strive for excellence in my own life. Believe me there are lots of areas I need to improve on, and yes, even being better at time management so that I am not late to Bible class or worship.
3 comments:
Children may not be the ones with the keys, but they are almost always the reason for our family being late. A sudden and needed diaper change on the way out of the door. A change in outfit for possibly both mom and baby because of a leaky diaper or spitup. A toddler who begs for a potty break even though she just went potty. From experience, one doesn't ignore her. Then there are things on the way to church that hinder punctuality. Yesterday, we had to take a large detour because of an accident. We had left so early that we still made it on time. We try to leave 15 minutes before we should have to each week, but we are late often still. Wednesday nights are hard. My husband works late and we face horrible traffic getting there. Trying to feed a family and make it on time is awful. Then we're at church when my children are usually in bed sleeping. That makes for a horrible trip home and bad day on Thursday. We should do our best for God, and sometimes our best is being late, unfortunately. Please use compassion over judgement when you see a family rush in late. You never know what battles they just went through to get to the building.
Lynn,
You noted that church that had 200 for Sunday morning worship, but only 47 for Bible class on Wednesday. One thing I've noticed is what could be called an overreaction to legalism within the Churches of Christ. In churches that are "traditional" in the CoC, it's regarded as a sin not to be there every time the doors are open--usually three times a week (and more when there's a Gospel Meeting). In churches that have "found grace," attendance at every event isn't as strongly encouraged. Could that be the reason that attendance is low on Wednesdays?
Brooke,
Thanks for your comments, obviously when I am writing I cannot write all the caveats...but for sure parents with toddlers definitely have reasons to be late and when kids aren't old enough to dress their selves it takes alot of time and coordination. But my experience has been your caveats are the exception, not the rule. RE in particular quite frequently jests about the late starts or "REtime" as they call it. We were in adult classes where the teachers weren't even there on time. Listened to it being discussed in elder's meetings as a problme but it just was never an expectation. My comments were really more about those who aren't even trying and it is not a priority. Doesn't sound like that is you and Michael.
I do take your comments to heart and know for sure I need to have a less judgemental spirit and need to just apply excellence to my own walk better. And I know God would rather have people there late than not at all.
Roger,
This was definitely a church that would fall under your traditional label. But I don't don't know that it isn't the same at most churches. The Sunday night and Wednesday night crowd has always been smaller than the Sunday morning crowd. I think it has more to do with people who think they can just check off Sunday morning thinking that is enough. What about the first century churches that met every day? Of course legalism can bleed into anything, but if you are only meeting to check the box, it won't matter how often it is. To me it isn't about whether I can miss, but why would I want to miss? Fellowship with one another is so vital that I want to be a part of it. But then there are times when I just don't want to go and I don't. I think the difference is it is the exception in my life and not the norm. But like I said to Brooke, I definitely am not the judge and really want to examine myself a lot more than I want to examine others.
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