I recently had my 28th birthday. I received some money and decided to spend it at Amazon.com. I bought The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide (Leather Bound Edition). It looks remarkably like a Bible.
I was sitting around with some friends and family and told them of my new purchase. Joking, I said I was going to bring it to “church” with me and read it during the sermon, so I won’t be bored. Then something happened, a number of people said, “that’s what I do.”
What they meant was, they *usually* open their Bibles during the Sunday sermon and start reading. Some of them said they will read a completely different book/chapter/verse, some said they read the same book/chapter/verse but still ignore/half-listening to what the speaker is saying. To be honest, I do this regularly. Most of the time, though, I read the same book/chapter/verse, but read it in context and then wonder how in the world Joe Blow got his point from that text. Anyways, the impression I got was, that these people generally don’t get anything from the teaching part of the Sunday service, so my question is, why go?
If y’all remember, the last time I taught, during a Sunday service, I was told that I went above the heads of most people in the audience. Apparently it was frowned upon to teach the “meat”. What was funniest is that I had a number of people come up to me and tell me what a great job I did and how much they learned. One lady even showed me a full sheet of notes that she took. By the way, the majority of these people were in the same demographic that I was told wouldn’t understand what I said. I wonder, at what point did we all become stupid? Was it when we walked into the building? Or is it the fact that the teacher is just smarter than everyone else?
In a more recent conversation, a close friend of mine was explaining why she doesn’t go on Sunday mornings. Her complaint, “I just sit there and don’t learn anything new”. I agree. How many times can you be told what the Bible says? I know what the Bible says. For the most part, even when I don’t know what the Bible says, I still know what God would say about a certain topic. This same girl decided that she has better things to do with her time than sit around listening to some guy feed her milk. So she asked herself, “Why Go?” and stopped going.
As far as I can tell, the best answer to “Why Go?” is that these buildings are full of other believers on Sunday mornings. So it is the best possible place to meet other believers. The problem is, most of these meetings are sit-n-go’s. We all sit, listen, and go – fellowship only exists in hand-shakes and smiles.
Why do you go?
Happy Birthday!
I go these days because we finally found a church that is all about GRACE. And because of that the messages each week are fresh and new and refreshing … meat meat & more meat. No milk. Different perspectives than I have ever been taught before. And wonderful Spirit-led worship.
For the first time in a very long time I am at place where I am enjoying meeting together as a church family. But I know that feeling … that “I’d rather be at the lake” feeling. I’ve had it more than once. But I am thankful that I haven’t had it lately and I actually look forward very much to Sunday mornings these days.
:)
Heather,
Thanks, my birthday was actually like a month ago – I totally snuck it by everyone!
I’m glad you’ve found a group of believers who actually act like it :). Obviously this post does not apply! But it is encouraging that you have found a group. Maybe others will continue their pursuit in finding God’s Church.
God’s Glory,
Lew
Deacon: You’re not very supportive of Sunday mornings Usher, so why do you go Usher?
Usher: for the material Deak, for the material
I do the same thing…read scripture. Sometimes I start preparing my next Sunday School lesson. We always exposit in SS.
What is really funny about what you wrote is that I have noticed that many pastors are very careful about taking off and who preaches in their place. One Sunday, our pastor, a great guy and scholar and has obviously bought into the ‘don’t go over their heads myth, was sick and asked a retired preacher to step in. Well, this guy had nothing to lose and preached a rip roaring deep sermon on sanctification from 1 John. The entire church was on the edge of their seats! It was electrifying. The younger folks were asking: Why haven’t we ever heard of sanctification? :o)
Everybody talked about that sermon for months! You would think the message got through but it did not.
Why go? Because I attend a church that still believes in the Holy Priesthood and has not fallen for all the patriarchy stuff out there. Our children’s minister is rock solid which is important if you have little ones. We dig deep into scripture in the SS which functions like a small Body of believers. There are plenty of reasons even if the sermons are a bit milky.
Besides, who ever said ‘church’ is listening to one guy speak? :o)