After stopping regular attendance at one church I still haven’t started regular attendance at another church. Last Sunday (29/4) was the first time all year that I have been to the same church in consecutive weeks.
I asked someone whether my irregular church attendance is a bad thing. This person has a particular way with words, which is why of all people I asked him. He wanted to explore my motivation for attending different churches. The answer was primarily to visit friends who attend other churches. I even made up a long list of churches using PowerPoint.
When I was regularly attending one church I had commitments playing in the music group. I had formed a nice little comfort zone for myself. The result -> never venturing elsewhere.
When I stopped attending regularly, for various reasons, I guess I felt a little liberated and wanted to visit them all. Problem is that there is only one Sunday in each week. I was also able to stay home when family came over. With the music commitments I always had to leave them prematurely. This was a bit disappointing as their visits through the year are limited so I like to make the most of them when I can.
Then the focus of our discussion changed to reviewing the areas in which I was serving. As “Jesus came not to be served but to serve” he recited. It was a relevant statement, it’s not as if he was just showing off his biblical knowledge by quoting scriptures. I replied, “But the Lord loves a cheerful giver.” Therefore if your service is not enjoyable anymore is there a problem with going on hiatus from that form of service for an extended period?
“What about moving to other forms of service?” my discussion partner
quipped. Fair point, except we are all given certain gifts, call them spiritual gifts if you like. Some have multiple gifts. For me the gift was playing drums in the music group. I enjoyed most of my time but in the end it began to feel like a chore. Going to church shouldn’t feel like that. I wanted a year without drumming of any kind.My drum kit has been in cases since the Christmas Carols service (Dec 8th 06) so I’m obviously not missing playing. When I do start to miss playing I will no doubt search for a church music group in need of a drummer.
The only other gift I can see in service is coaching Aussie Rules and if you could count that as a ministry then I can say I am moving from one form of service to another.
To be continued…….
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3 comments:
I'm glad this isn't blog about your bowel movements!
I have a couple of comments:
- "Going to church shouldn't feel like a chore". Is that actually true? Are we asked to give only so much that doesn't inconvenience us, or are we supposed to give our whole lives? Actually, we don't own our lives to give, we have already been bought by Jesus (1 Cor 6)! You implied that you agree that Jesus' service is the example for us - when he prayed in the garden of Gethsamane, did his service feel like a chore to Jesus? Perhaps this is something that we should both explore further!
- While serving each other is a major reason for meeting together (see 1 Cor 12), there are also others. Some that come to mind are:
1) Because Jesus died to make us into a people - once again, think of the body metaphor - we are all different, but yet we are still the one body
2) We are COMMANDED not to neglect meeting together so that we ENCOURAGE OTHERS (Hebrews 10) particularly in the struggles we face as Christians.
3) So that we are challenged to actually live a holy and blameless life (Heb 10 again). We were saved to glorify God - this is easy to forget, but hearing the bible each week from someone else's perspective doesn't allow us to let it pass by or change what it means to suit me.
Time to get powerpoint cranking!
Tim, while it is nice to visit other churches to visit friends and see how things are done, is "never venturing elsewhere" a problem?
The Lord loves a cheerful giver, yes. But if you're not cheerful, the other alternative to not giving is to get cheerful.
David - a bit of clarification, church never became a chore. Playing in the music group became a chore. Which is why I wanted at least the year off. i left the church for "various reasons". You still make valid reasons for attending church.
Danny - yes, I see "never venturing elsewhere" as a bad thing. Spending one's whole life at one church makes you too comfortable and insular.
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