• The Church Service.

    April 4, 2004

    One of the things that we discussed at length at our gathering of pastors last week was, “What would your church be like if there were no sunday morning worship service?”

    This question really got me thinking. Not that I want to ditch our sunday morning service or anything, but it really made me look at what the church, our church is about. Recently I have really started to think of the word church as being synonomous with “community.” With this in mind, this question can be very hard to ask if we are honest with ourselves.

    I found this quote on the Allelon website in an article written by Mark Priddy:

    “Some studies suggest that as much as eighty percent of the time, money and energy of many churches go to make weekend services happen. At worse, in the words of George Hunsburger, this turns the church into a ?vendor of religious services and goods,? instead of a kingdom community sent on a mission. This, of course plays right into the hands of a Western individualistic, consumer-oriented society.”

    Wow. Makes me ask myself. As a pastor. Where am I spending my time? What is important? The sunday morning service is part of that, but not 80%!

  • Comments on this Post:

    Comment by: Kathy Hanson


    1

    I was just thinking about this last Sunday morning, wondering if all the time and energy and techy stuff we do nowdays is pleasing to God. Then the worship leader talked about Mary annointing Jesus with perfume that cost a year’s work of wages. I think maybe we shouldn’t lower the bar on Sunday morning, but we should raise the bar during the rest of the week. Our sacrifice of worship is integrated with every moment and every breath of our lives.

    04/6/04 10:20 PM

    Comment by: Todd Hiestand


    2

    Kathy, you’re right. of course there is a place for corp. worship. in fact, a huge one!

    We should probably raise the bar at both ends even. I think we are missing an integral aspect of what the chuch is supposed to “be” when our focus is unbalanced like it typically is…

    04/7/04 10:14 AM

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