A couple was furious with our church. We had gone to see what happened to them after someone noticed they'd been gone from our worship assembly for some time. "We aren't coming back," the husband said. "That is an unloving, cold church that claims to care about people but doesn't." I asked him on what basis he made that judgment and he replied, "We were gone four weeks from that church before anyone there even noticed. What kind of church doesn't even notice something like that?"
I replied, "What kind of person are you, that you could be gone for four weeks and the no one in the church could tell?"
It appears that Patrick can be blunt. I wish sometimes I was that quick on my feet. My guess is that this family thought that just showing up for worship for one hour is the equivalent of serving God. They were incensed that no one gave them a gold star for their "participation."
Another blog talked about the "de-churched." It would appear that we have to continually make up new names for new situations. However, I like what this guy wrote (or is "typed" a better term?). If I have read his blog correctly, the "de-churched" are those who come from a "small church" environment and are attracted to a mega-church. Here they are trained to believe they are doing "church" when in fact they are not. They have come to the mega-church for the production values and do not really participate in the mission of the church. They think they are serving God.
I wonder how many of us (me included) think we are doing God's will when in fact we are not. We sing with gusto, but are we really worshipping God? We pray with all the right words at the right time, but does God really hear us? We talk about our faith in certain circumstances or live the right way thinking we are evangelizing, but are we really? Perhaps we would do better to pay attention to what God has really said in His Word and not let others convince us that we are serving God when we have really traded our service for something less.
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