Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Late for Church

I'm on vacation and will posting some pics soon. But before that I want to send a word out to all Grace folks who read this blog. PLEASE GET TO CHURCH ON TIME! Seriously... is it that tough to pull yourselves out of bed, to pull yourself away from that coffee you're sipping in the cafe, to pull yourself away from your kid in the nursery and get in to the service on time?? I'm just going to say it... it's disrespectful to our teams, to our pastors, and to our God to be consistently late. There I said it.

You are putting our team in a jam because we don't know what to do at the beginning of the service. We seriously spend wayyyyy too much time debating this issue in our service planning meetings, and if everyone would just plan to get there 5-10 minutes earlier than you're getting there now, and begin waiting expectantly for the opportunity to worship God - our teams wouldn't have to talk about it for one more minute.

This past weekend at 11 we literally had 1/2 the crowd come in over 5 minutes late (many 10-15 minutes late). We are wanting to do our communication segment at the beginning of the service so that it doesn't disrupt the flow of worship - but we're geeked that so many people are going to miss the major communications that we have to do for the week. We want to put worship there sometimes - but don't want people always missing the first two worship songs that set the tone for the rest of the service. We sometimes want to do the sermon off the top - but realize that many people will miss the lead in to the proclamation of God's Word. Please begin arriving on time...and forward this to all your friends.

- the management

2 comments:

Lora said...

Derek-universal problem! Down here in LA, when BC & I greet, I laugh & say it is like the Indiannoplis 500 through the parking lot at 10:45 (time for service to start). We HATE the communication announcements at the end of our service-SO BREAKS WORSHIP FLOW-BUT until people come on time-WELL! For we that are ALWAYS on time-it is SO ANNOYING to have late comers flowing in-literally until the sermon begins. YOU ARE RIGHT-RUDE & DISRESPECTFUL. HMMMM-you seem to have pushed my button-SORRY!

Larry Shallenberger said...

It also creates a ripple effect with the children. When a child comes in late, and begins to cry with separation anxiety, often the teachers have to stop the lesson and address the issue.