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Copper Lantern Lesson One To Cancel or Not to Cancel…What a Question! |
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As you recall we had to cancel church on a recent Sunday…again, I apologize to any who may have missed the announcement. For those of you that made it, you deserve a big Hoo-Ya! We really |
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did do our best to
communicate with as many people as possible using as many different
ways as we could.
In this process I
rediscovered something in a fresher way (if that’s possible) and
that is that many people tend to think that church starts at
10:30 or 10:40 or whenever it is they happen to arrive. (A
quick distinction in this writing – I’m referring to church as the
assembly of the saints in one place and time, not individuals that
make up the living church). For many people church starts at 7:00
a.m. For others it starts on the Monday morning before and still
others Sunday morning begins at various times during the week. For
me, Sunday morning starts a few minutes after the conclusion of the
present Sunday. Some people decide to attend church 15 minutes prior
to arriving, and others attend 15 minutes after their arrival, and
of course others are there and that’s about it! Just like canceling a service no matter how many ways we try to communicate, some people just won’t “get” the message no matter how many different ways we try to engage and communicate with them. So what do we do? We continue to try to reach out and engage people because there are those who are listening and watching, and there are many who will “get” it. Sometimes we get so busy “doing” church that we forget that we “are” the church.
The decision to
cancel the service started on Friday when the snow storm was more
talk than reality. I have to admit that I didn’t really believe it.
I had a “yeah right, I’ll believe it when I see it” attitude. Oh me
of little faith! At 11:00 a.m. Saturday it had hardly snowed, but by
9:30 that night there were several inches on the ground and no sign
of letting up! After making a few phone calls the decision to cancel
the 8:30 service was made. I called a few people to let them know
that the 8:30 service was canceled so they could begin to let those
who would be the first to arrive know. I called Maria and asked her
to change the voicemail greeting, and Kimberly to put something on
the website. I told everyone I talked to that a decision on the
10:30 service would be made by 7:30 am. I went to sleep knowing
everything was covered! The next morning my alarm went off the same
time the phone started ringing. It was Kimberly. Have you decided
yet? “Is it 7:30?” I answered laughing.
As I pondered my
dilemma I told Shelly – this is a no-win situation. If I cancel
there will be people who show up and ask, Why did you cancel? I
could have made it, or worse, I did make it, where were you?” But
if I didn’t cancel, the majority of people probably wouldn’t be
there except a few “hardy” souls and those who “had to” be there so
church could happen. As I looked out the window, I so wanted to see
snow falling or the wind howling and blowing the snow around. Please
God, give me a sign! The only thing I saw was a snow plow moving
through my neighborhood. I began to reason that yesterday at this
time there was no snow on the ground and now less than 24 hours
later we had about 13 inches! What if I decided to have the 10:30
service and we got another 4 inches?
At 7:29 I made the
call. I have to admit that I had a twinge of guilt! What kind of
pastor am I canceling church! I again called Maria and Kimberly and
contacted a few radio stations to inform them of our decision to
cancel our 10:30 service. About 2 hours later I received a call
informing me that WJON hadn’t updated any of our information!
Arghhhhhh!! Now what? There was nothing we could do. The decision
was made and apparently the communication system had broken down.
I’m not sure how
many showed up that day. I do know that one couple checked WJON at 7
am and only heard that the 8:30 service was canceled. Another couple
never thought we’d cancel and arrived to an empty parking lot. I did
hear that many people had a great day with their families and
totally enjoyed their “get out of church free” card. (I’m not sure
how I feel about that, but I did enjoy the day myself!)
What’s the point
in this ramble? Just like canceling a service … There are always going to be people that view church as something they consume. We who “serve others” are aware that there are people who view church almost as if it’s a restaurant and think, ok, now that I’m here you can wait on me. And because of love for God and love for people we do! Maybe not always as gladly or as willingly as we should, but we do. Please don’t forget that there are many people every week whose lives are being touched and changed and without you doing what you do, that process would never be happening in their hearts and lives.
Don’t get so busy
in the “doing” of church that we forget we “are” the church! The
reason that we’re here is to touch the lives of people that God
sends us. Many people have no clue as to the amount of work and
attention to detail there has to be to have just one service here at
Joy. Thank you for all you do … You are all heroes! |
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