Sunday, June 27, 2010

Observations in Chruch

Something unusual for us. The second Sunday in a row we are late for church. There was a time in my earlier life I arrived every where 15 minutes early. That comes from my raising, a dad who hated to be late, and from the military that said, ”There is NEVER an excuse for being late, other than death, then it had better be yours.”



The Marine Corps was the worst, and I was NEVER late. Your orders were: anticipate, traffic, flat tires, wrecks, dead battery, etc and allow time for it. So it was built in, our family was always early. That gave time to relax, chat and visit before the actual scheduled time. It worked for us.
Now it is a different story. Losing your hearing will do that. I want to be on time and don’t care if I am a little late, that way I DO NOT have to try to listen and understand what is said.


When you cannot understand the preacher, or speaker you occupy yourself at people watching. Today was one of those days. I could not understand a word the speaker was saying. So looking around the congregation of about 50 at the Camp Ground Church Service these are my observations:



1. One lady gave her husband a couple back rubs to keep him awake, I assume her husband.

2. The average age of the congregation was 60 (only because of four youngsters who mess up the curve, ha!) Without the kids the average would have been 68-71.
3. Two boys entertained themselves switching their sandals from left to right feet. When they were tired of that they counted their money. Were you ever faced with this dilemma in church? I was, me and my buddies would see who could hold their breath the longest.
4. There were 5 other bald men, I was the baldest. (That means I win)






5. There were six folks who did not have grey hair. (I think a couple of those ladies cheated).
6. The young preacher looked familiar. I finally figured out that he looked like one of Sherry’s nephews, Cody.
7. Three people were sleeping (they had no one to give them a back rub!)



8. The Great Hall was decorated for the Fourth with flags, stars, etc.


9. I learned a backrub will keep you awake in church.


10. Most women sit their purses on the floor. Some hold them others hang them on their chairs.



11. The service is supported by volunteers from the Caldwell Southern Baptist Convention. I have noticed that Baptist preachers and deacons tend to pray long prayers. That is not a complaint, we all need prayer. That is my observation from our experience of attending many different churches and denominations as we travel.

We hope you have a great Sunday.
Nite Shipslog
PS:
'The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.' - Ronald Reagan








9 comments:

Jimmy's Journal said...

I'd like to preface my comments by asking the lord to forgive me. Most kids and young adults hate church because, quite frankly, it's boring. As I grew older and finally found a church whose speakers were better speakers, church became more interesting.

In my youth, I recall the pastor telling us to close our eyes and bow our heads before prayer. As an obstinant youth, I wondered where in the bible this requirement was written. It seems to me that one can pray as well with their eyes open as well as closed.

Lastly, the pastor was not a talented speaker and spoke in a low droll until the end of the sermon where it seems to be a given that shouting and hellfire reigns until some little old lady gives in and becomes saved for the 35th time.

Given the hard pews and poor speakers, backrubs would have been a true blessing.

Jimmy

Coffeeveggie addict. said...

im so sorry for not visiting lately my computer is down and still not fix,everything was gone and im a bit depressed because all my important file was lost and now im just using my cellfone to post and my last entry has been saved for weeks so it could be my last entry till i can find time to send my laptop to a computer technician...thanks for visiting my page...really appreciate it...takecare you and sherry!

hugs,
blue

betty said...

I have to agree with what Jimmy said in his comment, to the young church can be boring. I think that's why it is sometimes good for the younger kids to have their own programs to go into rather than "adult church" (not talking about young adults, but kids going into their own programs) that are age appropriate for them so their parents can try to enjoy or get something out of church. For me, it is always such a privilege and honor to go to church these days (but not always in my youth LOL) for so many different reasons but just being among fellow believers worshiping and learning is always such a delight for me indeed! I'm with you,hate to be late if at all possible; last week we were 10 minutes late for church due to a big traffic jam (and go figure we had left 45 minutes before the church time started, usually only a 20-25 minute drive) and I was besides myself being late. Yet we weren't the latest arrivals.

interesting observations today Jack; always fascinating to watch people

hope you guys have a great rest of the day!

betty

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

Hope your Sunday has been a happy one for sure, after all those observations, you'd have to be SMILING.

shirl72 said...

Our service was boring this morning. Pastor
on vacation. Each program we have had someone
get up and explained them and said they needed volunteers. From the adults groups to the cleaning crew. Been there done that.

Shirl

Paula said...

Sometime I observe even though I can hear. I observed that our preacher's five year old granddaughter is a little brat but she is beautiful child. We had a crowd, 22 people.

Dar said...

Church was not at home today. Our Grandson Noah, was baptized so we took a little roadtrip this morning with my Mom traveling with us. Bill did the driving, (remember, he's loosing most of his central vision in his shootin' eye). Anyway, he hates to be late also, so we left over an hour early for a 40 min. drive. We were early, and in spite of the visual impairment, Bill found a restaurant and we stopped for coffee after driving around the block to find the church, then past the home the luncheon was going to be. Church was butt-screaming long, as Bill put it, but more contemporary, modernized compared to the services and songs we were accustomed to. Our grandson was a perfect little angel, and seemed to know that the day revolved around him and that he now has a new church family, all giggles and grins. Neither Bill or I had been to church for awhile, and I must have needed it, cause it sure felt good to be there. This might have been the start of something good again. We have been blessed.
BlessYourHearts

Fred Alton said...

So that's what you guys are thinking while I'm beating on the pulpit and shouting to the top of my voice, trying to get you straightened out!!! ☻ Our pastor was on vacation so he had asked me to take care of the service, etc. The preaching Sunday was better than usual('cause I had asked Mom to preach ☺) and definitely there were positive results. We had a new man and woman in church at Tellico Plains for the first time who told us that the man was formerly atheist. He said, "I'll never be the same again after today!" The woman had been raised in a church but left it long ago then had an un-pleasant experience in the church she had chosen. She also expressed that they would be back. Time will tell.

Anonymous said...

Hello from over the pond,

I do like your observations... great stuff.

Cheers :)

Alan