Dismissing services

When I lived in Wisconsin, if the lot could be plowed, we were open. Here in Kentucky, we dismiss often.

I would dismiss in your case...

Your people have enough on their plate without having to attend church. I'd then make it my ministry priority to insure that all my people had heat, food, diapers and milk, etc. Find someone good with a 4x4 and take care of your people. Enlist brave and hearty souls to help. You will do more to further the goals of your church in this fashion than by having a meeting.

 

Sometimes it is illegal for people to travel unless they are in an emergency vehicle. I would check that first.

 

This young minister of education needs to be educated. Maybe if you dropped a hint to your pastor how you feel, that might be sufficient.

But Scarlett, don't you know that Sunday night Christians are more spiritual than those who only show up on Sunday morning? And we Wednesday nighters are the most spiritual of all?

 

Not to change the subject (whoops...) but one of the first things I do when I assume leadership of a church is to drop Sunday night and Wednesday night services. I replace them with meaningful activity that actually grows the believers and the church in accordance with God's Word.

The most spiritual one in my hierarchy of church activity is the one who understands that it is equally important to BE the church when scattered as well as when gathered. Giving time, permission, and solid teaching that brings families together on Sunday night instead of forcing them into a building is worth more to me than numbers on a roll.

 

Years ago I started pastoring a church that was left with ten people. They had three services each week. I did away with two of them and told the people to start getting to know their neighbors. After awhile almost everyone of them had started some kind of ministry in the community. Today they have 20 acres and a church building paid for. They are still growing. At the time they lost everything except ten people.

They had a dead church with a lot of busy work but no productivity.

"Emotion is no substitute for action. Action is no substitute for production."

Satan likes to get the Christian busy, busy, busy, and not producing. It covers for the excuses one could make for not reaching people. Busyness is the curse of the church in America.

 

Are they the gnostics too?

 

Amen, gb! I wish more Christians understood this concept.

Regarding the OP, when the weather is bad, especially at night, we cancel services. The vast majority of our members are elderly and have a hard enough time trying to drive at night, much less trying to navigate patches of black ice on the roads. The bad weather also hinders those with health issues, like myself.

My dh used to believe we should be at church every time the door was open, even if the weather was dangerous. After all, we were young and could easily drive on bad roads. He changed his opinion one Sunday morning when he braved the weather alone (I insisted on staying home safely with the kids.) He hit some black ice and had an accident. Our pastor at the time did not even ask if dh was okay or if he needed help. He only cared about continuing services as usual.

So, yeah, we use our own common sense now.

 

:applause::thumbs::sleeping_2:

 

God gave us good sense. Maybe we need to use it more often. The ministry of taking care of our family is more important than risking them just to go to a church service.

During the week our policy is that if school is out, so are we.

On Sunday I make ever effort to be there for Sunday morning and have a service for anyone that is able to make it. But will generally cancel the evening service since driving after dark can really increase the danger of travel.

 

Why do churches feel they are obligated to hold services in times like these? Hold it Tuesday or Wednesday instead.

 

The OP is from Illinois.

At this point I hear Rudolph would have a difficult time getting around up there.

Honestly, a church should have a decision making process in place before anything like this happens. The senior leadership (whatever that means) should make the decision and stick to it. As we operate the hardest decision is Sunday mornings. Everything else can be canceled with little consternation. When we cancel Sunday morning we run it through our lead team, then mass email everyone in our church database, notify local news, post it on our website, and then ask all of our staff to call their leaders to call their main people.

Really having a plan in place is ideal. For instance, if the rapture happened today some churches would need to figure out if they were going to meet or not...

 

We've cancelled two of them this year for inclement weather and cancelled four last year.

As much as I want to see people in church and as much as think we ought to be in church when we can, I don't want to place the burden of having to risk their lives to get there on them.