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Sunday and Wednesday services

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Doeroftheword, Jun 30, 2009.

  1. Servent

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    I love to hear the preaching on Sunday morning, If I don't get to go Sunday night or Wednesday night I feel that I have missed something special, we have a very good study time on those nights.
     
  2. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    No I didn't suggest that at all. However, there is no reason for a six month old to be up at 6am. Our son sleep about nine hours a night; our daughter slightly more. Strangely, we have never had to miss church to get them enough sleep.

    There are certainly a variety of ways to do it. They all come together to mature disciples.
     
  3. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    Of course. A few weeks ago I missed a Sunday evening because of severe back pain that had me laid out on the couch for a week. I have never said there are no good reasons to miss. In my experience, most given reasons are not good reasons.
     
  4. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    We did because we chose to eat together. I had to start work by 7:00 AM.
     
  5. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    Your six-month old ate with you at 7am?
     
  6. Amy.G

    Amy.G New Member

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    :laugh: My son didn't sleep through the night until he was 3. He would sleep maybe 2 hours at a stretch and he was up for the day by 5:00 am. (from birth to age 3)
     
  7. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    About 6:20.
     
  8. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    Our children both started sleeping through the night about 8 weeks or a little before, I think. My six month old is going through a little stretch of waking up and then going back to sleep. My son never really did that.

    We generally don't have to wake them. My son wakes up between 7 and 8. We wake him up by 8 if he is not up already. But at six months, my daughter doesn't really participate in family meals.

    But enough about child sleeping habits ... :)

    Back to the point, rising times are really not an issue for church attendance. In the worst case scenario, an hour spent with the family at church is more beneficial than twenty or thirty minutes spent over breakfast one day a week, if it came down to that. But the reality is that it doesn't.

    For most people, church is about priorities. We do what we think is most important all the time. No exceptions. Our actions show our values no matter what our words are.
     
  9. RAdam

    RAdam New Member

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    It is redundant to go to Sunday AM and Sunday PM? How is it redundant to be spiritually fed via the preaching of the word twice in one day? Sounds like a blessing to me.

    Also, "pick the service that best meets your schedule?" How about, try (I stress try) to fit your schedule around the services? What better place is there to be than church?
     
  10. preachinjesus

    preachinjesus Well-Known Member
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    It is interesting watch this kind of a thread develop.

    I'm curious about someone who serves in several areas of their local church and attends nearly every Sunday but because of job and other obligations has to skip out on Wednesdays. Sunday nights are a time where they intentionally set aside time to spend with their family. During the week they listen to about 5 to 7 different preachers deliver their Sunday messages (this is very easy to do with modern technology.) They hold to a consistent Bible study time on their own. They work in a field that demands much of their time and don't make it to Wednesday nights. They participate in missions projects and even share their faith when opportunities present themselves. They tithe and give offerings. They are good people. What about them? What about their lives? What about their faith?

    Just because a church door is open doesn't mean, imho, everybody has to walk through and that it gives us liberty to chastise those who don't. Not too many months ago I told a father in our ministry, who was approaching burn out, to take a Sunday off and use it for personal reflection and spending time with his family. He called me the following week and thanked me profusely...I just replied it is wise to create margin sometimes.

    I wonder why we put so many eggs in the basket of a building and fail to realize that we are a representation of the Church where ever we go.
     
  11. Pastor Larry

    Pastor Larry <b>Moderator</b>
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    I think there are some assumptions here:

    Assumption #1: Sunday night is the only time they can set aside for their family.

    Assuming they are not working the other 167 hours during the week, there are other times. Usually, what I find with people like this is that they spending Saturdays watching football or mowing the grass and napping, Friday nights at school activities, Sunday afternoons sleeping while the kids play video games, etc. The reality is that for very few is Sunday from 6-8 the only time for family. The problem is lack of organization of the rest of the week. Since there's nothing sacred about Sunday night, move your family night to Friday or Saturday.

    Suggest that to someone however and you will get blamed for being legalistic. (Watch and see.)

    Assumption #2: It is necessary to work a job that demands much of their time.

    When we make choices, we show priorities. When someone skips work to go to a ballgame, they are showing a priority. When someone takes a week off of work to take a vacation, they are showing a priority. When someone leaves at 4 to get a child's ballgame they are showing a priority. When they stay at work rather than go to a child's ballgame, they are showing a priority. We all make choices about what is necessary and what is not. What those choices are show what we think is important. And your kids will see what is important to you before anyone else will ... even before you see it yourself usually.

    Employers are usually more flexible than most imagine. If you are overworking, it is probably your choice. You might need to put your God and your family first.

    Assumption #3: that listening to 5 to 7 messages, having a consistent Bible study time, participating in various activities, and sharing their faith are substitutes for the fellowship of the body.

    It's not. God didn't command us to listen to 5 to 7 messages on our Ipods, and personal Bible study was non-existent until a couple of hundred years ago. It isn't a substitute. Technology is no substitute. Giving money doesn't replace being there.

    Assumption #4: That carefully constructed hypothetical provide good excuses for not fellowshipping with the body.

    Let's face it ... We can all make excuses for why we do what we do. Are they good ones? Usually only to us. It is like the guy who lays in bed because there is a lion in the streets. Everyone but him knows he is being silly. But he is convinced that he is right.


    What does this mean? What is "burn out"? How does a man's family benefit from a day off of church and missing the corporate worship and teaching? Why didn't you tell him to take a day off of work and spend it with his family?

    Doesn't that reveal a priority you have? That church is more expendable than work is?

    It's funny that many will take their families for a vacation leaving Friday night and coming back Sunday night (missing church). But they won't leave on Thursday night and comeback Saturday night (missing work to be at church). That reveals a lot.

    I am not saying it's never right to take a vacation. But what do these choices say about us and our priorities?

    I can't speak for others, but it has little to nothing to do with the building. It is about the assembly and fellowship of the body.

    I think families are so important. I am so sick of dads who do not prioritize their families. They will run them all over town to games and practices, and shopping and movies. But they will not make church a priority. Dads, one of hte best things you can do for your family is have them in church under the teaching of the word. How often? When it happens.
     
  12. kfinks

    kfinks Member
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    I have a choice this evening to either go up to the church or to go visit a neighbor just coming home from the hospital. The logistics preclude doing both. The saints will have to do without me while I "bless" the sick with my presence. Easy decision for me.
     
  13. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    I remember the day when I replanted a church and took them through two years of discipleship training and Bible study. The first part was basic discipleship doctrines, teaching them how to lead a Bible study and follow up on new Christians. That was followed by 26 weeks of a survey through the OT and NT. They had about 450 pages of maetrial and questions they had to answer. In addition they were to read the books of the Bible we were covering. That was followed by some basic principles of Bible interpretation followed by two book studies. They prepared about seven hours per week to meet for two hours each week with me. They had about seven hours of time in the Word each week. At the end of two years I told them that they were busy and needed a break. They told me, "No" and they needed more of what I was giving them. No sermon would ever give them what they leanred nor would it equip them for ministry as well as what they prepared each week. From time to time they went with me doing ministry.
     
  14. Amy.G

    Amy.G New Member

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    Wow! Now that is discipleship! Good job! I would love to go through a program like that.


    There are valid reasons for missing church. But there is no doubt that people make excuses for not going. We seem to find time for just about everything else, but God comes in last way too often.

    I love Weds. service because 7 days is too long to go without worship and bible study, for me at least. I had to miss Sunday service a couple of weeks ago because my mother (who is in very bad health) became extremely ill around 5:00 that morning. I try never to miss services, but sometimes it can't be helped.
     
    #54 Amy.G, Jul 1, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 1, 2009
  15. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    There is a load in that statement. For some their God is the church and for other God needs to be their God. My wife and I have been getting to know a couple and the wife grew up in a home where they were at church regularly but she admitted that she did not the Bible. She heard many sermons but they were about issues and not the Bible. It was a KJVO church. When she left home she wanted nothing to do with church. It was her husband who got her going to church again and it was a church that preached the Bible without the shout stomp and spit. She told us for the first time she began to learn about the Bible and saw Christians actually talking about the Bible amongst themselves. She said that was surprising to her.
     
  16. Tater77

    Tater77 New Member

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    Been there done that and I fully understand her position.

    On the OP's topic. My family (me, wife, 3 kids) go to Sunday morning services always, only missed one this year. Sunday evening most of the time. As my family gets together for Sunday dinner after church at my grandparents and is about the only time I get to spent time with all of them together. Still make it back to Sunday evening service as much as we can.

    Wednesdays are another matter. My wife and I work in two separate cities though in the same county and the kids are at the babysitters in another city. The juggle just to get there on time is pretty hard. Then its hard on the kids to be run around like that when their 8 yrs, 5yrs and 15 months old. Especially on an ADHD 8 year old to get his homework done before or after service. He totally cracks under a time frame of any sort.
     
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