A Simple Request

I've gone to church for a good part of my life. While it has always been Protestant (in other words, you can eliminate "Greek Orthodox" or "Roman Catholic"), it has been quite a variety. I've been in quite a range of church types. While there are obviously many differences, there has, it seems, been many similar things. Well, that would stand to reason, since the idea is that they're all basically in agreement. But I'm talking about things that they do in common that could easily be fixed. This, then, is my request to churches everywhere to take a look at these things and see if you can address them. It would be nice, you know?

Every Sunday service, it seems, has announcements. Call it what you will. "Greetings and announcements", "church family news", whatever. It is to be expected. You have to keep everyone apprised of what is going on. Fine. Good. But everyone who does them seems to think that this is an "addendum", a piece, in some sense, outside of "worship". "First," they seem to think, "we'll get these announcements out of the way, and then we can start worship." Why? Why is it that telling people that Olga Thornson is in the hospital and needs your prayers cannot be part of worship? Why is it that telling the church what God did in the camp for the high schoolers last week isn't part of worship? Why is it that telling the congregation about an upcoming ministry event isn't part of worship? Here's the bottom line here. If you make it "This is what we're doing", then you're absolutely right -- it isn't worship. On the other hand, it ought not be there. Church is about God. If you make it "This is what God is doing" then it is certainly worship and you ought to express it as such. My request? Either eliminate your announcements or make them part of worship.

Very often churches will have someone come up and "perform". Now, I hated to put that word in there because it's not the right word, but it was an all-encompassing "stand up in front of everyone and do something." They may pray. They may share a testimony. They may read a passage. That's all fine and good ... and I mean that it is fine and good. Here's all I ask. Would you who are asked to stand in front of everyone please be prepared? I'm not asking that you prepare a slick performance. I'm not asking that you fake anything. All I'm asking is that you prepare. If you are supposed to pray, be prepared to pray. If you are supposed to read, read it in advance. Perhaps you have no idea how disconcerting it is to have someone stumble about reading God's Word. Again, I'm not asking for a performance. But doesn't God's Word deserve a real reading? Doesn't it deserve voice inflections and a basic comprehension of the words that are being read? You should have practiced those tough-to-read Hebrew names before you got up in front of people. You should have had an understanding of the flow of the sentence you are now reading (badly) for everyone else. Again, I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about being prepared enough not to be self-conscious. I'm talking about common courtesy. You're supposed to read this for us ... so be prepared to read it for us. And a carefully thought out or even written out or even practiced prayer is no less sincere than an impromptu, off-the-cuff prayer, so if you're not good at spur-of-the-moment ... don't!

Church has its own distractions and difficulties. God's Word is being presented here and Satan will be glad to disturb that. God is here and that might be a bit unnerving. We're in "mixed company", so to speak, where some are true believers and some are ... not. We don't need the added distractions of self-centered announcements or self-conscious additions. Remember that we're going to worship, to the presence of God. Prepare for that out of respect for Him and for His people. Please?