A good fundamentalist is in church every time the doors are open, no matter how often that may be. (Hint: it’s often).
Whether it’s Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night prayer meeting, Friday night Youth Group, or a myriad of special events, attendance is not optional. To a fundy, to miss a service is to miss out on the very blessing of God. And you don’t want to miss a blessing do you? Well do you? I didn’t think so.
Some fundy preachers take pride in reminding everyone of the time that they were sick with the bubonic plague, had their car stolen, broke both legs, and had just gotten off a shift at the salt mines where they had worked 73 straight hours nonstop, BUT HE STILL CAME TO BIBLE STUDY ANYWAY! So don’t even bother trying to use the excuse that you have the sniffles and didn’t want to give them to everyone else or that you’re just too tired after work to make prayer meeting. That sort of lily-livered tale is only for sissy’s and compromisers.
The postal service may still prevail through rain, sleet, and dark of night but the fundamentalist isn’t even deterred by hurricanes, wildfires, or the church being full of fresh paint fumes. Open the doors and see all the people.
“Three to thrive!” That’s all I have to say!
That quote was as good as Bible as far as my preacher was concerned.
With some churches its more like “Thirty to thrive”
And where in the Bible do you get that number 3? No one is in church every time the doors are open. Any Christian that wants to take a vacation for a week or two will do so and miss church. And to me, there is nothing wrong with that.
If I decide to go out of town for the weekend, I do not want someone to be negative toward me the following Sunday that I show up.
I call this “keeping a score card” for others church attendance. If we want to keep score of someones church attendance, then let’s keeps score of our own church attendance.
There are people in my church that actually get up in the pulpit and tell people to not miss church and then leave, go home, and miss the very next service. That is hypocrisy.
In reality, it’s about picking on people. In my church some get the cold shoulder if they miss service and some do not get the cold shoulder.
We should rejoice when people come to church and NEVER convey a “cold shoulder” , or “get a dig in”, or overtly make a negative comment to punish people that have not been there for a while or miss a service. If people come and we act in a passive-aggressive manner, is that going to provoke them to come back, or miss service again?
We should NEVER make someone feel bad because they did not come to church.
“Three to thrive!”
“Be here and in your place”
“Visitors welcome, members expected!” (for special meetings, revivals, missions conferences, etc.)
ah the story of my years 1-18…
Mine too. Looking back on our stellar church attendance, my older sister correctly observed that it would have been better if our family had stayed home to be a family rather than being in church every time the doors were open.
And, this on top of going to a Christian school Mine just happened to be attached to our church, so I saw it every day but Saturday! And, Wednesdays, I would get a couple hours break and be right back for prayer service. Not to mention chapel every Monday and Friday, and Bible class the rest of the week. I got my fill!!
The church I visited this past Sunday had a message from 2 Chron. 25 on “Amaziah: The Half-Hearted King.” The application? Don’t be half-hearted in serving God, specifically in church attendance.
Yes, I can see were that applies. This chapter clearly states that the reason Amaziah ended up worshiping false gods is because he did not attend church faithfully. 🙄
Let me guess, the preacher in question quoted verses 1-2, ignored everything else in and around the chapter, and then went off on a tirade of his own opinions.
Sadly, in many churches, it is assumed that the people who attend most faithfully are the most spiritual. There may be no fruit of the Spirit, no humility, no compassion, but if they’re there every time the doors are open, they MUST be godly.
The outward appearance is critical in fundy circles.
A nicely trimed lawn, a beautiful well-maintained building, a moG with a fine suit and polished shoes, and a submissive people is adoring attendence sitting at the feet of the lord’s annointed.
If you’re not there, those in attendance will hear about it in a timely sermon illustration. Unfortunately, you aren’t there!
B.R.O.
Hey, Folks, think this one through… you can’t put money in the offering plate unless you are there in the pew. Hello-o-o!
You nailed it! 😈
Three to Thrive and morphed into Five to Thrive:
Sunday School
Sunday Service
Sunday Night
Wednesday Prayer meeting
Wednesday Night
Work, work, work, work, work, work, work……..lather, rinse, repeat
Throw in a Monday night Bible study, Thursday morning Women’s Missionary Meeting or Saturday morning Men’s Prayer Breakfast, and Friday night youth activity (that you’re either helping run or bringing your own teens to) and presto!!! You’ve just filled your life so completely that everyone who looks at you KNOWS you’re the most spiritual person they’ve ever met.
(As a bonus, when you’re this busy, you don’t have time to go meet unsaved people and show them God’s love. After all, that’s scary and messy, so it’s good that you’re just too involved with church activities to do anything like actually put Jesus’ commands into practice.)
What your last paragraph said! So true, this is what I saw at my former church, exactly, so busy at church, and what “ministry” are you in? 🙄
That church sign is way liberal. Otherwise, they wouldn’t call it a “worship” service!
😉
You don’t get a break for vacations, either. Where I taught, if we went out of town on vacation, we were required to find a Bible-believing church to attend that Sunday and go to it. And we had to bring back a bulletin to prove it! No, I’m not kidding. You just cannot make this stuff up.
I grew up Methodist and I know a Methodist preacher who, every time he preached in an evening service, railed (and still rails) about people “Lacking Commitment” if they are not in the evening service as well as the morning service. I heard him many times and he did it without fail. My present church does not have a Sunday evening service, instead the House groups meet Sunday Evenings twice a month. But this preacher does not think much of my church. He does not think much, period.
Does anyone else find it funny that many fundy preachers (and others, apparently) like to take out their frustration that people are not attending the evening service by railing at the people who are actually attending the evening service?
My father was a classic example of the Spiritually Equals Church Activity Syndrome. He was a good, Godly man, but his whole life revolved around Church activities. The only thing he did outside of work that was not church related was play golf, and all him golf friends except one were Christians. He was out at Meetings Every night of the week. I don’t think we ever communicated – he didn’t have time.
I know this is resurrecting an old post, but I just had to comment.
Living in New England, we get the occasional blizzard, nor’easter, and hurricane. Even tornadoes. I was amazed when my old church held services during TS Irene last year. So much of the area was devastated, but yet they held church. Oy.
BTW, I love this blog. It is healing and revealing. I had no idea how much stuff I had to unlearn.
Not to re-resurrect a long dead post, but I must comment. I was only in fundy land for about 3 years in 2 churches but still learned this one quick! This was the gospel there!
I remember once we had a visiting missionary to Israel come in and preach Sunday morning. We had hit it off quick and afterwards I told him that unfortunately I wouldn’t make it to the evening service because I was going to my fiance’s mother’s b-Day party. He became very serious and said something along the lines of, “I know you want to be good to your future mother in law, but you need to be serious about God. I remember when I was your age I was in church every time the doors were open.”
I left feeling like absolute crap cause I wanted to be an “evangelist” (I know realize that IFBdom has no idea what a real evangelist does). Well I ended up disappointing my fiance and her family by not going to her birthday outing and instead plastered on a smile and a tie and took my “faithful” butt to church… 😥
*her mother’s birthday outing I mean
Can’t make it 5-10 hours a week for church but want to spend an eternity in heaven….something seems odd to me about that.