"Let life enchant you again." - Fernando Gros
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Blog // Thoughts
December 1, 2006

What We Could Learn From Not Going To Church?

Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks for pointing me in the direction of Gary Lamb’s Lessons learned from NOT attending church. It seems Pastor Lamb took his first break from Sunday morning Church in over ten years and has outlined some really good observations. The following stood out for me, RSC [Pastor Lamb’s Church] goes on […]

Thanks to Church Marketing Sucks for pointing me in the direction of Gary Lamb’s Lessons learned from NOT attending church. It seems Pastor Lamb took his first break from Sunday morning Church in over ten years and has outlined some really good observations. The following stood out for me,

RSC [Pastor Lamb’s Church] goes on without me – I’ll be honest, from a human perspective that is somewhat hard. Everyone wants to feel needed. However, the truth is it is AWESOME! RSC is NOT about me or my “style.” It is about God and what He is doing in the lives of our people. They don’t come because of the music, the teaching, etc. They come because God rocks and is doing some awesome things in their live

People are craving community and they will find it SOMEWHERE – We went to the Waffle House this morning and there was more community happening there then 99% of the churches I have ever been. It was actually sad. People are desperate for relationships and friendships that a place like the Waffle House becomes that fix for them. I watched the “regulars” come in and everyone knew everyone. They asked about each others weeks, talked about Thanksgiving and as crazy as it sounds, they were doing life together. For many of those people, it truly was the highlight of their week. Again the funny thing was the large majority were men. Men needed community as much as women they just won’t admit it.

Men don’t go to church – Yep, this is my hobby horse and I make no apologies about it at all. I would say there were 3 men out for every one woman we saw. I heard three different men at three different times at three different places make some type of comment about the wife and kids being at church. The church has become to feminine in it’s methods and practices that men look at it as something women do and the kids should do.

A lot of people work on Sunday mornings – It never occurred to me how many people work on Sunday morning or have worked all night on Saturday night.

[tags] Missional, Ecclesiology [/tags]

Responses
sam carr 17 years ago

Thanks for the thoughts – very thought provoking indeed.

Fernando Gros 17 years ago

Sam, thanks for stoppiing by.

zane anderson 17 years ago

I also lament the fact that Christian men are mia – missing in action.

Fernando, could it be that many men feel useless for going to church? Few are called upon to do anything but sit. What if all were challenged to be mentors of the young? What if the elders of the church were really the older ones, charged to be the shepherds of the YOUNG. See 1 Peter 5 where the older ones – elders – are contrasted with the young.

jay upp 17 years ago

great post, tis true, the church is going through a revolutionary change that doesn’t involve church. how ironic. its also ironic that a huge percentage of “church people” are “un-evangelistic” in a way that involves being around non-Christian people. people need people regardless of trying to “get them into church” or “saving the world”. i hope that as a christian myself i would hold true to that at least and try and walk this world with an open set of eyes.

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