Here are some thoughtful ideas from Mark Dever about how to be on the ministry team on Sunday morning. This is a link to Tim Challies’ site.
Church attendance is not a spectator sport where you rate the performance of the principle actors. It is corporate worship. It is the church gathered in the name of Jesus and in the presence of God. God is watching and He is evaluating our hearts when we worship. He knows if we are giving Him lip service. This might be something you want to read prayerfully in preparation for the Lord’s Day.
Before the Service
Read the passage in advance
Pray for the gathering
Greet newcomers (act like you are the host)
Think strategically about who you should sit with
Arrive Early
During the Service
Sing with gusto (even if you can’t sing)
Help with logistics (if there’s a problem, help fix it)
Don’t be distracted
Listen carefully
Be aware of your facial expressions (you may affect others and discourage preachers)
After the Service
Connect newcomers with others
Get newcomers information
Start a conversation about the sermon
Ask someone how they became a Christian
Stay late
Pastor,
Thank you for continuing to guide our congregation from wherever you are via the web. There’s so much that can be done via this medium and it’s nice to see you taking advantage of the opportunities. Your thoughts on various topics are appreciated.
Steve
Pastor: This comment is related to the Wednesday evening reminscencing of past experiences. The years and Days of our lives before and after coming to the conviction of whom Jesus Christ is and what He has done for each of us. Years ago 1943 this story came my way by a devotional given to this teen=ager by The Pastor of Evangel (on Dec. 7,1942) the booklet a daily devotional guide put together by a former Army Chaplain. The passage reading being John 14:15-31; a special comfort for this fledgling beliver now in the military, having completed nearly a year of service and now located in Italy, on a cool Novemeber 11, 1943, the Text scripture being the verse out of Micah 4:3), Chaplain Nygaard began the charge in this manner: “To most men in service the time visualized in Micah, seems a long way off, Even the day when this present war will end seems to be endlessly visable(our unit at this time stationed a a Air Field at Salerno) The Chaplin continues ” Yet will it come sooner, perhaps, than any of us anticipate. It might be well to be spiiritually ready for the let down that the Armistice will bring.
“I (this Chaplain) was in France about eight kilometers behind the front lines when World War I stopped. My brother and I took a walk out into the countryside in the Argonne Forest. We came upon a bonfire about two miles out of town, there being no longer need for a Blackout. The boys around the fire were singing hymns, The Chaplin lead in prayer, and gave a short message telling the soldiers what peace could mean. We left that scene of peace and good fellowship with “Blest be the tie that binds” ringing in our ears.
Back in town, however, the cafes were full; and drunken soldiers were spewed out on the sidewalk. We saw one man with his head cut open–not by a enemy bullet but by a beer bottle in the hands of a inebriated friend. Perhaps the pattern for the twenty year peace was from the fabric of that celebration.
When peace comes it will be either a prayer meeting peace or a drunken peace. It will either have in it the elements of goodwill and understanding of the needs of all people, or be stupid and bestial. The latter will result in a brief Armistice. the former may result in a world wherein dwells righteousness.
Now some 67 years have past since the first reading of this devotional and the effectiveness of the Gospel has not Changed, but the World continues the downward path, yet we of Evangel under your leadership and your Godly Staff under His direction along with His People can cry out (Rev. 19:6) “Alleluia: for The LORD GOD omnipotent Reigneth. Thank you Pastor.