Our pastor has been here less than a year. It was obvious yesterday that the pastor was surprised to see a full church on a beautiful summer Sunday. (Actually, I counted 1.5 empty pews. )
The Good News is what God has done for us in Christ. The further good news is that people do take time from their Sundays to worship God.
I have to confess that I have the same feeling at times. I was a little suprised at how full the sanctuary was at services on Sunday.
ReplyDeleteChurches do tend to have a dip in summer attendance, not due to apathy, but usually to travel. There have been Sundays when it seems that everyone took the same week off, and you I have looked out to an empty building (mainly at our earliest service). Our church normally worships 300 or so, so to look at and see like 10 peopple or so at a service can be jarring.
And of course, being good Lutherans, they all still sat in the back! ;-)
We are where they travel to...so it is good to see that the vacationers still worship. Many of these people are very frequent attendees.
ReplyDeleteBut we don't provide a time for the people of our church, our area, who have to work on Sunday to worship. There would be fewer jobs therefore fewer permanent residents if it weren't for the people who vacation here.