The hardest question I faced yesterday came not from a church member, visitor or church leader but from my son.
Driving to have lunch with some church members and visitors to our assembly Reese asked me “Dad, if you weren’t the preacher would you skip church on some Sundays?” My first thought? “Son, I am the preacher and I dream of skipping church on most Sundays!” My second thought, one that quickly followed my first thought? “How on earth am I going to answer this question?”
I knew that my standard answer to difficult questions (“When the daddy and the mommy love each other very much . . .) would not suffice. So I took a page from Jesus’ Guide To Answering Tough Questions: Rule #1 Answer a question with a question of your own.
I said, “That’s an interesting question Reese, why are you thinking about that?” He said, “well it’s just that (and he began to name names) skip church every once in a while and that got me to thinking.”
By the way, those of you from Arlington who grace my blog with your readership and are fearful that you were named can send a contribution to my TAYLOR T5 fund and I will keep your name out of subsequent blogs!
His conclusion, which he shared with me while using a friend of his as an example, was this: you can still be a Christian and skip church every once in a while.
I never answered the question. I used the diversion tactic and changed the subject. I’m still not quite sure how to answer the question.
Randy Wray
February 27th, 2006 at 10:40 am
One of the factors that made me realize I was in the right place when I just joined the Church of Christ was the dedication I saw in people who visited this church while on vacation. When we visited other churches of Christ while we were on vacation we’d meet many others who didn’t skip. Not that this will help answer Reese’s question, but I see much less absentism here then in previous churches to which I have belonged.
February 27th, 2006 at 10:49 am
I hope he wasn’t naming names of former members! (he does realize we moved & haven’t been skipping for 2 1/2 years, doesn’t he?)
Sounds like he answered it himself, which seems to be the same reason Jesus answered a question w/a question. Good for Reese to be thinking about such things; those wheels are turning upstairs.
February 27th, 2006 at 11:08 am
You might want to think about having the kids submit their future questions in writing for a delayed response … give you time to work out the answer. Sort of like a time delay on the SuperBowl halftime show.
February 27th, 2006 at 11:08 am
We had this same discussion in class yesterday. Most of us admitted that the biggest obstacle by FAR to going to church was the desire to keep sleeping.
The discussion was about delayed gratification and how nearly every Christian act was an act of faith. After all, if we don’t really believe what we say we believe, then there’s no point to doing all that stuff anyway, is there?
I have to be honest. There is usually about one day per year that I sleep in on a Sunday. Of course, it has to be a day that I am NOT teaching class, NOT preaching and have NO reponsibilities whatsoever. The rarity of those days makes the commitment a pretty easy one to keep.
Here’s a similar question I get: If you weren’t teaching all the time, would you still study? “Hmmmm. Ummm. What makes you ask that question?”
February 27th, 2006 at 11:41 am
Someone is watching, looking for examples, thinking up ideas. The Christian family needs to be careful, because little guys are watching seeing how we love, pray and serve.
For our difficult questions, I tell the kids to ask Steph.
February 27th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
This question has come up in the form of, “Dad, why do we have to go to church tonight when _______ isn’t going.”
Our answer is always something along the lines, there are times in which the standards by which some families live by do not conform to the standards that we’ve set for ours all the time. We believe it’s important to be encouraging and it’s hard to encourage when you’re absent.
February 27th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
There was a time in my life when this question would have posed no problem for me. Now, however, I’m afraid I’d be scrambling around for a good answer. There are reasons, but I would only be sounding like I was making excuses…….
February 27th, 2006 at 11:55 pm
I find that I enjoy my midday Sunday afternoon sleep better than sleeping in on Sunday morning. There I have admitted sleeping on Sunday morning. For convinience sake though it is “unclear” to me that I have done that since I started attending ACOC.