Pastor’s Podium

Several years ago I moved to the big city of Dallas. While it was a much larger city than I had ever lived in, it wasn’t radically different from other places, mostly. The one big difference that immediately stuck out was what I saw each Sunday morning. As I drove to church, I passed soccer fields and parks that were absolutely packed with families. Moreover, it wasn’t a rare occurrence, such as a tournament, but every weekend.

Having lived outside of the “Bible Belt” prior to that, I was accustomed to the fact that Christianity is not always the majority and not all go to church. Yet, what was different and strange for me was twofold: first, that organizers would schedule children’s activities for Sunday mornings (and Wednesday nights); second, that many of these families identified as Christians yet so rarely attended church due to scheduling.

Years have passed, and what I saw back then is commonplace not only in the big cities but across our nation. Even in a rural place like ours, it is not uncommon for me to hear children and parents talk about sports practices and games every night of the week. While it would have been unfathomable for us to have a Sunday night practice when I was playing sports, now it occurs without much thought or push back. Whether we like it or not, the landscape has changed. Sports, particularly children’s sports, are the new religion of the American family.

While part of me would like to take to task those who schedule such things, the reality is that it isn’t the responsibility of schools, teams, or anyone else to protect times and days for families to attend church. In fact, conflicting activities are not the real problem. Life always has conflicts. It is more often than not that we find our schedules full. Rarely can we attend everything we would like, because we would need to be in multiple places at once.

What it comes down to is not a convenient schedule but priorities. Our priority wins the time slot; it’s really as simple as that. Yes, our society has changed. Activities, particularly children’s activities (but also many jobs), no longer take into account the traditional Sundays and Wednesdays of the church meetings or so squeeze the time around them that it makes doing everything impractical if not impossible; yet what has made things different regarding attendance is not the schedule but our priority.

Faith is no different than the rest of our life when it comes down to the fact that our words matter little if our actions do not back them up. It comes across as an empty statement for one to declare a girlfriend, wife, or kids as the most important thing in the world and then miss their significant life events to attend every Chiefs and Royals game, because we know that how and where we choose to spend our time reveals our true priority. While attending church is not what saves us, it is certainly a visible measurement of what we really value.

For most of our history in America, attending church has been convenient, needing little prioritization. You may remember a time when church attendance was not in conflict with other things and was even expected by all. That is not the case anymore, and if we keep the mentality of convenience, then we will quickly find ourselves going to church “when it fits in” rather than faithfully.

Those of the Christian faith can no longer expect it to be convenient and easy to come and worship each week. No, now it must be a matter of priority. One must see getting up on a Sunday morning or getting out on a Sunday or Wednesday night as important, even at the expense of something else. Things have changed in our schedules, yet the solution is not to bemoan the change or pine for the past. The solution is to answer and then act on the question: “Is attending church just a matter of convenience that I will go to when it fits my schedule or is it my priority?” Jesus said,“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

I encourage you to consider what your life is displaying as most important not simply what you say is most important. What are your children or family being taught is the proper priority of life?