LAYING OUT OF CHURCH
TERRIBLE PRIORITIES - People have their priorities so mixed up today that they are completely backwards. Many are so messed up in priorities that they think camping, vacation, sports, school activities, family or friends are actually more important than the house of God. This shows their priority level for spiritual things. Christians need to get their priorities in line. Anything put before God is an idol. That means seventy-five percent of our church members are idolaters several times a year.
TRYING TO PROVE A POINT - This is seen over and over. Some deacon or Sunday school teacher that everyone likes gets mad at the man of God for straight preaching and stays out of church. This is done for a reason, to prove a point. This person wants everyone to notice his absence and longs for the phone calls of innocent members asking about it. A childish church member should take his toy and go home. He only proves that he is a spoiled brat that cannot take preaching.
TOUGHENED TO PREACHING - This kind is known all over the Bible belt. They are know as "Church Hoppers." They have been to every church in the county, and not one church or pastor is good enough for them because they know it all already. It is almost impossible to pastor this crowd. They hate authority and will misinterpret and pick apart everything the pastor says. My question is this. If these folks know it all and could do so much better, why don't they pick up a Bible and get to preaching? The truth be known, this crowd has probably never knocked on a door, handed someone a tract, or even brought someone to church. They are all cowardly Hypocrites!
THOUGHTLESS ABOUT THEIR POSITION - This shouldn't even have to be addressed, but this is a problem in our Fundamental churches. often, people holding positions don't care about the responsibility that goes with the position. If a member holds any position in church at all, he has an obligation not only as a Christian, but also as a leader before the congregation to be present every time the doors of the church are open. A deacon, Sunday school teacher, musician, song leader, janitor, groundskeeper, or toilet cleaner in a church should not be laying out of the house of God. To be qualified to hold such a position, he should be faithful to the house of God. That goes for the wives and children of those serving in our churches as well. People could not hold a job in the secular world and lay out. Why should they be able to in the church.
TAUGHT BY PARENTS - Hey mom and dad! Before you go running to the preacher's house again asking him why Jr. doesn't want to come to church now that he is married and on his own, remember that he had good teachers. It amazes me at the parents who lay out, skip, and make excuses and treat the house of God so flippantly and then wonder why their children don't care about the things of God or being faithful to church. The preacher cannot take out in one message or meeting what has been bred in for over eighteen years.
TOUCH OF POWER IS LOST - Often this is the underlying factor for many. People who don't have an inkling of what the power of God is use this for an excuse. When a Christian is first saved, and church is all he thinks about, the power of God is so real and strong in his life. After missing church, making excuses and being careless with his testimony a Christian would feel the lack of God's touch and power in his life. Above all else and underlying every other reason, the fact that people lay out of church so easily shows that they don't have the touch of God like they once did.
Remember, Pastor, when people make excuses, these are some of the "real reasons" they lay out of church.
Pastor Brandon Marshall
Bethlehem Baptist Church, Morganton, NC.