For those of you who are church-goers, I want you to think about that moment you step into church at the start of a service. Think about what you experience. The smiles and friendly faces (hopefully) of the welcomers, the offers of numerous leaflets that, if you’re like me, you turn down because you’ve already received them by email, the nodded greetings of the people at the back of church working on the sound desk or projector. You spot people you know and give them a hug; you ask them how their weekend was and commiserate that it is nearly over. You gradually move towards the pews (or chairs if you’re lucky), take a seat, and wait for the service to begin.
That’s how a service usually starts for me, unless I’m helping out in some way. What I’ve left out, however, is my thought process as I head into church. Sometimes I’ve had to drag myself out of the house, begrudging “giving up” the last few hours of my weekend (I usually go to the evening service). Sometimes I’m excited to go, but often because of the people I’ll see rather than because I’m excited to learn more about God and meet with Him. When I’m there, I can be too critical. I make judgements before the service even starts: will I connect with the sermon, will I know the songs, how long will the sermon be? That open mind I always want to have can close down pretty quickly and I start the service in completely the wrong frame of mind. Now this might not be how you start a church service, and it probably isn’t how I most often start a service, but I know it happens, and more often than it should.
Once the service has started however, God surprises me. That new song might have a line in it that reaches deep into me and prompts me to have a conversation with God that I wasn’t expecting. The preacher challenges me, and it can feel like the sermon was written specifically with me in mind. The prayers really hit home. Essentially, God gets in there and pushes past my judgement, undoes my decisions and smashes down my walls. I know that all I need to do is make myself turn up, and God will meet with me.
But how much more wonderful is it when we go to church desperate for that encounter with God and ready to hear Him? How much more do we hear when our walls are down from the start? I am very lucky at my church – the people there are amazing. We have an incredible worship leader and when he picks up his guitar and leads us in worship, you just know that God will be present in the room. Our preachers are excellent – each time they speak we learn more of God and leave having been challenged in some way. The technical people, readers, prayers, welcomers, band, leaders, speakers and anyone else I’ve forgotten all give their time and their efforts to allow each and every one of us to come to church and meet with God. When I’m critical, I’m not only being unfair – I’m also losing sight of why I’m there.
Many of my friends go to the same service that I attend, and I love meeting them and enjoying that feeling of fellowship with them. But a chance to see them is not the reason I go. I love to worship while being led by a great band, but that isn’t the reason I go. I love to learn something new about God and have something to take into the week as my focus for the week, but even that isn’t the reason I go. I go to church to meet God. It’s as simple as that, when I get down to the heart of it. Meeting God there is what brings me back each week. It is what drags me off the sofa, out of my “loungewear” and into the car.
Don’t get me wrong, I love all the other aspects of church and they are all really important things to take away from a service, but ultimately, I’m there because I know that I will meet with God. When I’m too critical before the service starts, I’m only really delaying that and setting up walls for God to get through before He meets me. When I spend every possible minute before the service chatting to the other people there rather than taking a little time to chat with God, I’m delaying my time with Him.
I suppose what I’m saying is when you go to church, go early so that you have time to talk to people and to God, go with an open mind and expect to be surprised by Him. And after the service, don’t stop your conversation with God early. Most churches offer the chance to pray with someone afterwards, and even if they don’t, you can always pray on your own or with a person on the pew next to you. Remember why you have gone to church and don’t leave before you’ve had your conversation with God.