Articles
Men of Faith
A little graphic and quote has been going around FB this week, and thousands have commented on it. I'd like to expand on it just a bit, because it's something that needs to be said in our day and time. It is a message to men, about the importance of going to church.
Men - fathers, husbands, sons, brothers, bosses, employees, it is urgently important that you attend church services. People who watch you, like your kids, need to see you there. So does your wife! They need to know it's important to you and for you. They need to see you giving Sunday to God, not using it for something secular and self-serving.
At church, people will be observing you. The front row is not necessarily the logical place, but if you sit on the back row, play on your phone and duck out within .01 seconds of the 'amen', that says something about you, right or wrong!
When at church, you are sitting with a gathering of other people who came for a common purpose. You should not consider yourself as part of the audience. We have that sooooo wrong in our society. God is the audience! We are the performers, all of us. You need to perform by singing, praying, communing and giving, all parts of worship. If your kids, or anyone else watching sees you just sitting there, or worse yet, snoozing or surfing the web, what exactly is the message you are sending?
Participate, listen, bow your head at the appropriate time, let songs of praise be voiced in your body and let the spiritual aspect be evident in your heart. Pay attention to the sermon, and take home what you can in order to make your life and that of your family better. Worship is a time of seriousness and meditation in one form, yet it is likewise a time to celebrate what Christ has done for us, and the freedom we have that gives us victory through Jesus Christ. Don't forget that Christ is with us, when we gather to worship.
Lead your family, don't follow or worse yet, make yourself absent. Be strong. Be the man God calls you to be. We recently quoted some figures that were very similar to these published by S. Michael Craven.
((1. If both father and mother attend regularly, 33 percent of their children will end up as regular churchgoers, and 41 percent will end up attending irregularly. Only a quarter of their children will end up not practicing at all.
2. If the father is irregular and mother regular, only 3 percent of the children will subsequently become regulars themselves, while a further 59 percent will become irregulars. Thirty-eight percent will be lost.
3. If the father is non-practicing and mother regular, only 2 percent of children will become regular worshipers, and 37 percent will attend irregularly. Over 60 percent of their children will be lost completely to the church!
And catch this, (4) What are the figures if the father is regular but the mother irregular or non-practicing? Amazingly, the percentage of children becoming regular goes up from 33 percent to 38 percent with the irregular mother and up to 44 percent with the non-practicing. This suggests that loyalty to the father’s commitment grows in response to the mother’s laxity or indifference to religion.))
Men, even if we didn't have all these reasons to show up and worship, we still have Christ's commands to us individually for our own soul, something He expects of us each and every week. Let's get it right on Sunday!
