The other night I took my kids to a "dollar" cinema to see one of the latest offering of animated movies. The last time I took my kids to a movie it was at a "regular" theater. The first thing I noticed about the dollar theater was the large price difference - which was nice. The second thing I noticed got me thinking of things of a more eternal nature. When we got seated in the theater I noticed that it was not very full - which wasn't surprising as I've seldom ever been in a packed out discount theater. But what I wasn't counting on is the vast number of people that came in after the movie started. The number of late comers was at least equivalent to the number who were early. One family even came in at least forty-five minutes after the movie started (I know because they plopped down right next to me). It dawned on me that you never see that at a full priced theater and the reason why? It has to be price. When folks pay more for something, they value it more. When something costs you something, there is more emotional investment in making sure you're there on time and get your choice of seat.
Now fast forward to Sunday morning at your church. Notice how many people are late and how many of those are habitually so.
We value things that cost us something.
I'll let you do the math.
The Truth:
"Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” 2 Sam. 24:24.
"Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.'" Luke 9:23.
That one's a stinger...and great insight.
ReplyDeletegreat post.
ReplyDeletepermission to have my ushers pass this article out to late arrivers?
LOL...please feel free!!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't 'cost' people anything to be late to church, so they don't mind coming in late. I got that, but I'm not sure what the point is.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying the beginning of church services (or all of the service) are so bland and superficial that it doesn't 'cost' people anything to miss them? How would you make missing part of a service 'costly' to people?
I thoroughly enjoy my church's services, and so missing out on part of them would 'cost' me.
I'm at a loss as to how a church would go about trying to fix a problem like that. Try to ratchet up social pressure to arrive on time? That would be putting a patch on a problem, not fixing it.
J - I think you're missing the point bro - if it's important enough to us - we'll be on time. As humans we tend to value things more that cost us something (thing we are invested in) - and things that cost us nothing we tend to place less importance on.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a problem if we are talking about our relationship with Christ - right?