Sleeping In on Sunday

I was lying in bed Sunday morning, mulling it over in my head: why should I get out of this warm, comfortable womb to go to church? It took some convincing, especially after the trumpet music from the Sunday Morning show on CBS started to play that old familiar run of notes. It was safe there in my room; no hassles, full acceptance-- and nothing was being asked of me except for my coffee cup to be refilled.

You see, for the greatest part of our married life, we have been "professional Christians." That is to say, we have been paid staff members in churches. Over the years we have served several churches in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. (I had my first staff position in California as a youth minister at Lutheran church in my hometown of Fullerton at just 19 years old). I have been a professional Christian for 32 years now. Frankly, I have gotten to the point where I have been asking what other non-professional Christians have asked for years: why should I go? A salary is a great motivator to get the professionals to church, but what about those who have no attachment other than guilt, religious duty, or to keep that family burial plot in the church graveyard?

I know that George Barna and Rick Warren have amply addressed the subject of "purpose driven" and "why do we do this church thing." Still, in 2011, after reading all of the books, attending (even leading) seminars on church, I sat there wondering why I should even roll out of bed.

I have seen my neighbors cutting their lawns on Sunday morning as I peeled out of my driveway on the way to work...um, I mean church. I may have even scoffed a time or two at their lack of religious devotion. I have seen them retrieve their morning paper in their bath robes, having no intention of getting to a local place of worship. Maybe they didn't know the Lord; maybe they had tried church and it seemed a big waste of time--and maybe I looked at them with envy. I must admit, I have to ask the question: is going to church this morning worth it? Will I find warmth there, acceptance, grace, patience and friendship? God knows we all need it, desperately. Judgement is cheap and easier to dole out than the costly commitment to walk along side a brother or sister who is having a hard time. I know full well the tendency to avoid the time-consuming effort of helping those in need.

So, as I pulled the sheets over my shoulder and wrestled with the temptation to stay there for a while longer, I resisted and rolled out of bed. Even as a professional Christian, I lose focus on why I go to church, what brought me here in the first place, and what is it that we can do to better serve our communities for Jesus. Guilt won't do it, and "Mama said so" won't do it.

I need to reconnect with the force that brought me to that Christian coffee house in 1975 when I was 15. I received Christ there because I felt the love of Jesus through the people who invited me. It wasn't a traditional religious setting, just an old house set up to host Bible studies, serve coffee and stale donuts, and to meet people's spiritual needs. If those things aren't present in our churches this coming Sunday, we'd do better to roll over and catch a few more minutes of sweet sleep.