Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Newspring Call Center
Sunday morning at Newspring the 11:15 service felt like it should have been the Newspring Call Center staffed by mothers of infants and toddlers and it was bring them to work day. It was unbelievable. Crying babies, chattering toddlers, and cell phones, multiple cell phones, the whole service were ringing. Not on vibrate, ringing. I grew up in a fundamental Bible thumping church that was more geared toward rules and regulations than relationships, and I lived under a heavy dose of guilt and fear. I’ve shared before the Jesus of my childhood was not the man in the picture holding the lamb or surrounded by children, he was the mad Jesus in the temple. I was raised that you would have the blood of any individual you didn’t share Jesus with or that you kept from knowing Jesus on your hands at Judgment. This meant if I ever lived like I wasn’t a Christian, someone might see me and not become a Christian, and it would be all my fault. This may be a little extreme, and not quite what they meant to teach, but in my formative years, it was the lesson I got. And I reverted last Sunday. At the moment Mark started telling people how they could know Jesus and how they could change their life the babies all let loose. Cell phones, it was worse at that moment than any other during a service full of distractions. What if someone who needed to hear that was sitting right in front of the toddler? The cell phone? What if the distraction kept him from hearing? What is the responsibility of that individual? (and this is purely rhetorical, just my rant for this Tuesday. Maybe I’ll rave next Tuesday and be done.)
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Nearly everyone carries a cell phone these days. It's understandable that someone might forget to silence their ringer. If you continually forget to shut it off, then leave it in the car!
ReplyDeleteAn even bigger pet peeve is when someone is texting or using their phone during the service. I observed someone doing that a few weeks ago and once it got my attention, I was stuck on it and equally disturbed. I missed several minutes of the sermon.
It's rare that we have babies in our worship service; most go to the nursery. In the rare event there is one in service who has a meltdown, one of the parents will quickly excuse themselves from the sanctuary.
I can understand why it bothered you.
I am so glad our church has a cry room! Since baby was born 2 months ago, I have only heard 1 sermon the whole way through.
ReplyDeleteI understand how they can be distracting even if they are quiet!
There was a person in our church who would knit during the service, and it seemed we always sat behind them.
Or there are those couples who feel like sitting in church is the place to play with their spouse's hair ... So many distractions! could Satan be at work even there?