Church is inconvenient

Photo by Worshae on Unsplash

Getting to church is a struggle. Even though we know the time service begins, my family is still caught off guard almost weekly trying to get out the door to be there on time. We are a part of a church downtown near the city, and so parking is a weekly adventure. We find open spots in local businesses, usually hoofing it down the sidewalk from a few buildings over. Seating lately has been scarce. Trying to find a spot for our entire family to sit together requires not just showing up on time—we’d better be early. Today, we did the walk of shame and sat on the bleachers. My back is still recovering. During the service, chairs are sliding. Toes are tapping. People are whispering (or not so much whispering). Babies are crying. Church is really inconvenient sometimes. Many times actually.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

During the pandemic, many churches closed. Some fought hard to stay open. Most church leadership resolved at some point to stream services for those at home (this was a good thing in my opinion). Many churches invested large budgets into the technology to make this transition look professional. Others did what they could to get by as a stopgap until the doors could reopen. This was not the first attempt at “video” services. Many churches across the country were using video venue models prior to the pandemic. However, this season collectively sent a lot of people to their couches to watch church, and some are just returning now. Many never returned.

At first, the change was kind of thrilling. Wait, I can wear my sweatpants to watch church? I don’t have to dress up, drive somewhere, and look for a seat? But after a while, it became difficult to separate watching church from the football game that appeared on the same TV a couple hours later. It was all just simply something I consume. And afterwards, you turn it off.

As previously stated, church can be really inconvenient sometimes. But here is the thing—so are people. First and foremost, the church is not a building to enter or a program to consume, and it is not reduced to a service on Sunday morning (or Saturday night). A church is a people, and when those people gather, they “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.¹” They meet together as a people, “encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.²”

Most of our lives are becoming carefully curated, all the time. We are able to personalize most anything, which is often the selling point for products and services. This thing knows you and will work around you and your needs. We customize our streaming, swipe through our socials (which the algorithm uses to prepare more personalized content), and screen our calls and inboxes. In a way that would make Protagoras³ proud, we build our lives around, well, us. Can we do this with church? Yes. Should we is the better question.

Personally, I need constant reminders in my life that this life is not simply about me and my curated comfort. I need to stand among a people and know that I am a part of something much bigger than myself. It is an inconvenient blessing to stand shoulder to shoulder with other followers of Jesus and to hear them worship when my heart is struggling to get the words out. I need to wait in line walking up to the Lord’s table, seeing the many around me who are also choosing to take in the Bread of life. I need to sit under the preaching of the Word with no 1.5x speed available, believing God’s Word does not return empty, but that it still sinks into good soil.

Today, as we stood for the reading of God’s Word and worship, I found I was looking around. I saw former students of mine, some of whom had very little interest in spiritual things when they were in my class. My eyes welled up with tears as I watched them worship. I saw young kids and elderly people, the well-dressed and the disheveled, families, singles, widows, college students. It was a room of people who really had no business being together, apart from this common cry—

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.”

1. 1 Peter 2:9

2. Hebrews 10:25

3. Greek philosopher who said “Man is the measure of all things…”