Beware of bad attitudes at the Church service

There always comes a time when you attend a Church service. Usually this is on Sundays in most places while some follow a Saturday schedule as per local custom etc. What matters is your attitude at such times and places. You need to beware of bad attitudes at the Church service. Let me make this clear before I elaborate on this topic, that the church is not limited to a physical structure but in fact is every person who believes in Jesus Christ. Also a church service can happen even outside the walls of the church building.

A bad attitude at the Church service won’t do you any good. Having lack of faith and trust in the Lord is not helpful. However, this can be corrected as your faith can increase while hearing from the preaching of the word of God. The problem is some people don’t want to listen though they appear to be listening. Earlier people would keep talking among each other during the service. But now some couples keep staring at each other as it that the first and last time they would see other. Someone is busy texting on the phone or playing games. Not a wise thing at all.

Church of Transfiguration, Mount Tabor (Photo credit: Christopher Chan)

Then there is the dress policing crowd, whose sole aim is to make faces at those who are not dressed up well enough as per their standards. They won’t focus on the preaching but instead will keep judging everyone who enters the church, even the kids. Some people have the habit of walking out right in the middle of the service. I can understand if you have a genuine emergency but what I find weird is that this walking out of the service before it ends, happens every time you come. This speak volumes on how people put a wrong precedent on themselves.

Also some people party like there is no tomorrow and come to church totally groggy. I mean they are very sleepy and have no clue what is going in the service. There is the crowd which sometimes includes the preachers who are paying more attention to the clock instead of waiting for God to lead them.

Since I spoken about the preachers I will say the following things too. Some preachers only want to please the people. The follow the concept of “Vox populi vox Dei” meaning the voice of the people is the voice of God. What a crazy concept because the Bible mentions that Aaron listened to the Israelite’s of his time and then created a false idol to worship as the Lord. And then God’s judgement came down very severely on them. This is mentioned in the Bible.

So these people fearing preachers will avoid all the ‘controversial’ topics like adulterous living, drug addiction, child abuse, hell and divine judgement on an argument saying that they need to keep ‘peace and unity’ in the church. Pastors need to protect the church from evil doers and not from the word of God. Don’t water down the message of the Gospel even if the people ear’s are itching to hear an ego boosting sermon on how great they are. Avoid preaching sermons on donating to the church for the thousandth time and instead preach other topics that are not yet preached in church.

Also the worst attitude to have in the church is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 which speaks about having the Lord’s supper in an unworthy manner: Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

There is also a sizable number of people who don’t seem to have any noticeable bad attitude at the church service but all I can say is that the Lord Jesus can see through everyone heart for their true intentions. For some people have a Pharisaic attitude and consider themselves the best in the world as they don’t have any of the above bad attitudes. What they fail to realize is they too are deceived as a result of their pride in their own character instead of the grace of God. One must be thankful to Jesus that one is free from sin but not start looking down on others who lack discipline for even once we lacked discipline but Jesus still gave his life for us.

I pray that you have the mind of Christ wherever you go and especially in Church services. That the Lord is adored and glorified in your thoughts, words and actions. Amen.