Here is Tom Sawyer’s description of public worship. He says, “The announcements are made from a list that would stretch to the crack of doom.” The prayer is, to use his words, “generous in its details”. Furthermore, Tom is so familiar with the prayer that he knows it by heart, and so he recognizes and resents any new additions to it. The preacher’s sermon drones on monotonously through an argument that is so prosy that many a head begins to nod. Basically, the worship services bore Tom.
We really need to examine our church services in case a Tom Sawyer attends.
Matthew 15:9
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”
1 Timothy 3:15
if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Church can be a dangerous place.
Acts 20:9
And a young man named Eutychus, sitting at the window, sank into a deep sleep as Paul talked still longer. And being overcome by sleep, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead.
Come out some Sunday and let us know how we’re doing.
Give it some thought.
Gary