Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I'm sure everyone has heard a sermon or three about how some people value "entertainment" over "spirituality" or "serving the lord", y'all know what I'm getting at.

It's the sermon you hear in response to people complaining about church being boring. Apparently, if it's not boring enough, God doesn't approve.

The thing is though, if you want people to not fall asleep, you got to keep them engaged somehow. Simply doing the same five acts over and over again ain't gonna cut it.

And they wonder why the lose people.

It's the fault of the slackers, dontcha know. It is not the lord's church's job to provide YOU with
entertainment!!

sonicrainkrieg42 wrote:I'm sure everyone has heard a sermon or three about how some people value "entertainment" over "spirituality" or "serving the lord", y'all know what I'm getting at.

It's the sermon you hear in response to people complaining about church being boring. Apparently, if it's not boring enough, God doesn't approve.

The thing is though, if you want people to not fall asleep, you got to keep them engaged somehow. Simply doing the same five acts over and over again ain't gonna cut it.

And they wonder why the lose people.

Yup. Here is yet another example where the coc uses fear to make their point. I've heard this too many times, "they just want to be entertained". Nice excuse for your boring service. What contributes to the boredom is they beat down on you from the pulpit with fire and brimstone sermons, the members sing songs with no feelings/energy because everything must be done "decently and in order". According to whom? According to the arrogant men in charge. I guess when everyone is on their way to hell, why would you be happy? The only brand of coc that I've found to have some energy, is the hand clapping churches, the ones the non-hand clappers claim are unscriptural. I visited one of these last week with a sibling, and there was no fire and brimstone, everyone seemed happy to be there, no hammering on "denominations", and they sang songs with passion.

I remember when I was in high school I would regularly doze off during sermons and my mom would elbow me constantly to keep me awake. The services were painfully boring and there was a point where staying awake was the hardest thing, especially on Sunday morning. I used to think I was the only one until I started sitting in the back. Half of the congregation would be falling asleep, whispering to people around them, discreetly playing on their phones while pretending to follow along on their bible app. But don't dare suggest anything change because of how boring the sermons are, you'll be accused of "wanting a rock concert" or shouts of, "We're not here to be entertained, we're here to worship God!" I also recall preachers complaining about people falling asleep or obviously daydreaming, but of course nothing would ever be done to change that. It's always the members fault. They're bored not because the service is extremely boring, but because apparently they're not putting enough into it themselves.

Repetition plays a huge role in the 'worship service' of the majority of religious groups, not just in the CoC. Any change in the 'service' format on Sunday morning is deemed improper - even dangerous - and considered a breach of the churches creed, bylaws, Scriptural interpretation, elder rules, or whatever ... boredom is the byproduct of a lifeless 'worship service.'

MusicMan826 wrote:discreetly playing on their phones while pretending to follow along on their bible app

Now THAT sounds awesome!! We didn't have those back in my cofc days.

Ivy wrote:

MusicMan826 wrote:discreetly playing on their phones while pretending to follow along on their bible app

Now THAT sounds awesome!! We didn't have those back in my cofc days.

It's the only thing that got me through my last year of going to the CoC...much better than staring at my bible daydreaming and fighting like hell to stay awake haha.

MusicMan826 wrote:But don't dare suggest anything change because of how boring the sermons are, you'll be accused of "wanting a rock concert" ...

Is this false dichotomy universal in the COC? It's like there's no gradation at all between boring COC service and Ozzy Osbourne.

What were COC preachers using as the bad example in the pre-rock'n'roll days? Swing?

1940s COC Preacher: "Those denominations with their pianos and organs! What do they want, a Benny Goodman concert?!"
1940s COC Members: "Amen."

Lev

MusicMan826 wrote:It's the only thing that got me through my last year of going to the CoC...much better than staring at my bible daydreaming and fighting like hell to stay awake haha.

I've gotten a lot of good Bible reading done during COC services. Of course, the people sitting next to me probably wondered why my Bible was open to Hosea in a sermon on Acts 2:38 (what else?) but I didn't mind. I probably wouldn't have had a better opportunity to have made it through most of the minor prophets.

Lev

I read all the major parts of Exodus, Joshua, Ruth etc while 'in the worship service'. When a bit younger, my sister and I played that game with the dots - you guys know that one? It is more challenging than tic-tac-toe.