Dear Rose Park,
I read a small devotion this morning from a book in my office that was collecting dust on the shelf. It’s a thin green book and it was given to me as a gift from a supporter of mine during seminary. The title for the devotion is “The Queen”. If you’re like me you instantly put on your detective hat and ask the question, who is the queen? If you read the devotion though, the queen isn’t a who, it’s a what. To explain, let me share the brief devotion with you:
“Rookie chess players overuse their Queen. Surrendering it at the start of a game will teach you to value the other pieces. In a similar way, many churches depend exclusively on Sunday services (the Queen) to accomplish the mission of the Church. Discover the other pieces, how will you use them?”
I would bet there’s a lot of truth to this. Don’t get me wrong, I love Sunday morning worship. I love seeing you all. I love hearing your beautiful voices sing anthems to God. I love standing on stage during greeting time and seeing handshakes, hugs, conversation and laughter. It truly is the highlight of the week. Sunday morning is a beautiful image of God’s community coming together to worship Him in humility and grace. But, if we are relying exclusively on Sunday morning services to drive the mission of the church, then the mission will only go as far as the service. Meaning, if the service goes well, the sermon hits home, the fellowship is strengthening, and the music brings us to a place of authentic worship then maybe the mission of the church goes beyond our walls and reaches to Monday morning coffee. But if the service is so-so, the sermon is a bloop-single, the fellowship causes strife and anxiety, and the music hinders our worship then maybe the mission of the church stops at the door. Needless to say, that’s a lot of pressure on a sixty-minute service.
Don’t worry, we aren’t removing the Queen, but maybe we should revision what the mission of Sunday morning worship is because if Sunday morning is the only vehicle driving the mission of the church we might not get that far. Hopefully, the mission of the church is driven by you and I in everyday activities. Hopefully the mission of the church is driven by the way we speak at our children’s athletic events, the way we pray at the bedside in the hospital, the way we invite our neighbors over for coffee, the way we care for aging parents, and the way we interact with all those around us. Hopefully, we’re connecting, empowering, and reconciling in everything we do and everything we say.
I love Sunday morning worship, but we’re more than just sixty-minutes on a Sunday morning, aren’t we?
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark