Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I know someone will misunderstand me for saying this, but if you look back to the OT, "meetings" were not such a regular thing. They didn't even start out as weekly. You only had to rest on the Sabbath and keep it holy. Regular meetings came later (I believe it was during or after Babylon when the synagogues came to be).
And it seems that the more often people meet, the more importance they place on the meetings until meetings eventually become the Christian life. At that point everything else is only barely tolerated as necessary so that you have time and strength to go to meetings.
Within the last year or so I read where someone suggested that the Christian life is primarily lived outside of Christian meetings. Meetings are for Christians, not Christians for the meetings. (Sound vaguely familiar?)
|
I'm not one of those who really has a position on what would be a "normal" amount of meetings, I just know how much is too much. The even bigger concern I have is what are these LC meetings accomplishing? I would say that if LCers had meetings every night of the week and it resulted in a positive impact on people's lives in a practical way, then it wouldn't be so bad. What makes it so bad is that LCers are giving up all their time for something that is unlikely to provide any measurable benefit. Meetings may meet the social needs of individuals on a short term basis, but over the long term, I can't think of much benefit that I gained from the numerous meetings that I attended.
I've sat through so many pointless and boring meetings. Not all LC meetings were that way, but it seemed like boring meetings were the rule, not the exception. What was a big point of frustration to me was that some of these meetings could have been perfect opportunities for something positive. Instead, they were put to waste. For example, most prayer meetings I went to involved spending more time praying for things like Europe or DCP litigation than actual local needs. Meetings that were supposed to be specifically for fellowship or coordination were used instead to read a ministry excerpt that provided the "fellowship". I was okay with all this, because I didn't know any better.
As a whole, I believe that the LCM has the obligation to not take advantage of the young and zealous. People like me would go to every meeting that they were asked to go to. For what? It's hard to say, but somewhere a long the way I got the idea of the Christian walk being something "cooperate". I don't claim for a second that there isn't that aspect, but the problem is that the LC qualifies this "cooperate" aspect by demanding meeting attendance. This results in neglecting a personal walk with the Lord. When it comes down to it and you consider all these "new ones" that the LC has in their arms, does the LC not have the responsibility to relay to them that being a Christian involves more that going to meetings? At one point, I seriously believed that going to meetings was what it meant to be a Christian, and it was a defining attribute of Christians. That attitude then instills doubt as to whether those who don't meet are really "genuine" Christians or not.