At lunch time today the conversation turned to church, which is quite unusual for us, even though we are teachers at a Christian school.

As staff members each person (I discovered) has to get an annual report from their pastor stating that they are a regular attendee at worship services.

We began to discuss the implications of this…

The assumption seems to be that attendance at worship indicates all is well spiritually with the person and of course vice versa. I know I have made that assumption as a pastor at times. Its pretty dumb really. On the plus side it does offer some degree of assessment as to whether they are in community with other believers.

Then we began to discuss how often ‘regular’ is… I offered the thought that having been a pastor of a church I grew to ‘expect the average punter to front up once every three weeks or so. Not that often, but it seems to be more and more the trend’. The days of weekly Sunday AM and PM attendance are long gone for most people.

Should we expect more?… I know I did, but was more often than not disappointed…

We began to discuss a church plant that one teacher is a part of – which is an offshoot and still under the leadership and authority of the mother ship. It sounded like church by remote control. ‘Ah… a franchise?’ I suggested…

‘Andrew you make the church sound like a business with this talk of punters and franchises!’

‘No!…Surely not…’

It wasn’t intentional, but its funny what cynicism lays latent ready to rear up!