Church Life

“…’Welcome times’ when members stand and guests remain seated. ‘Introduction times’ when guests stand and members remain seated. Ushers handing out name tags or info cards to seated guests as a part of the service (while all eyes are on them).” - Church Answers

“Despite my belief that many churches today are far too programmatic and pragmatic, I would still go back to having an old-fashioned ‘High Attendance Day’ (though I would not call it by that name)” - Chuck Lawless

“Often announcements are bemoaned as a distraction from worship—and they can be. But if everything a church does together is part of our worship, announcing them on Sunday should be also. In these announcements, we get to hear concretely how Scripture is moving this congregation to act together.” - 9 Marks

“ ‘comfort’ is not the normal way that verb gets translated in the New Testament. Most often, this extremely common verb, parakaleō, gets translated [as] ‘encourage,’ ‘exhort,’ or ‘urge,’ but only rarely as ‘comfort.’” - Kenneth Berding

“…what should you do when you begin feeling discontent at your church? What should you do when you feel that yearning to pick up and move on?” - Challies

“Benedictions can be confusing. Are we blessing God? Is God blessing us? Is it a prayer? Is it a pronouncement? The answer to the questions above is yes. But also that it is more of some of those things than others.” - Ref21

“…we are hypocrites about being hypocrites. We hear the pastor mention the Pharisees during the Sunday sermon, and we smugly draw a bit of a caricature in our minds. The Pharisees are those other Christians we’ve known who ‘just don’t get it.’” - Ref21

“The bible actually says almost nothing about what we should wear in Church…. What is also striking is how, at times, the bible could make an issue, but does not. For example, in Nehemiah 8 when the people gathered to hear the law—the preached word—it was not holiness of dress mentioned, but holiness of celebration!” - Ref21

“In Western culture, the high regard for autonomy and obsession with individualism has come at a cost: community. This lack of community (coupled with other factors) has contributed to rising loneliness, affecting our physical and mental well-being. In the church, it’s affecting our spiritual health too.” - TGC