Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Weekly Blurb Let us not give up meeting together

Let us not give up meeting together

Sunday 19 February, 2006 · Posted by Philip Bassett

At our Annual Vestry meeting last Sunday I barely skimmed over the annual attendance statistics in my Rector’s Report. The overall trend over the last 9 years has been a slow drift upwards of only 1.35% per annum. The 8am service has been essentially constant, the 6pm service has grown an encouraging 67% in the last 3 years but the 9:45am service has declined 19 % in the same period.

This decline in the 9:45am service is a concern and I have been trying to figure out what is going on, particularly as my impression is that there are more people actually involved in this service. One obvious explanation is that people are not attending every week.

I have not actually resorted to mentally marking a roll but again my impression is that some people attend two out of three or every other week rather than weekly. The question, to quote Julius Sumner Miller, is “Why is it so?”

Some possible answers:

  • The alarm clock only goes off on time every second Sunday.
  • Your child’s football/cricket/netball team plays away every other week.
  • Your elderly aunt takes sick on alternate weekends.
  • Somehow we have chosen all your least favorite songs on even numbered weeks.
  • It’s two hot, two cold, two dry, two wet, two sunny, two dull.
  • You or your spouse are only on the roster every other week.
  • You never come on baptism Sundays because three years ago a visitor took your favorite seat.
  • You don’t like Holy Communion so you never come on the second Sunday of the month.
  • You quite like me but you can’t stand my sermons so you limit your exposure.
  • You have not thought through your commitment to Toongabbie Anglican Church.

Whatever the reason we love to see you and it is good for you to join with God's people regularly every week.

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25

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