Weekends Away!

There are few things that get the Levy blood boiling like weekends away.  I live on the outskirts of London. It's glorious suburbia with a bit of an edge - but not much.  Lots of people in our church who work in the centre of town have about an hour on the tube into work each day.  That's great reading time but can be pretty miserable at rush hour without a seat when it's scorching.  I can understand that by Friday there is a sense in which you want to escape out of London to the countryside and get away from it all.

The problem with this is church life.  Our generation, for all the talk of credit crunch, recession, cuts etc etc is remarkably wealthy and has disposable income which allows us to get away on short breaks more often than previous generations. We are able to live further away from our families and yet able to dash back for a long weekend quite regularly. In the UK the holiday allowance is generous which allows us up to 4 or 5 weeks away.

The problem with this in church life, and particularly in major cities is that on any given Sunday lots of people can be away for the weekend. People can be in and out of church life. It's particularly an issue, it seems to me, for folk in their 20s and 30s. With university friends scattered all round the country and the continent it's easy just to be here, there and everywhere and not be able to get stuck into church life.

As for the second home brigade, I don't see how you can realistically say you're part of a church and yet spend a significant time away from your local church each year.  As for the ''I've got two churches'' arguments the question is, in which body are you playing a role? Which body are you serving in?

Finally, student organisations have spent the last number of years increasing the amount of weekends away students go on. If truth be told student workers particularly are not a great help in local church life. They are a great encouragement when they are there but they are not there that often. Admittedly to criticise student work in the UK is like signing your own suicide note in ministry but the truth is our students are not with us very long anyway and to be dragged away from the local church regularly harms them and us.

What's the solution? To stop going away for weekends! What is one of the basic ways you show that you love God's people? You want to be with them. You're committed to them. They are a priority for you. You build your life around God's people. One of the ways godliness works itself out in church life is by putting careful thought into thinking ''How do my actions affect others?'' Part of the reason we gather to worship corporately is to encourage one other.  Your presence is a great encouragement to others. Don't give up meeting together!