Commitment-Phobia?

As we wrapped up the second worship and prayer session last saturday, I was very much struck by the attendance. Not so much the fact that a lot fewer showed up, but also the randomness of our congregation.

It seems that there is no way to “have expectations” that anyone would come. There’s hardly anyone of whom I could say “Hmm… its so weird that he/she didn’t show up. Its not like him/her.” In other words, it’s a rather peculiar community we have, where commitment and obligations are such a fluid entity. And I’m a little puzzled as to just how “normal” this all is…

I find that my thoughts quickly turn to the way people in our church buy “insurance policies”. Hardly anyone wholeheartedly agrees to commit to anything, but the default position is always to simply “try my best”. And those three little words come across as being so trite when you find out their excuses for having missed a meeting or event.

“I had to run a marathon.”

“I overslept.”

“I HAD to spend time with my girlfriend/boyfriend.”

“I had *something* on.” (In other words, I was busy. And I’m not gonna tell you what with.)

“I was busy with another ministry.” (An all-time favorite excuse, by the way.)

“I needed a break.” (Another favorite, said in the seasoned tones of a ministry veteran.)

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I’ve used plenty of these same excuses myself. And I know just what a phoney I was when delivering my lines. If I had been completely honest, I wasn’t even close to “trying hard” when I gave those events a miss, much less “trying my best”.

And one of the most prominent ways in which this problem manifests itself is in the church-hopping syndrome we all have. I’ve seen so many people leave our church for another, citing so many reasons along the way. So much so that if everyone in the congregation were to adopt one reason each, we could all pack up and leave the church en masse.

I’m one of the few remaining members of my fellowship, and I expect that number to dwindle even further. To be fair, a chunk of them are now overseas, so I can’t really blame them for not being around. But even then, I guess there’s room for the point that in their decision-making process, church just wasn’t important enough to make them stick around.

After all, life is all about opportunity cost, isn’t it?

So as we sit around and dabble in ministry, I’m taking a good hard look at the members of my Levite Ministry, my Life Group, and the 2nd Service congregation, and asking myself WHO CAN I COUNT ON TO STILL BE AROUND IN 5 YEARS’ TIME TO PARTNER WITH ME???

In fact, its making ME look in the mirror and asking myself if I’m also gonna be around.