Gather, Then Scatter

Can I get an AMEN on how hard it is to get the family to church on Sunday morning?

For real, y’all. It’s no picnic on school mornings either, but the difference there is that the grown-ups aren’t sticking around at school. As soon as the kids are settled, we’re free to get breakfast or a shower, or some much-needed caffeine.

But Sunday morning? More Sundays than not, we back out of the driveway embroiled in a family argument. If it’s the two oldest of our clan, that argument involves one Hergenrader (me) passively aggresively sighing and pointing out the time while the other (Mike) drives too fast and asks me why it takes twenty minutes to blow dry my hair.

The kids pick up on this and by the time we get to our church, we are more prepared to make a comprehensive list of each other’s most annoying traits than we are to make any strides in loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Every single Sunday, it is u-g-l-y.

My friend, Jen, snapped the above picture when their family joined us for church over Spring Break. Same Sunday routine that morning: my kids asking to wear pajamas to church,  insisting they are “starving!” just as we’re walking out the door, Mike sorting his clothes dry cleaning FIVE MINUTES after we’re supposed to leave, and have I mentioned it takes me a long time to blow dry my hair?

Finally our crew of six Hergenraders and five Wards arrived at St. Johns, my childhood church and settled into a pew. The kids were amped up on the thrill of having friends with them and on sugar. The energy level was HGIH, and we had an hour of liturgy and hymn singing ahead of us.

Have you been here? Have you spent the service praying your kid won’t throw a temper tantrum or draw on the pew or fall asleep or sneak a few games on your iPhone? Have you spent the whole service deflecting glances from the older worshippers around you, who seem to have forgotten that it’s a MIRACLE your crew is here at all. Calm, quiet kids are just not happening.

We made it through the service. The kids were fine and no one cared much they were braiding each other’s hair and loudly unwrapping cellophane candy. I may have been shushing more than I was singing, but we WERE THERE! Another week down!

Two hours later, at a nice lunch, everyone was much more relaxed. We prayed before we ate, we spent time with Christian friends, and Jen  encouraged me as I went on and on about my passion for writing the book about the Ten Commandments. In other words, we fellowshipped.

Which makes me wonder, if we accomplished the praying and the fellowshipping over some delicious shrimp poboys, was the tedious church service worth it at all? If our kids only improved their braiding techniques and I only worked on my shushing skills, then why rush out the door with the whole drama of WEHAVETOGETTOCHURCHRIGHTNOW!

Believers have been asking this question for millennia. How many Israelite mamas didn’t make it to worship because they were just too WORN OUT from getting the sacrifice and the festival meal together ?

Did Jesus announce the whole “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there with them” promise because attendance was down at the riverside? Maybe one too many dads had HAD it with the getting-out-the-door drama of trying to arrive at church on-time.

Even now, the post-post modern church is changing the way we see the Gather part of Gather, Then Scatter. The emphasis is on the Scatter. “Go! Be the church wherever you are! You do NOT need a fancy building or a big service to be a Christian. Scatter! You can just live out your faith wherever you are.”

As a mama with a three-year-old, all this sounds pretty good. In about five years, when Nate is older, the other kids will be fifteen, thirteen, and thirteen. It’s MUCH easier to get teenagers to church on-time, right?

Ha. That scattering sounds better and better. Maybe we should skip church every once in a while.

If we can fellowship with our Christian friends anywhere, can pray anytime, or read the Bible any second of the day, why not be out in the community…preferably after 11 on Sunday, when our crew has had a chance to wake up and blow dry our hair?

Because we wouldn’t do it, for one. The spirit is willing to do mission work and read the Bible every day and pray for those who need it, but the Hergenrader flesh is weak. Without the accountability of hundreds of other Christians meeting up with us at church, we would spend our Sundays avoiding homework and going to the grocery store.

That’s not all. We also need the Gather part of Gather, Then Scatter because the traditions are important. The beautiful songs and the flow of the divine service, and the reverence for the sacraments, and the liturgy our ancestors have said for hundreds of years is our heritage. This is our language, this is our identity, this is our future. Gathering together for the word and the sacraments is important.

Know I am RIGHT THERE WITH YOU every Sunday morning, sisters. I am shedding fresh tears over the  flip-flop argument I have every week with my boys. I am begging Nate to try and potty NOW, so he doesn’t have to do it during the Confession of Sins. I am stuffing bags full of quiet snacks and coloring books and doodle pads right alongside you.

And then I’m going to church. Because it’s so important to gather.

Just as soon as I finish blow drying my hair….