Yesterday was President's day. Since the kids had no school Kate and I took the kids out for lunch. We heard through our neighbor (thanks Cindy) that Abraham Lincoln's wife's house in Lexington Kentucky was free for tours today. So, being the high spender that I am, we decided to go check it out. When we got there, Pierson was alseep and so Kate stayed with him in the car while I took the kids into the house.
Upon entering the house, I was greeted and asked for my donation for me ($7). In the next five minutes I heard so many "no's" and "don'ts" that I lost count. We were told to wait for the next tour. We were told to go check out the museum shoppe. We go to the museum shop and we are afraid to touch anything. The lady behind the desk is noticeably stressed that my four young kids are with me. We ask her directions to the bathroom. She gracefully shows us where to go, opens a special lock and instructs me to make sure I turn off the light and shut the two doors forcefully behind me when I leave. After business we return to the main hall waiting our turn for a tour. The tour guide told me to turn off my cell phone (which I didn't have), not to take pictures (which I did have my camara) and tells my kids not to touch anything. I'm thinking, "Boy, I can't wait for this tour. It's gonna be great!"
The tour was great. She gave us a tour of every room in the house and provided us with much detail. THe only thing we could touch was the handrail going up and down the stairs.
After leaving this experience and driving home, I thought to myself, "I'm glad I did this but I'll don't think I'll be back." The parallels for a preacher are too great not to comment on. I wonder how many people have felt this way when they attend our churches. Either afraid to touch things or afraid they will do something wrong. On top of that, there may actually be people telling us that we did something wrong. One person actually told me they went to church and someone told them they were sitting in their seat and asked this couple to move!
As I thought further, I thought these two locations, a historical site and a church, have different purposes. The Historical site has fragile and one-of-a kind items that can break and/or be damaged. The purpose of a historical site is to look at, not to touch and examine, right? How do the purposes of a church and historical site differ? I think the church serves a different purpose where people are encouraged to touch and to examine. The church is supposed to be user friendly not a museum. I remember a long time ago a piano player at a local church complained that kids were messing up the piano by playing it. While that can happen, part of the reason it is there is to be used, not to be used perfectly, but to be used. While we can teach kids respect of pieces of a house or a church, they serve the mission of the church and not vise versa.
So think about that. Does your attitude say "No" more than it says "yes"?
No comments:
Post a Comment