And new comers to church cannot conform to our conventional standards. Nay! But we’re all at different stages of growth in Christ. This is not saying there should be no decorum in civil society. How can we then turn people away from God ON ANY ACCOUNT?! God looks at the heart, not conventional correctness. Bible says he goes to byways and highways. The Holy Spirit goes to great trouble to bring people to church. It’s why we deem some dresses “inappropriate” for church and so turn people back from church. We often mistake the tenets of Christianity for our cultural worldview, and personal biases and preferences. We have the mistaken notion that the church is the locale of the perfect, yet the facts of our lives indicate otherwise. It must amaze God we turn people away from church! And we see excesses and even usurpation of Christ’s authority when ushers turn back people on account of dressing. A highhanded approach to church ushering cannot be in conformity with the spirit of Christ. Perhaps those who come early to church should be rewarded with personal choice of sitting location. Worship is the most important aspect of church service. Forcing people to sit where they are uncomfortable in will necessarily curtail the quality of worship offered God.Īn usher getting into an argument with a congregant before service is counterproductive. These individual preferences must not be curtailed in the pursuit of sardine-like order in the filling of pews. They want to worship incognito or incognita. Some people are frontbenchers, and some are backbenchers. They need space for rhythmic pirouette and prances. They do not do well in inner pews or cloisters of a church. Over-ushering encumbrances the individual comfort and context required for veritable worship. A sense of liberty is therefore needed for worship. God our father encourages us to be BOLD before him. Children feel free in the presence of their father. We are not just God’s creation we are his children. The philosophy of the New Testament is predicated on Fatherhood. It is at the very root of the New Covenant. There is no prescribed dance step for worship in the Bible. The chartered liberty we have is why we can roll on the floor and sit on the floor in God’s presence. It’s why we feel free to jump and shout before God. Ushering must be pre-assuring of deliverance In the presence of the Lord there is liberty. We’re all at different places when we come to church. Things must be done decently and in order, but not at the expense of spiritual equilibrium needed for worship. It disrupts the personal equilibrium of the worshipper, which then affects the quality of worship offered to God. An unnecessary and insistent disciplinary denial of personal sitting preference can be upsetting. They INSIST on where you should sit in church, remove the option of personal preference. Not all ushers understand this fact and some approach their duties like disciplinarians and policemen and women. Over-ushering is detrimental to the spirit of worship. That said, there’s ushering and there’s over-ushering. Some Christians are particularly recalcitrant, and some people take out their frustration on church ushers. It is also important for the usher to be discerning, and wise to understand human nature and its vagaries. An usher must be mature enough to deflect the ironic tendencies of some congregants with grace and poise. The bottom line is that the work of a church usher is not an easy job. In many modern churches the usher must also have a budget for “uniform”. There is something about ushers and petals of flower. The church is an all-comers convention.Īpart from the foregoing an usher must be willing to spot a large artificial flower on his/her dress/suit. J Ushers love artificial petals on dresses and suits. If truth be told, an usher must be willing to take abuse. An usher must be very forbearing, able to accommodate the rough edges of human willfulness. Considering that some congregants can be particularly difficult, an usher must be an extremely patient person. Some churches have a sub-branch called Greeters.Īs the first point of contact the usher sets the tone for the mood of the worshipper. The usher is probably the first person you’ll meet when you go to church. As any churchgoer will attest, ushers attach a significant level of importance to these primary duties, as they should. The traditional role of ushers in church is to administer order in the sitting arrangement and to collect offerings. Their role unencumbers the preaching of the word. In other words ushers are technically deacons. We can thus fit it under the broad spectrum of the ministry of “helps”. Ushering is an administrative protocol of a local church, not a ministerial calling. I am beaming a searchlight on the ushering protocol in churches, interrogating the convention. #Illuminare will be editorial this morning.
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