Dear Pastor,
Here we are four weeks into the new year and I haven’t made it to church yet.
Surely you understand, we could not attend the day after New Years. After all, we had been up so late and we needed our rest to get ready for work. Last week it was cold and this week it snowed.
Really, someone in your line of work must understand that folks will miss church at least six times a year due to inclement weather.
We couldn’t come to church the last three weeks because we just can’t miss the play off games and we all know that the closest thing American has to a truly universally celebrated holiday is Super Bowl Sunday.
Generally there are three or four weeks every year where events taking place are so significant, you must understand when we do not come to church services. After all, you hold services every week, so what is one or two here or there in the face of the once-a-year drama of the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup, March Madness or the World Series.
I know you understand.
We either go away or have relatives over on the other major holidays, so it is not likely that we will see you Christmas or Easter, or the Fourth of July or Sam Houston Day for that matter. After all, family gatherings are important and we would not want to upset or offend any of our friends or relatives by dragging them to church.
This year we get three weeks vacation and so we will miss church those three weeks as well as the Sunday before our vacation (so we can pack) and the Sunday after our vacation (so we can unpack).
Now we can never get it right: do we fall behind in the spring and spring back in the fall when the time changes, or do we spring ahead in the spring and fall back in the fall. No doubt we will just sleep in both times.
You are a wonderful pastor and we sure are grateful for all the work that you do and we really enjoy attending your church. In fact we looked for a long time to find a church we enjoy as much as yours, and I just wanted to let you know that we do try to attend.
Of course, in June we celebrate our wedding anniversary and we try to rekindle our honeymoon at that time, so we spend the weekend in a motel. It is nice to get away from the kids every one in a while.
And speaking of the kids, we cannot attend mid-week prayer services because of soccer, T-ball, football, basketball and ping pong. You were a kid once and so we know you understand.
And when school starts each year, we like to give the kids one last fling so we take them to the amusement park the Sunday before school starts. Then, of course, we take them again when school lets our to celebrate the end of the school year.
Several times this year, too, I will be on business trips and I will have to miss church. Usually I don’t go to any church when I am away on business, because I like your church so much I would feel disloyal if I attended somewhere else.
On Memorial Day I take my Aunt to the cemetery to decorate her husband’s grave and that is a solemn time so we do that instead of church that weekend.
There are just so many things that come up. Sickness sometimes keeps us away, and you wouldn’t want us there exposing people to our colds. There have been several times when we were really and truly thinking of coming to church, and then someone would cough or sneeze and we would have to take the responsible course and stay home.
We feel the same way about bad weather. In fact, if it even looks threatening outside, we believe the responsible thing to do is to stay at the house.
Pastor, I know that you believe faithful attendance at church is important because it strengthens the Christian and that Christians can encourage each other, and because the different parts of the body of Christ must work together to really accomplish anything.
We could not agree more and that is why I wanted to drop you this note to let you know that you can count on us. Unless something unexpected comes up, you will definitely be there the third Sunday in May and probably again the second Sunday in August.
Well, God bless you pastor.
(Signed)
Bro. Terence D. McLean was the founding pastor at Grace Bible Fellowship in Ohio for 30 years, hosted radio programs for as long, published newspaper columns, owned a Christian bookstore, authored 10 books, and created the Dispensational Bible Institute. He was promoted to glory in 2020 and is now with His Lord and Saviour. To read more from his ministry visit Discerning the Times Publishing.com.