Activities and teachings directed at younger people are necessary if they are a part of the congregation. Find the brethren that are most gifted at teaching young people. This author has seen much debate about whether young people should be separated from their parents during a service. Obviously, if young people are separate, teaching can be tailored directly to their level of understanding. On the other hand, it is vital for children to see their parents participate in the main service and for them to understand as much as possible of what actually takes place there. Lessons directed toward children can be presented with adults present—the children can learn and the adults can frequently learn something from the children. The overall schedule of your services should be based upon the congregations and its needs. Breaking the service up into sections with a short break in between allows people to come and go for the parts of the service most applicable to them. Some groups have youth lessons before the main service. Others have a praise service of all singing for 30 to 60 minutes. Still others have a prayer service. People can then attend those sections that are important to them. When this kind of format exists, it is important for brethren to encourage each other not to "hide" from things that they might actually need. If God wants someone to learn to sing or pray for others, that person may need to be encouraged to attend the praise or prayer service, even though they may feel like they do not want to. When people begin a new service, especially if they are participating as they never have before, they often want to stay much longer than when they just "went to hear a message". This is a very good thing, but it also makes serving food important—either a snack or a full meal. People simply stay at any event longer when there is food—especially if it is good food. Groups that have several different segments to their services, or a service followed by a Bible study may want to serve the food between events. If all of the events run one after another, it is best to serve the food at the end—more people will stay and talk. Serving at the beginning is better than not at all—this may be required if the meeting facilities do not have refrigeration. As with everything else, there will probably be people in your congregation who are gifted with preparing, organizing and serving food. Let them serve in this way, and thank God for them. Should a dress code be enforced? Fortunately, the Scriptures clearly indicate how to handle the issue of dress at services: "For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?" (James 2:2-4, NKJV). Some people will be quick to point out that priests, Levites and others who came before God were told to wear special clothes that were to be clean and in good repair. Cleanliness and neatness are goals for us to individually strive for, but James makes clear that a "dress code" should not be enforced. God looks at the heart more than the clothes. Even though many Christian groups have their ministry or choirs wear special robes, there is no New Testament example of this. Indeed, the design of such robes is often not like the garments described for Old Testament priests, but like clothes worn by other religions. People in the New Testament always perceived that Christ and the Apostles were servants of God by what they said or the miracles they did, not by what they wore. The principles of cleanliness, neatness, and modesty can be taught without invoking a dress code or judging people who attend. It is also important to realize that the Bible does not command us to dress according to "the upper class style of the day". Would services be better if all men wore tuxedos and women wore formal dresses? Should men always wear suits and ties? Should women always wear dresses and high heels? Should people buy clothes for services that they would otherwise never wear? There does not seem to be any biblical precedent for any of these things. Paul teaches that services should NOT be a "style show" of impressive clothing (1Timothy 2:9). Some people take the opposite approach. They study the history of clothes and may conclude that neckties are patterned after ancient phallic symbols and therefore cannot wear them in good conscience to a worship service. Other people believe that prostitutes invented high heels and that wearing them is physically harmful to the body. Still other people believe the Bible teaches that they should wear fringes, hats, beards or other things. This author has seen long papers written on all of the above subjects. We should not be offended at people for following any dress custom they believe is Biblically based. We might learn something if we ask them why they do it. We might not agree with what we hear, but at least we will understand. Those who believe they have knowledge about the history of certain clothing should not be offended by those who do not. Nevertheless, if someone becomes offended, Matthew 18:15–17 is there. |
