Being Late

Online Articles

Greg Gwin
09/11/11 - Attitude

There is a continual problem with some church members who are late to the services. If you are in that number, it is possible that you have never considered how serious this situation is. Think about what happens when you are late:

When you are late, the hectic rush to get here without being any later leaves you in a totally wrong frame of mind to enter into worship. Frayed nerves are not conducive to spiritual meditation.
You miss the opportunity to greet the brethren and to be greeted by them, thus missing out on the encouragement that comes in this way.
You are unable to welcome visitors to the services. Therefore you are failing to do your work in this regard, and are leaving this essential job to others.
Your late entrance is disruptive to good order, and is disturbing to others who have carefully planned to arrive on time.

In simplest terms, you miss out on part of the worship service, and that's what we came together for in the first place. If you miss a verse of a song, or an entire song, or a song and a prayer, etc., you have simply missed an important part of our worship to God. And if you miss the first several minutes of a Bible class, you miss out on some vital discussion and may not be able to "catch up" with the class at all.

What is the solution to this serious problem? Here are some suggestions:

Realize that being late to worship services and Bible studies becomes a habit. Everyone is late occasionally, due to unavoidable circumstances. But there are some who are always late, and this indicates that a habitual pattern has been established.
Apply conscious effort to break this habit. Force yourself to begin preparing to leave for the services earlier than you have been.
Don't try to arrive exactly at the starting time. Plan to arrive at least 15 minutes early. Then if something goes wrong, you can still be on time.
Consider what it would be like if every member followed the same late pattern that you follow. Realizing the disastrous results this would bring, you should then see the obligation you have to do better.
Finally, get in the habit of being early. After you have done this for a while, and as you enjoy the benefits of welcoming visitors, greeting brethren, and being able to sit down without all the rush, ready to join into the whole worship service, then you will see that you never want to be late again.