This time about leaders in the church who seem to think it's perfectly fine to call out at the last minute (not sickness or emergency) just "hey, we won't be there today/tonight..." so...
find somebody for our class...
small group leadership...
ushering
worship team...
whatever!!!
This is so they can galavant around town and get ice cream or shop or do whatever it is they want to do while you and I scurry around and try to figure out what in the heck we're gonna do.
How have you guys responded to last minute call outs where people are just ditching church for the beach or whatever?
The other night I had somebody text me an hour before service and I'm sorry but I didn't even dignify it with a response.
Oh my word!!! YES! We dealt with it more than I care to even remember! One couple taught two different SS classes and if we were "BLESSED" we would get a call the night before. But in general we wouldn't find out till the morning of (when they didn't show up) that we were going to have to fill in the classes.
Still upsets me! Some people just don't understand how important it is to be committed let alone what it's like for others to have to "wing it." Many times these same people don't understand how important their role in the ministry actually is. Even if they have been in that certain role for years it seems like they just don't get it.
I seemed to have this happen the most with preschool teachers. My husband and I did the "classroom shuffle" on those days. He would do the opening game and worship with the older kids while I taught the lesson and did the craft with the preschoolers. Then we'd switch halfway through and he'd supervise snack and play time with the little kids while I did the sermon/altar time in kids' church.
The thing that made us the most mad was that, while the older kids could roll with the punches and deal with the craziness - and it actually helped their short attention spans to have different things happening throughout the service - the tiny kids NEED consistency!!! It was really hard on them to have their teachers switch halfway through, so then the responsibility of being the consistent one for the day was thrown on our teen helper [so much for the disenfranchized youth of America - my teen helpers were more faithful than some of my adults!!!].
What's sadder still is that in my community work, my least consistent volunteers thus far have been the Christians. Shouldn't we be the ones doing the best job? Being the most reliable? Aren't we supposedly doing whatever it is we do for the glory of God?
I seemed to have this happen the most with preschool teachers. My husband and I did the "classroom shuffle" on those days. He would do the opening game and worship with the older kids while I taught the lesson and did the craft with the preschoolers. Then we'd switch halfway through and he'd supervise snack and play time with the little kids while I did the sermon/altar time in kids' church.
The thing that made us the most mad was that, while the older kids could roll with the punches and deal with the craziness - and it actually helped their short attention spans to have different things happening throughout the service - the tiny kids NEED consistency!!! It was really hard on them to have their teachers switch halfway through, so then the responsibility of being the consistent one for the day was thrown on our teen helper [so much for the disenfranchized youth of America - my teen helpers were more faithful than some of my adults!!!].
What's sadder still is that in my community work, my least consistent volunteers thus far have been the Christians. Shouldn't we be the ones doing the best job? Being the most reliable? Aren't we supposedly doing whatever it is we do for the glory of God?
Grrr...you're not alone, ladies :).
It IS very sad, Puppetmaster!! So sad. And you are right. those little ones NEED consistency.
I agree with you that for them it's of even more importance, and at the same time, everyone in the church is affected by inconsistency. Some more than others, so you bring up a really good piont.
What really bothers me even more is the cavalier attitude many have. Just texting at the last minute and saying, "just fyi, won't be there tonight" and interestingly enough if you talked about faithfulness in a sermon they'd be the first to amen it.
People never understand that when you're preaching it...it includes THEM. Duh.
