Keep Sunday a Day for God

Many churches have been featuring ‘Rally Sundays,’ kicking off the new educational year over the past few weeks. It’s like a fresh start as fall rolls around.
Among other things, Sunday School, confirmation classes and Bible studies are topping the events at many area churches, along with, of course, regular weekend services.
As I sat back in the pew to take in another new church year, I couldn’t help but think about something that troubles me about society as a whole when it comesto church or religion. It seems society has messed up priorities regarding overall involvement in church.
I don’t think I was raised much differently than most people 30-plus years ago, in which Sunday was considered a sacred day devoted to church activities. Missing church on a Sunday was a rarity, and not the norm.
Life has changed in many ways since I was raised on the farm moons ago. I get how life changes, but sometimes it certainly is not for the better. And while I can usually accept most change, I can’t understand why society has gotten so far off track when it comes to church. This has become even more evident to me since raising my children, who were involved in sports throughout their teenage years.
I have sadly found that when it comes to sports, there is no such thing as a sacred day for church. Scheduling for sports activities takes place all over the calendar and at any time - even Sundays when families are supposed to be in church. I’ve been fighting this battle for years.
Being involved in sports is great for kids. I encouraged it with my own. But one has to question the logic of packing Sunday mornings full of sporting events. After all, less than 1 percent of kids will actually go on to higher levels of sports after high school. Both of mine did not.
The rub I have is the on-going pervasive attitude about ignoring church and religion. How have we become so apathetic about church that we essentially don’t care if we get to church or not?

Sadly, society is messed up in many regards. Churches are struggling to nd young people to ll the pews. I’ve been to some churches where the average age seems like about 80 years old.
We’re often left wondering why crime is spiraling out of control, especially juvenile crime. Thankfully, it’s not in our region, but in many parts of the country, it’s a different story.
There is a breakdown of the family in many situations. I believe many fiills of society are directly related to the fact that people have no church or religion in their lives. We would not have families so messed up if more people would focus on church.
I can’t help but think what message we’re sending to our young people when we’re so quick to schedule
sporting activities, as well as other events non-related to church, on Sunday mornings. There is no consideration to church any more.
It’s no wonder why our younger generation is not in church.
Teenage years are such an impressionable time. If we’re not setting the example for our teens, they’re not going to know any di erently. The norm is going tobe that, “Oh, I’ll get to church when I’m free of other activities.”
I don’t think that’s what God had intended for us at all.
We all need to be in hot pursuit of challenging ourselves to leave at least part of Sundays open for church.