Unholy hubbub?

What is your church like shortly before a Sunday service starts? In the September issue of en, John Brand raises the important question of whether most church families are, to put it bluntly, too noisy as corporate worship begins.

It’s not that fellowship isn’t important, of course. As Jesus puts it: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13v35). So there is a place for catching up with each other – it is part of how we show we care.

But the point Brand rightly makes is that, taken to an extreme, such chit-chat can effectively block our hearts and minds from engaging with our Creator and Redeemer. As Brand puts it: “We have come to hear the voice of the living God, not primarily the voices of those with whom we gather, precious as Christian fellowship is.”