Does it matter where I sit in church?

Are you sitting comfortably? Maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t be!

There are real strengths to the senior minister sitting in a variety of places in church.

Okay, for some of us - maybe those in more traditional churches - you have a seat and you’re expected to sit there, and it would be difficult for many if you moved and sat somewhere else, even occasionally.

But how difficult would it be for you to move? You see, there really are significant advantages to varying where you sit.

Here are five - and there are probably others.

1. First, it shows you’re not that special, you don’t have a reserved seat, you’re one of us - one of the family - and people need to know that.
2. Second, if you’re not in your usual seat, you won’t feel so much in control, and maybe, just maybe, that will feel uncomfortable. And maybe, just maybe, that will be good for you. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to let go a bit, let others fly, and grow. (Now that’s opened a whole big issue about how we lead, which is for another time. For now though, back to where you sit.)
3. Third, a church service can feel very different when sitting in a different place in the building. Our church building has a big balcony. I usually sit downstairs, but every time I’m upstairs, I’m simply amazed at how different the whole service feels, and how easy it is to feel a little detached from what’s going on downstairs. So a few weeks ago, at an all-age service that I was speaking at, I began my talk in the balcony to help them feel more involved. And every single face up there just lit up. My only regret is that I didn’t go back to the balcony to finish the talk! If, however, you only sit, for instance, at the front, you may well never know just exactly what it feels like… to be sitting somewhere else. And if you do go "up to the balcony," you’ll be telling them they’re important too.
4. Fourth, you meet different people. I was sitting down chatting with someone before the service, and in the course of conversation they asked what I did for a living. When I replied that "I’m the vicar here" there was a positive, if surprised response. And that’s my repeated experience. Why not try it yourself, just once, and see what happens?
5. Fifth, if you do always sit in the same place, why do you do that? Is your seat an expression of… power? An unhelpful expression of power? Ask yourself what might happen if someone else sat there! How do you think you’d react (internally at least)? If any of that rings a bell deep down in your subconscious, then maybe it would be good for you (and your church) to move around from time to time.

We are after all, as Galatians 3v28 reminds us, "all one in Christ Jesus," and described in Galatians 6v10 as "the family of believers."

No special seats then?