Back when cell phones first gained popularity there wasn’t much to do with them. You could make a phone call and maybe play a rousing game of snake. When I got my first cell phone text messaging wasn’t that popular. Now times have changed and how we use cell phones has changed. These dramatic shifts in cell phone usage have had an unintended consequence; people in churches all over the world are turning on their cell phones and tuning out the worship service.
Let’s be honest. Who hasn’t pulled out their cell phone to read a text message, send a tweet, update a status, check a score or spin Urban Spoon to find lunch? It’s habitual now to check our phones, even if we received no new notifications. Sometimes church can last almost 90 minutes and I could miss something really important.
How can I be expected to pay attention to a sermon when I’m potentially getting two new cows in Farmville? (I have no idea about Farmville so I hope that was an appropriate example)
How can I focus in on the words I’m singing when I just thought of the funniest 140 characters ever?
How can I bring my requests and thanksgiving before God in prayer when someone just tagged me in three new pictures?
Since there is so much that can happen in the palm of our hand, it’s easy to lose sight of why we’ve gathered together on a Sunday morning. I’m not advocating that we should sit in church and check our phones but, if you need to, here are a few ways to be sneaky about it.
Download a Bible
Having a Bible on your cell phone is the perfect excuse to even have it out of your pocket or purse. Without the Bible on your phone, there really isn’t any reason to have your phone out. You shouldn’t be texting, you shouldn’t be making calls, you shouldn’t be playing any games; if that’s all you have on your phone then it’s almost inexcusable to have it out. But, if you have the Bible on your phone, it’s expected that you should have it out; it’s even praised.
“Look at this young man with the Bible on his phone. He is taking seriously the call of Joshua to not let the Book of the Law depart from him. Wherever he goes, he takes the word of God with him.”
Once it’s known that you have the Bible on your phone, you pretty much have a free pass to always have it out at church: services, Bible study, potluck, choir performance, baptism, building fund meeting, car wash, missions dinner, Veggietales sing along. Even though you may just be sacrificing some angry birds to kill some pigs, no one needs to know. To everyone else it looks like you’re just a Bible-loving fool, unwilling to put down the word of God.
Take a Posture of Prayer
In the past I’ve fallen asleep in church. I often fell prey to the head nod; as my head began to fall back as I nodded off, I would jerk it back into position. The worst part about the head nod is that it looks utterly ridiculous to the person sitting behind you. She’s there to hear from God’s word and draw nearer to his heart, but she keeps getting distracted by your violent nodding. So after a number of Sundays suffering a mild neck injury, I decided that a posture of prayer was much more conducive to falling asleep.
The posture involves leaning forward, placing your elbows on your knees and then placing your head in your hands. To the casual observer it looks like you’re in contemplative prayer but you’ve really put yourself in a position to catch a little shut eye. This posture of prayer, though, isn’t just effective for naps; it’s also effective for checking your cell phone. If you just place the phone on your knees, you’ve got a clear line of vision right to the text message that couldn’t wait another 20 minutes. Hearing the revelation of God’s word definitely isn’t as important as reading that your friend wishes Chick-fil-A was open on Sundays.
Again, I’m not advocating that you check your phone during service but, if you absolutely need to, then those are a few ways you can do that more inconspicuously. But if we’ve made the effort to gather with Christ’s body, to worship the Father and be inspired by the Spirit, then the only thing we really need to do is be fully present in that moment. Phones are great and Facebook is fun, but gathering with others and coming before God creates a holy moment, one we can’t find on our phones no matter how smart they are.
When are you most tempted to check your phone in church?
After reading this… blog? I can’t help but wonder If you have been spying on me during service, Or perhaps this is a gift of the word of knowledge. Does attending church pn Friday at least give me a better excuse for being attention challenged during the sermon? I do hate it when I drive into the Chicfila parking lot on Sunday and briefly think I’m lucky ’cause it isn’t crowded. I wonder if they could outsource Sunday to hethans or Jews who celebrate the Sabath on Saturday… I’ll have to fill out a comment card