Before I begin this blog entry, let me remind you that here in the south, county officials do not de-ice the roads. They do not budget such hit and miss weather predictions which may or may not be used each season. Therefore we kinda are gambling each year whether or not we have snowy weather and if the county budget covers for just a little sand and salt on the roads.
While growing up it seemed like we had more and bigger snows throughout the winter. And consequentially enough some of these snow days happened on a Sunday providing with some conflicts with church services. I can remember going on snow covered roads from our rural Lakeview home to Sunday morning service in the heart of Mt. Juliet. Only a few hardy souls were there and the worship service was abbreviated and no Sunday school class.
Were we foolish to risk a fender bender and physical harm in order to worship our Lord? Depends on who you ask. After all Abraham traveled three days to sacrifice Isaac to Moriah (Genesis 22:4). Many Christians out west travel all day to attend worship services as churches are sparse. Shouldn’t we be willing to put some effort into worshipping our Lord with fellow Christians on the first day of the week? After all it is the most important act we do from week to week.
At times I believe we are too quick to cancel worship and watch a rerun of a past recorded worship service. And it seems that the secondary worship services are less attended due to the opportunity to watch online even when weather is good.
At times there was always something different among churches of Christ in that we have a tendency not to cancel worship services no matter what. I can remember a few years ago when Christmas feel on a Sunday. Ironically other churches cancelled their Sunday morning worship services opting to encourage parishioners to spend time at home with families. This was surprising because other churches see Christmas as a holy day equating to Jesus’s birth date. By contrast most churches of Christ did not cancel worship services and kept their own schedule as it is throughout the year.
So I’m conflicted in the risk of human safety vs. worshipping our Lord weekly regardless of the weather. I guess it is something each individual and each church eldership will have to decide each winter.