A Fair Trade

You just never know why a person may decide to visit your church. During my surveying today I met a friendly middle-aged woman who told me how she was raised Lutheran, has been one all her life, and has sent her son through about 6 grades of the Lutheran educational system so far. Knowing I was with the local SDA church, she explained how her son is a very dedicated Christian kid, attending church and church school faithfully.

At first I thought she was just telling me all this as a proud mother--when people find out I work with a church they seem to begin presenting their most religious side anyway. She went on to tell me that her son's school offers a yearly certificate to the students who have perfect attendance of Sunday School and church. I nodded, waiting for the punch line: "And he's been awarded perfect attendance consistently for the last 3 years!"

That wasn't where she was going with the story. Apparently sometime not so terribly long ago, the boy found himself upon the horns of a real dilemma. A team performance for a hobby of his was scheduled for Sunday morning, and though he couldn't bear to miss it, neither did he want to lose his perfect Sunday School/Church attendance record. They began to look for some alternative, and found an evening church service on a Saturday. But what to do about Sunday School? Obviously, those are only held on Sunday morning.

Oh wait, there is one exception: The Seventh-Day Adventists. Their "Sunday School" is on Saturday; it's just called Sabbath School. So her son went to Sabbath School at the local SDA church on Sabbath in order to keep his perfect attendance record for his Lutheran church school.

Ingenious. I think it's a great idea. Perhaps the Lutherans could bring about a reformation in private religious education practices. Maybe the Catholic parochial schools could grant merit for students attending Sabbath evening vespers instead of Mass. Mennonite students might substitute attending an Adventist baptismal service for Christian history class. Baptist colleges could possibly grant Public Speaking 101 credit for taking notes on David Asscherick's sermon delivery. Muslim students...well, I think exchanging Ramadan observance for joining a vegetarian fellowship dinner would be an excellent choice.

Like I said, you just never know why someone might be visiting your church. Even if it isn't for any of the above reasons, I hope you make them feel welcome.