Boredom
People can be bored. Groups of people can be bored. Families, businesses, and, yes, church congregations can be bored.
Are you--or your congregation--suffering from the plague--the curse--of boredom?
I know individual people get bored. But can groups of people get bored? Can families, businesses, service clubs, or churches get bored? Yes, they can!
Here is the definition of boredom: the state of being weary and restless through a lack of interest.
Here is what a Washington Post article, on September 22, 2022, written by Richard Sima said:
Boredom is a universally dreaded feeling. Being bored means wanting to be engaged when you can’t. It’s our brain telling us to take action, much like pain is an important signal for danger or harm.
Boredom is also how our brains alert us that things aren’t going well. Scientists who study emotion note that every episode of boredom creates an opportunity for making a positive change instead of reactively looking for the fastest, easiest escape. We just need to pay attention.
“Boredom is sort of an emotional dashboard light that goes off saying, like, ‘Hey, you’re not on track,’ ” said Erin Westgate, a social psychologist at the University of Florida who studies boredom and co-authored the shock experiment. “It is this signal that whatever it is we’re doing either isn’t meaningful to us, or we’re not able to successfully engage with this.”
Boredom is a warning sign, she says, and it’s “really necessary.”
Perhaps we could think of boredom as God's wake-up call. And, personally, I believe families and groups of people can hit boredom mode.
In my 50 years of experience being a Baptist minister, I experienced boring churches as well as being bored myself. I know the symptoms and look of a church that produces boredom instead of souls for the kingdom of God. So many of our Southern Baptist churches are in a slump of boredom. Pastor, are you bored, too? I pray that you are not! Renew the Spirit that is in you!
Let's wake up! Get out of the doldrums! Do something that is different, engaging, and exciting that can lead to growth in Christ and reaching the lost! I can tell you, however, you'll have to clean house and get rid of some reefs in your love feast! (Jude verse 12). ##
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