Dr. Mohler has an interesting article today on how family time is now replacing church time. Many churches have called an end to mid-week activities/Prayer meetings and Sunday night worship, often because of dwindling attendance due to families have had to steal away “family time” because of their busy schedules.
Let’s be honest here — these families, for the most part, are not spending these additional hours of the week in joint spiritual activities and disciplines. It is not as though “family time” was a time of biblical instruction and spiritual edification. No . . . increasingly it’s Little League and NASCAR.
At the same time, when Christian parents take their kids to Little League games rather than worship on the Lord’s Day, these parents teach their children that team sports are more important than the worship of God.
Every kid has a “thing” going on virtually all the time. That is the condition of life today, it seems. But when that “thing” keeps the child — or the whole family — away from church, we need to name that thing what it is . . . at best a snare, at worst an idol.
Dr. Mohler also calls into question much of the dividing up that occurs in churches, where family time and church time are seen as two entirely different things.
PDF 
it seems that al is working on the presupposition that church is a:
time
place
meeting
?
isn’t church a body of people? perhaps if we could understand “church” on a different plane, we would not struggle with “scheduling conflicts”?
is it better for the church to be together in a building or to be unleashed in the darkness?
just sayin’
Dave,
I would agree with you that we often speak wrongly of the church. However, I don’t think it will solve all the problems just to remember that we are a body. I think we must maintain that while church is a body, there is still a need for times when the whole body gathers together. It is necessary for church to be together and unleashed or scattered. Therefore we are always a part of the body, but there are specific ordered times when the body gathers together. Small groups and fellowship times are not the same in my opinion. They have their place, but not all the body is there, you only have bits and pieces.