Why do persons view "5th Sunday" as "Vacation From Church Sunday?" I have pastored two churches in which persons stayed away or viewed 5th Sunday as skip day. Has any other person/pastor witnessed this? I am curious.

-- Anonymous, January 07, 2002

Answers

Rev. Allen,

Actually, this past Fifth Sunday, attendance was such that I thought the calender had played a trick on me and it was actually First Sunday. Ditto for the Offering. Praise God from whom all blessings flow !!!!

Yours in the Joy of Jesus, Pastor Mike

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

That is really an overgeneralization. I guess it really depends on the particular church and whether or not the people are being "fed". I have attended churches where people are busting out of the seams and standing in the aisles on any given Sunday, equally at the 8a.m., 11a.m. and 6p.m. services.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002

It's true that many of our members view the 5th Sunday as a day of 'rest' from church. In many cases their rationale is that it's just a 'missionary program' with a 'speaker' and not the usual Sunday morning worship service with a preacher.

However, in my neck of the woods on the Gulf Coast of Florida, many of our churches use their male chorus and male ushers on the 5th Sunday. And because there are many ordained ministers that are not pastoring in this area, most of the churches use those preachers on the 5th Sunday.

Both of these concepts have increased the attendance on that Sunday, basically because that's the only Sunday you get to hear the men sing and in a lot of cases the only time you get to hear those preachers who aren't pastoring.

Although our church doesn't have a male chorus, we enjoyed the singing of congregational hymns and spiritual songs on the 5th Sunday. There was no pianist, a capella was so appropo. I was reminded of my days in the country.

-- Anonymous, January 08, 2002