Re: Dear Churches - Show Up or Shut Up!

I would like to respond to the letter from "Andrew the Agnostic". On the surface he seems to make a valid point. If the Jazz & Blues Festival dedicates an hour to Christian music then why wouldn't the churches attend? I take his question seriously and I believe he deserves a serious response, one to which I will gladly sign my name.

To suggest that area churches are wrong because they did not close their doors and head to a gospel concert, displays a lack of understanding of the nature and purpose of Sunday services throughout our community.

For many, Sunday morning worship is the focal point of their week. It is a time when they come together to worship God, renew their spirits and connect with their brothers and sisters in Christ. This is not a trivial endeavor that can simply be replaced by the performance of music, no matter how high the quality.

I commend the organizers for including Christian music in the lineup. However, I don't believe that area churches lobbied for this to take place on Sunday morning. To tell us to "show up or shut up" implies that churches advocated for something they did not later support. I can't speak for other churches but I do not recall receiving my information about this gospel hour in advance. If the churches had been involved in the planning, they might have suggested a time and format that more would have been able to support.

I am concerned that Andrew uses this as a litmus test for the level of church support for the community. He suggests that it would be far better for us to attend a gospel concert and give the offerings to charity than to worship at church. He feels that this would demonstrate community involvement. Perhaps he does not realize that churches, in addition to the charitable work they conduct themselves, already support the types of charities he mentions. Churches give donations. Church members are active volunteers in a multitude of community programs. And many churches open their doors for charities to use space for meetings and activities.

If area churches made it a habit of closing doors on Sunday mornings they might soon find themselves in a position where they were unable to serve the community in this way. That is a deficit that could not be made up by an offering at a gospel concert.

Barbara Moulton

Orangeville