Sunday, November 22, 2009

Cowboy Church and Dogs in the Assembly

One of my employees has been attending a “Cowboy church”. If you’re not familiar with “Cowboy churches” they are basically a thematic Baptist church. The sermon usually is on a cowboy theme. People bring their horses and their dogs, etc. After services they have rodeo-like activities.

Anyway, when my employee mentioned she was taking her dog to services I commented that I thought that was inappropriate. I reasoned with her that some things could be right and proper but… inappropriate. As an example I cited Jesus’ righteous anger at finding money changers in the temple. Nothing wrong with the activity but it was in the wrong place. Jesus threw them out.

My employee accepted that and quit bringing her dog to church. She quit attending for awhile and has now gone back. Her daughters upon seeing all the dogs in the assembly asked if they could bring their dog next Sunday. She told them no because as she explained to me… she could tell the dogs were a distraction in the service.

I think that if Jesus were to visit a service with dogs in attendance he might with righteous anger cast them out. That seems obvious. What may not seem obvious is that Jesus would also be angry if we allowed anything to distract us from our service to him. He expects and deserves our full attention and service.

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