Eli, who is Discount Dan? Is that the disrespectful way you refer to our beloved Jedi Knight? :) Or is it some other joke I don't get?
Anyway, just my 2 cents to say, I may be an oldtimer, and I may be away for 97.8% of the year, but I'm still a Lump. Greg would approve of my use of the word Lump instead of Lumper. If you are reading this and you don't know who I am, I overheard a conversation on Thursday night that went like this:
Person1: Sandra Lee? Who's Sandra Lee?
Person2: Oh, she's the girl with the raspy voice.
I didn't think my voice was THAT raspy! =O
Here's a question to ponder -- if I want to dialogue with people in a sensitive country about sensitive spiritual matters, is it kosher to blog about it and give them the link? That was DL's suggestion. I thought it was a good idea but someone told me that it wasn't safe either. Anyway. Random.
I'll blog about something more substantial next time. Greg, we miss you!!!
Sandra
Who will take up the cause to blog about Lumps or SCBC?
Will we ever have an interesting discussion?
Does anyone besides Discount Dan read this?
Late Late Service....
I've attended the Late Late Service since its launch in 2001. Sometimes, I'm glad it's there cuz I wake up too late for the morning services. But when I serve as an usher, I often wonder if Late Late is meeting it's initial purpose.
Initially, Late Late was created to offset the "Standing Room Only" seating during the 8:30am, 11:30am services. For the first month, people who attended the morning services, started to attend Late Late. But within five months, the attendance at Late Late diminished as people went back to the morning services. Now Late Late attendance averages around 40 people per night.
There are a variety of reason why people have gone back to the morning services. For one, it seems that people miss hearing Pastor Jeff. Having been a San Franciscan since 1987, I've noticed that SCBC went from being just another Chinese church to being "The Magnet Chinese church" ever since Pastor Jeff came to SCBC. I admit, I'm a transfer, just as most of the congregation. Don't get me wrong about Pastor John. He is really really good. In fact, I would say that if Pastor Jeff ever felt called to serve at another church, John would suffice as a main speaker (not necessarily main pastor yet). John is very talented and one day, he'll be the speaker who draws thousands of people to his church. But for now, Pastor Jeff still is the main draw to SCBC. He carries a nationwide reputation as being an amazing speaker in the Chinese Christian circles. Newcomers from outside of San Francisco say they came to SCBC because of Pastor Jeff's reknown. There's no doubt that many people have gone back to the morning services to hear Pastor Jeff.
Routines. Habits are hard to break. People who've grown up in church are just used to going to Sunday service in the morning. I pretty much grew up going to church in the morning. I'm 30 now. And I've been going to church since I was 6 years old. Twenty-four years! And to put it into perspective, I think I've missed less than 100 Sunday services over the past 24 years, that about 4 per year! I imagine that some people will never get used to going to church in the evening instead of the morning.
Friends. If your friends are all going to the morning service, why would you want to be by yourself in another service? Friendship and community are such an integral part of Christian life. So it makes sense to join your friends if a lot of them go to the morning service. For people who don't see their church friends during the weekdays, the Sunday service acts as the only meeting time for them. For Lumpers, AKers, and Phileoers, we have the alternative of hanging out during the week. But realistically, AKers see each other at school. Lumpers hang out and have farewel parties during the weekedays. And other congregants are prolly too busy to see each other outside of Sunday. AKers generally don't go to Late Late though. That's probably because it's not convenient for their parents to drop them off at a seperate service than their own (11:30am).
So I often wonder what draws people to Late Late?
When I was talking with a fellow usher/greeter, she and I agreed that many people seem to use Late Late as a backup if they just wake up too late for morning service. But there's gotta be more reasons than just clubbin' till "six in the mornin'" or because they have things to do in the morning/afternoon.
Maybe they like the worship style more? I actually like the style of worship for Late Late more than the morning services. To be honest, I don't like mixing the old hymms and modern Christian music (as they do in the morning). The morning service has a weird worship format. We'd sing one verse from a hymm; and just as we're about to sing the refrain, the worship leader will transition to a modern Vinyard song. We'd sing a verse from the modern song and then jump back to the hymm. It's just too weird for me. Jumping around mid-song to mid-song is just not smoothe. It does not prepare our hearts for worshipping God. It makes me more confused as to what we'll sing next.
Another thing that I like about Late Late is the fact that we hang out afterwards. A lot of times, I think that people have too much to do after the morning services. But it seems like people who go to Late Late like to hang out together and sometimes do dinner. That adds to the community feel.
Then again, maybe they prefer John and Jerry more than Pastor Jeff. I've actually heard that from some people. Jerry's been dropping some kick butt messages lately. I think he can really bust out with some great messages too. He's got a different sense of humor. But I laugh hard!
What is the future for Late Late?
I don't see it as a replacement for Lumps or Phileo. There were rumors of LL being a replacement for Lumps and Phileo. But I can't see it as a feasible convergence. Will Late Late exist after we complete the new building accross the street? Does anyone even care to wear a name tag during Late Late? Does anyone want to volunteer as an usher/greeter? (We need more volunteers! But it seems like people fear volunteering as a cumbersome commitment!).
