You know what they say about when you assume… Well, I have been recently reminded by my girlfriend Kara that this is especially true when it comes to being up front in the Church. Not only can it make you look foolish, but it can actually make people feel left out of the group. Let me give you an example. I am a worship leader, and every once in a while we’ll have some sort of technical glitch when it comes to the lyric slides or something, and I will make the off-handed comment like, “Well, you all know it anyway, so we’ll go ahead and start singing.” The problem isn’t that we start playing a song that the lyrics aren’t immediately available for- its that I have assumed that everyone already knows the words. What if this is your first time at our church, or any church? You have basically just been singled out as not normal- as not part of the group.
I have actually experienced this when I visited a Catholic church as part of an assignment for seminary. I was supposed to attend a service outside of my own tradition, and I had never been to a Catholic service at all. The whole time, I felt lost, and I have been attending some sort of church my entire life! I didn’t know the “moves” or any of the words/responses to many parts of the service that weren’t printed. I also was not ready for the Priest to do a 2 minute “free-style” Gospel in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer. I am not knocking Catholics (not even that one particular church), I simply realized just how left out people can feel if we assume things.
We do it all the time and don’t even realize it. Perhaps the Lord’s Prayer isn’t on the screen and the page number isn’t given. Perhaps we say things like, “you all know” when maybe everyone really doesn’t. Perhaps we don’t explain the method of communion for the day and leave the guest to try to figure it out by watching others (oh, we dip the bread in the cup and not just eat it right away? …). Now, I am not saying we have to explain everything in deep detail every time, but we should be conscious and intentional about the areas in which we have assumptions and the areas in which we will avoid them. But then again, I am assuming you all knew that…
Peace,
Dan
