Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It’s a new day of a new week and although it’s starting out cold, it will be warming up by this afternoon and much of our beautiful snow (and ice) will be gone. All it takes is a little snow, a little drifting, and a little ice, and navigating around the farm gets pretty challenging. Although getting snowed in is one of my favorite things, getting snowed out isn’t so great. We had to cancel service at The Well yesterday to avoid anyone getting stuck on roads that have drifted over AND to ensure their safety around the barn from field parking to the sanctuary. Kids everywhere pray for snow days so that they can stay home from school, but canceling church for any reason is heartbreaking to me. I miss my friends. I miss the fellowship. I miss studying His Word together. I miss seeing the joy of the Lord on their faces. I miss praying with them and for them. Missing church is a big deal to me but it sure isn’t to a VERY large number of folks these days. They’ve traded attending church for Sofa Services and nothing could pry them away from the TV on Sunday morning. As I sat in the Presence of the Most High God this morning I cried as I prayed for the remote ones, for the state of the Church today, and for all the Beauty they’re missing by trading church for the couch. Isn’t that the way you see it too?

I know what it looks like to tune into church remotely because I did that very thing myself years ago when my home church was in turmoil and I was in limbo “church hunting”. I know what it feels like to “go to church” in a comfortable chair and to not hesitate to get up for unlimited coffee refills in the middle of the sermon. I know what it feels like to watch church “in comfortable clothes”. I know what it sounds like to have a conversation during prayer time and/or to freely critique the music as if the musicians were a part of America’s Got Talent instead of a church choir. I know what it sounds like to LIE to myself (and to others) about how “whenever two or more are gathered” is a fitting scripture to defend Sofa Services…but it’s not. We can thank the COVID debacle for making a way to draw Christians out of the church and boy, did we make it easy! We can thank the Devil himself for deceiving God’s people into thinking it’s ok to detach from the Church Body even temporarily. The liar from Hell got even more than he bargained for because “52% of “regular church attendees” who left during COVID have never returned” and unless something changes in their Hearts, they never will.

With the Church laser-focused on making the congregation comfortable at all costs, it isn’t hard to figure out how (and why) so many Christians fell into the Devil’s trap of Sofa Service. Coffee shops, professional praise bands, lights, cameras, and ACTION have grown the numbers, that’s for sure, but fellowship (relationship) has taken the back seat in the process and people have disappeared without even being noticed. Gone are the days when churches welcomed a spontaneous testimony about the power of God and time didn’t seem to matter when God was moving. The testimonies we no longer have time for STRENGTHENED the body and spurred us on…AND they were in keeping with what God tells us all to do in and out of the church. Gone are the days when we’d miss a Sunday in church and somebody would reach out to see how we were doing…they noticed and they cared. Unfortunately, the churches today believe bigger is better, and instead of doing their part to get the people BACK into the church where they belong, they’re hiring Pastors who are online experts to build the numbers just like any good business does. Having people attend church remotely while taking their offerings via an app is far too appealing for them to ignore and some studies suggest that one day in the near future the brick-and-mortar church will cease to exist altogether because of it. I hope the Lord calls me Home before that happens because that’s too sad to even think about.

We had to cancel church yesterday and I was LOST because of it. My brothers and sisters in the Lord are my family and they strengthen me for the Journey…and I do my best to strengthen them! David said it best in Psalm 16: “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” You won’t find me “forsaking the assembly” because I know if I do then I’m working against the Plan God has for His people and I care more about pleasing Him than I do about pleasing myself. Just so you know, if you’re reading this and you’re attending Sofa Services (by choice not necessity) I’m praying that God lights a fire within you that cannot be contained that will propel you from the recliner to the alter one day soon.

May God richly bless you on and off the sofa.