WORD MINISTRY INPUT
Statistics show that a good churchgoer averages anywhere between 36 to 44 weeks of attendance at church. Very few if any are 100%. The amount is affected by vacations, sickness, work situations, or circumstances that might interfere with a Sunday here or there.
If the Word ministry at church each week takes up 45 minutes and there is a 100% attendance record it would amount to 2340 minutes, or 39 hours, or 1.65 days which is 0.44% of one’s available time each year.
Remember that would require that a person make it to church 52 weeks out of the year in order to achieve less than half a percent of their overall available time each year.
If we allot for two weeks of vacation taking away two Sunday’s, 3 Sundays missed due to illness, perhaps one Sunday due to a family get together over a holiday, and for good measure we add one more in for circumstances beyond our control. That allots for a total of 7 Sunday’s missed in a year, which would leave us with a total of 45 Sunday’s attended.
That would account for 2025 minutes, or 33.75 hours, or 1.406 days which amounts to 0.38% of one’s available time each year.
If we assumed a 45 week involvement, accompanied by 30 minutes of word discussion in a small group situation each week it would increase to 57 hours, or 2.375 days which is 0.65%
If we are to see an increase of Christian influence in our nation for the gospel I believe we will need to take greater advantage of fellowship and word input opportunities in the Christian community. It is more likely that a professing Christian will know more about current events in Hollywood or politics than they will know the true gospel. It might be accurate to say that distractions are effectively hindering the advancement of the gospel due to ill equipped saints who are anemic in word. Meanwhile it is by the word of God that faith is grown in our hearts. If that word is reduced in amount would it not stand to reason that there will be a famine of faith?
Compare the time figure for word input with something such as the amount of time spent for:
NOURISHMENT
Everyone must eat. This is an area that can serve us in many ways. By eating with others we can turn nutrition into social interaction. Everyone misses a meal every now and again. But we also spend more time on one meal than we would another and it varies from one occasion to the next.
On average we take 30 minutes for breakfast 30 minutes for lunch and 60 minutes for dinner which amounts to 120 minutes each day devoted to meals which amounts to 43800 minutes, or 730 hours, or 30.41 days a year which is 8.33% of one’s available time each year.
If a person watches just one hour of television a day it amounts to 365 hours a year which is 15.2 days each year which is 4.16% of one’s time spent. This is 9.45 times greater than the amount of Word ministry input one might receive in one year’s time.
How should this knowledge affect our ministry in the word if we are a mouthpiece for God?
How should this knowledge affect the time we give to being under the word ministry in the church?
It really is something to think about, wouldn’t you agree?
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
