My youngest grandchild [Dave] had his dedication today.

The Alpena cxhurch has a lot of young children, and they allk sit towards the back with their parents.

Worked real well.

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Examine me, O LORD, and prove me: try my reins and my heart. Ps.26:2
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in men.Ps.118:8

Just a few days ago we were talking about people not sitting at the front and this EGW quote came to mind again.

The problem is, nobody can seem to find it. I did a word search without success.

When I have more time I am going to do another more exhaustive search.

For me its to reminiscent of being in college. The closer to the speaker you are, the more apt you are to get called to the board.

Amelia

P.S. I only sit 3 rows back, so thats almost in front. Isnt it?

Amelia

Have you tried setting out plates of cookies?

That should get them moving.

Daryl or Ed

Any idea on where that quote is that you mentioned re sitting in the back pews?

When I was a SS Superintendent, I was also a senior SS teacher. At times when there were special camps (we had a small local camping area), the chuch would have only 50 or so adults attending SS (from a membership of about 350). They would park themselves in the same places they always sat, and for the program, that was okay, because we had a sound system. But we'd have a combined SS class, and I would simply call them to sit in the front seats. I would teach the class from floor level, and it worked well.

People like to start out where they plan to sit for the service, and for various reasons - children, health, etc, they need to be near the entrance. Others - and some of the youth feel this way - don't want to be visible by the whole church. It's sometimes self-consciousness. Some emotional people like to be able to slip away without disrupting things.

But hymn books are great "placesavers", and I think you can call folk forward whenever you feel it's necessary. They move grudgingly, but they move if it's done pleasantly.

Without the correct wording the search engine in SOP does not know what to look for.

Being a soundsystem person my self, i could suggest turning down the sound on the michs & repositioning speakers to direct sound more toward the front of the church instead of projecting it into such a large comfort area & talking softer (unless the people actually want to ignore sermons & pulpit activity anyhow.) But it seems a better solution to fill the church with loads of new families & babies and save the back 1/3 of the pews for parents with very small children & provide those parents (and interested kids) an ear phone with a reciver pack to hear by comfortably from back there while you creativly manipulate the sound system to "encourage" more upfront closeness.

I recently returned from an Ignite Canada rally in Oshawa. Their church uses a system of placing sticks on the ends of pews that people aren't supposed to sit in. All the side pews and the back ones were closed off.

This did not prevent some from thinking and acting "outside the box."

I commented to a church member who was there about what the penalty would be for removing a stick and sitting down. She smiled and said that here family had been brave enough to do it--marched right into the cordened-off row. I guess they got used to sitting at a certain place in our local church...

About sound systems--the College Park church has speakers at the back of the main sanctuary. My dad (who attends there) says that the rear is the best place to hear a sermon legibly for those who are older or who have trouble with the accent of the preacher.