Cell Phones in Church

In our second worship service today we had a persistant cell phone. It rang throughout the sermon time...as many as twenty rings at a time at least. I have long prided myself on my preparations for interruptions during sermons. Crying babies, cell phones, etc. don't usually phase me. This was different. It was the ring that wouldn't go away. I went so far as to have everyone stand and get their phones out and turn them off. Sort of a "get out of jail free" card for the offender. It didn't stop.

This afternoon I have been receiving theories on the source of the non-stop ringing. Our searches turned up nothing. It remains a mystery at this point and I have no solutions. We will continue to pursue the issue because it did steal away a big part of a worship hour.

In our services we led in Africa we also ran into interruptions. One of our folks had goats walk through his service as he was speaking. My favorite story was from my roommate on the trip. Breast-feeding is a natural part of the culture in rural Kenya. Any time is the right time as far they are concerned. My friend was preaching his first Sunday in Kenya when a toddler climbed into her mother's lap. The mom pulled up her blouse and the baby nursed. He continued his sermon. After a while, the baby climbed down and walked across the little center aisle of the church and climbed into another woman's lap. She pulled up her blouse and the baby went to work again. Shortly, the little girl climbed down and made her way to a third woman on the other side of the church who also graciously shared with the child.

At this point, my friend, trying to stay on track with a message from the Bible for these people, was more than a little flustered. He said that he wanted to yell out, "Hey, kid! This isn't a buffet." Distractions at church are an ongoing adventure.

One thing that surprised me was that in the four or five formal sermons I shared with groups, I dealt with cells phones every time. While the people we ministered to/with didn't have electricity or running water, many of them had cell phones. They came through a government program and were very inexpensive. The only challenge was finding a place to charge them according to the Kenyans.

Amazingly, God can still work through interruptions and does so often. The variety of distractions to hearing God's voice in our lives seem endless. Take time this week to quiet your heart and life and listen for God's voice. Also, make sure you're not a distraction or obstacle to someone else hearing from the Lord.