Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

A few years ago I heard a joke about everyone waiting in line at the St. Peter's gate waiting to get into heaven. The people at the back of the line heard loud cheering coming from the front of the line. Finally the people got an answer for all the cheers, the people just ahead of them shouted "Wednesdays don't count!".

My family and friends, all of whom were CoC, just laughed and thought the joke was very funny. Looking back that seems weird, because everyone of them taught that Wed's were good and proper and if the elders scheduled you should be there. Wednesdays were one of the first to go in my slow exit from the CoC. I used a tired kid or working late as a buffer when people would ask about our whereabouts. That buffer turned into more and more about the truth that we didn't feel it necessary to be there every Wednesday.

Since leaving every now and then I realize it is Wednesday and get a strange feeling. It is nice knowing that we don't have to justify our absence to anyone any more and now it seems we have a more settled home life in the middle of the week because we are not rushing to be at church then rushing home to get a kid in bed on a school night. I suppose over time we will find something to take the mid-week study's place but that drilling from childhood to be there still rears its head from time to time.

Ha yes for those of us raised COC and then have left, Wednesday's still always give you a bad feeling. It's especially tough when you have family still in it. I'm determined to never set foot in my parents church again, and since we live about 5 hours away, planning the visits always have the acrobatics of missing those elder appointed services.

Wow, I am not the only one! We live 7 hours from family, and I have to make myself go see them. Dad will come see us and he just goes to church to keep mom happy (but has got brave and refuses Sunday night and Wednesdays)....anyways, at Thanksgiving we HAD to go in. For three years we lived nearly 1500 miles from them so could skip it, but this year we are closer. After driving all day and give out, we arrive on Wednesday evening, and I am thinking we won't have to go to church because we just got there. But oh no, my mom starts in hounding us that we need to go to church. I finally put my foot down, nope mom, we are tired. I haven't seen you in over a year. Can't we just visit? She wasn't happy about it but we didn't go. We managed to bow out of Christmas visit.

Wednesday now is just simply hump day.

For years, I taught a Wednesday night class at church. I had grades 7-12. There were times I'd prepare a lesson, only to find out last-minute that someone had decided we'd have a special thing for young people that night. I was pissed at having to do all that prep, make sure I got out of my work early enough to be there and all, only to find out my presence wasn't necessary. Didn't enjoy the adult classes, because they were often about Old Testament minutiae. When the last of my original group graduated high school, I decided it was time to quit. I did my last lesson. The following week, I stayed home, and never did a Wednesday night again.

Some Wednesday evenings I have to work later, others I go to a movie or dinner with friends. During the summer, it's fun in a perverse way to get home early, sit on the porch with a cold beer and bare feet up, watching harried neighbors rush off to church.

Struggler wrote:During the summer, it's fun in a perverse way to get home early, sit on the porch with a cold beer and bare feet up, watching harried neighbors rush off to church.

Understand completely!! Sundays too, for me......no church.

Man, does this bring some memories! I had two different stints in the cOC. During my second stint, I hardly ever missed. We only had 2 services a week. Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Occasionally, there would be a Sunday evening service, but only if there was a gospel meeting. I'll admit, that was one thing I liked about that particular cOC. Not having to worry about rushing back for a Sunday evening service was nice. However, that did make the attendance police even more stringent. They figured that the "lowered expectations" as they put it could and should be met. No exceptions. So, when I VERY occasionally missed, my phone blew up. And when I did miss, it was a Wednesday night. I never missed a Sunday morning. I think I was out like 4 Sunday mornings the whole time I was there, 2 for an illness and 2 because of being out of town. But, oddly enough, I never got calls about any of those 4 Sunday mornings. I sure got them if/when I missed a Wednesday night. Sometimes, they were passive aggressive. "We missed you". And sometimes the calls were a very blount "where were you??". Towards the end, I missed a Wednesday night simply to attend another cOC. I thought "shoot maybe they will go easy on me". I could not have been more wrong.I would have been better off telling the attendance police that I stayed at home to watch pornography. They ganged up on me and told me everything from "we do not miss our church for another one, not even another cOC" to "that is still considered forsaking the assembly". One Sunday morning, an older lady got onto a bunch of people who had been out the previous Wednesday night. She told them "You all need to show Wednesday nights the same priority that you show Sunday mornings". What gets me is, the people who say things like that are typically retired and have complete and total flexibility in their lives. Making it to every single Wednesday night service is much easier for those who no longer have to work.

I'm retired, and I go to church irregularly. I am still busy with other stuff, including sleeping late. As my husband said on a recent Sunday, "At least you don't go to a church where they harass you for missing!" I did the math, and since I attended the COC 3 times a week for 31 years, I think I am entitled to skip. At the normal frequency of once a week, I think I have it covered until I turn 93. Probably really 95 because I have been to services many times since becoming a Methodist.

Moogy the Methodist. My great great grandparents were Methodists. The great great grandmaother was alive when I was born and I remember her. She lived in a wooden frame house on Hackberry St across the street from Oaklawn Cemetarycemetary. She had a garden next door. I remember her giving me some candy when I went to see her with my grandmother and mother and I remember her telling me she loved me. That's about the only memories I have of her. I was about 4 or 5 when she died but they are nice memories to have of someone.

I wonder if being a Methodist made her so nice. I bet if she was Church of Christ she would have been mean like my granny and momma.

Ugh Wednesday night Now that I think of it, it must have been started by retired people.If you watch "Little House' they never had Wednesday church, except on one episode when they went mining for gold.. Reading the history,Wednesday church didnt catch on until late 19th century, and it wasnt really a full service. It fell out of favor then picked back up in the 1940s. Ministers felt members needed more spiritual training and there wasnt enough time on SUnday to accomplish everything.
I have nothing against night services during the week, but it really doesn't seem like a Biblical requirement.

B.H. wrote:Moogy the Methodist. My great great grandparents were Methodists. The great great grandmaother was alive when I was born and I remember her. She lived in a wooden frame house on Hackberry St across the street from Oaklawn Cemetarycemetary. She had a garden next door. I remember her giving me some candy when I went to see her with my grandmother and mother and I remember her telling me she loved me. That's about the only memories I have of her. I was about 4 or 5 when she died but they are nice memories to have of someone.

I wonder if being a Methodist made her so nice. I bet if she was Church of Christ she would have been mean like my granny and momma.

BH, you and Moogy have jolted an old memory cell. My maternal great grandmother was a Methodist!!!!!! I don't think my maternal grandparents were ever able to convert her to cofc, although I could be wrong......but I don't think so......there was always that undercurrent of Mama ____________ having been a Methodist, and therefore not religiously ok.