Let me just say that I do not have the perfect job for blogging, like some of you (ahem, E'thelton), and blogging on the blackberry in the woods doesn't work too well. So, I was slack in posting this week. But, here's something that's been on my mind since Sunday:

If you were in church Sunday night, Bro. Gene commented that it was becoming "too quiet" around GSBC and asked for volunteers - some men to come and sit on the front row and "AMEN" the preacher, Bro. Eddie Davis, whenever you agreed with something he said. I don't know if you noticed or not, but there was one thing in common with the men who volunteered and sat on the front row: AGE. Not that the men who got up there were decrepit or anything, but nobody up there was under 50 years old.

One of my absolute favorite things about our church is the atmosphere. It's not restricted to just one thing, like the choir or the preaching or the special music...it's all aspects of the service. And the support and "life" from the audience is a unique part of that. I found myself wondering Sunday night if that atmosphere that I love and that most of us take for granted will be around, say, in another 10-15 years? There was nobody on the front row that night that I or anybody else would call a "young man" or somebody in the mid-stages of life, unless my memory is telling me lies, and yet the guys up there were the stalwarts of the amen choruses that we hear every week. The guys who, believe it or not, ADD ATMOSPHERE to our services. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that I have felt more movement of the Holy Spirit in services where I knew others were experiencing Him as well.

Who will ensure that our atmosphere remains the same in the years to come? What happens when those men can't speak out anymore like they used-to? Who will be around when the leadership roles of the church must move to a younger demographic? And I don't think that we should limit this conversation just to MALES...there are plenty of responsibilities that women have in our church today that someone will have to take-over-for one day. How can we keep GSB from becoming a ho-hum church that is (dare I say) BORING and or DEAD because it feels like no one WANTS to be there?

Bro. Eddie Davis commented on Wednesday night that GSBC is one of his favorite places to come because of the atmosphere...I hope that he can still say that in 10 years. Who will start supporting the preacher/choir/special music AUDIBLY? Who will start to take responsibility for the prayer-burden? Who is going to ensure that the atmorsphere of GSBC will be for our kids what it was for us?

Could you do it? How weird would it be if you started saying "amen"? How about me? Just something to think about...something that I've been thinking about a lot. Maybe we'll all hear a few new voices in the weeks to come...