Hanging Out And Games Series

[OLD CHRISTINE CHURCH VIDEO]

-okay, so let’s just be honest, church can be a little weird at times. There are very few places you can go in the world that people do the things they do here. Where else do you get together, eat hot dogs, sing together, listen to someone, pray together, do all these things in one night (or day)?

-and it gets even weirder when everyone around you knows what’s going on, when to stand, the words to the songs, and you’re the only one looking around trying to figure out what to do.

-even last week, Fire & Water Sunday in the Sanctuary, it was funny sitting at the back and watching. Zak would start to sing, all of you sitting in the front would stand up and all the old people behind you would be looking around “oh, should we stand?”

-church can seem weird. But it’s like everything else. Think of your first day of school, it was weird, new place, don’t know what you’re doing. So why did you keep going back until it was normal and comfortable? Two reasons, either you liked it and wanted more, or you didn’t like it but someone knew it was good for you and forced you to go anyway.

-and that’s pretty much the two reasons someone goes to church. They tried it and liked it, or someone forced them because they knew it was good for you.

-but throughout life most of you have learned it’s easier to do things if you know what you’re doing, what will happen, and why you’re doing them. Most people don’t like church because they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know what’s coming next, and they don’t know why they are doing them.

-so for the next few weeks we’re going to look at why we do what we do. We’re going to talk about what we do here at Fire & Water and even at church in general and try to explain why we do it, how it is meant to help you grow more like Jesus, help you get to know God better.

-because it’s funny. As different as many churches are, there are patterns. There are things that everyone does, just slightly different. Even us here tonight and what we did this morning in three different services.

-like today’s topic, hanging out and games. Almost every single church in America did this in some way this morning. They shook hands so people would say “hi” to each other. We have a room just over there [POINT TO DINING ROOM] that people sat in together and ate donuts.

-fur us here at Drink Deep, it’s a little more obvious. Yes, we start at 6:00, but we open the doors at 5:30. Music is on, food is served, people can come in, hang out, talk, play cards, do whatever they want to.

-then at 6:00, the first thing we do together is play a game of some sort. Something to help break the ice and help you talk to each other, get to know each other a little. That’s done on purpose. There are people who come in right at 6:00 and they haven’t said “hi” to anyone, no one has said “hi “ to them.

-and we do this again after too! That’s the whole point of After Hours, some people aren’t talkative, they don’t like to “hang out”, but they like to play sports and will get to know people that way. So that’s what we do. For another hour people can spend time together either playing sports in the gym or they can hang out in here and talk and chill just like before.

-so is this important to us? Well, take a look. If you show up the second the doors open and leave the second we’re done, that means you will be here 3 hours, 5:30-8:30. Almost an hour and forty-five minutes, over half your time here, will be just interacting with other people.

-it is important. Even those of you that went on the mission trip, you served, you got to know God, you did devotions every day, but you also got to know each other and it makes a big difference.

-people will do almost anything if they are comfortable with the people they are with, for good or for bad. Well, we want it to be for good. That’s the first reason we do this hanging out and games.

1. TO HELP YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS BE MORE COMFORTABLE

-we want this to be an inviting place. We want this to be somewhere you want to go. We want this to be like “Cheers”, where everybody knows your name.

-now there’s only so much we can do for that, but we try our best for that.