How we can keep others from church

[Choosethisday]

I had originally posted this in another forum but then realized it might be better here. I was thinking about how we go out of our way to get people to church because we believe it is good for them to be in church and then we do things on a Sunday that might prevent them from going to church. Examples of these things are shopping or going to restaurants on Sundays. So anyway, for quite a while now my wife and I have tried to avoid doing anything on a Sunday that would cause others to miss an opportunity of going to church. This has nothing to do with Sabbath observance; we simply don’t want to be the cause of someone not being in church. We are not legalistic about this and don’t get real weird about it. Our general guideline is to only do things on a Sunday that might cause others to have to miss church that we would be willing to do for them. As an example, if someone had a need for a medication on a Sunday and I was a pharmacist I would be willing to miss church to help them. However, I wouldn’t want to miss church just because Sunday was a more convenient day for them to shop. We believe this principle is consistent with loving your neighbor as yourself. My wife and I have both had to work Sundays during our careers and while we didn't expect the secular world to care if we missed church we were often disappointed when our brothers and sisters in the faith don't seem to care that we couldn't be in church. As believers it was one thing, but for unbelievers it could have eternal consequences.

[Paidion]

I appreciate your motive, but I am wondering about the consequences, if any. How many of the people who do business on Sunday morning, go to coffee shops, or golf, etc., would be in church if no businesses at all were open on Sunday? I venture to suggest very few — if any.

[Choosethisday]

First, I agree that the number of people who would go to church in such instances would not be huge, but certainly some would. I know of at least a few within my sphere of life. And in addition what if it were only one in the whole world, would be want to be the cause of them not being in church and therefore possibly never making Jesus their Lord? Do any of us want to stand before God someday and explain why our convenience was more important that a lost soul? I will have enough to explain to God, I certainly don’t want to add more.

[jriccitelli]

I could make this into a lengthy issue, and some generally call me a legalist for defending it - but I am not - I defend the idea of a day off primarily because of my 'deep' experience of being an entrepreneur (misunderstood as being a workaholic). One pitfall of trying to succeed at being self employed is working 7 days a week, and I did this for 10+ years. And although I was younger then (and not a believer) I had to conclude that I had to make a rule for myself that I would have to (try) and take one day a week off, as I found I was able to think and perform better during the other days when I took a day of rest, rather than fall into complete exhaustion, sick, or fall asleep during the day.
So after becoming a believer I have well appreciated that God knew the human mind and body could not function without taking a day off, and every six days is a well proportioned time, as I have tried pushing on 7, 9, 12, 20, days etc. Being in construction my hands and body badly need a day to heal and recover also (anyone who goes to the gym a lot knows they need to take a day to stop and heal also).

Everything God does has purpose and meaning (for all time), the social and worshipful aspect of a day of rest is the greatest benefit, I can see why God did make it a law, as many people (men I think more so) generally do not stop for family, God, or others, and will choose rather to use work as an excuse to ignore the more difficult aspects of family life. Many men I know 'quickly' revert to fishing, drinking beer and going off with their buddies rather than give God and family any thought of being a 'priority'. I might add that I find many women revert to 'shopping' as a priority (something that I find exhausting and unenjoyable).

I know that more than a few within my small sphere of life would benefit, and change also for the better if one day of the week was considered the Lords day, a holy day. The Sunday day off of work has served humanity well for hundreds of years, it has been a huge blessing to western life, especially here in the U.S., but now it is eroding as secularism has taken over.
My wife of her own convictions refuses to shop on Thanksgiving and Easter (some stores are starting to open on Christmas now) because these days, although not commanded or in the Bible, are great institutions of remembrance and great 'opportunities to focus' on God and your family and friends, my conscience certainly would approve of anything good and profitable.

After saying all that; I will note that me and my wife are finishing our move out of our storage unit(s) today, after bible study this morn, because they were closed when we pulled up last night. Not to prove I am not a legalist, but it is hard to get everything done in six days. But I will be considerate of the person who must work on Sunday and maybe I will avoid going to Home Depot, the gas station and Starbucks today (and go tomorrow). Thank you for the encouragement 'Choose' as we are learning to consider others as more important than ourselves.

[Choosethisday]

Thanks jriccitelli, I didn't want to bring up the other issue about having a day off because I wanted to keep this issue only about "loving others" rather than what's also good for us. But you areright, we were not designed to work every day of the week. Also, back when we did see Sunday as just any other day we had less time to dwell on God than we now are able to. I think we should set one day aside, and it doesn't have to be Sunday, to devote it more than the other days to our relationship with our Creator. I do think, from strictly our point of view, it could be any day of the week we set aside. However, this could conflict with what I would consider our higher priority, that being loving others. What I would really love to find is a place to shop and dine out where only Seventh Day Adventists worked. Then I could feel good about patronizing the business on a Sunday and know I wasn’t keeping them from church. Or even better yet, I look forward to when such businesses are totally “staffed” by automatons, (robots). This way I would have no remorse about causing them to miss church