The scenario I want to discuss is people who hang outside of the sanctuary during the service and talk. I was out in the hallway with my 18 month son because he was being too disruptive in the service. He's not noisy but just very active and wants to run around. We don't put him in the nursery because we don't trust it (another story). We aren't the only ones that keep our little one in there. Anyway, they play the sermon out in the hallway so I am still able to listen. However, there were a group of 3 women and two teenage girls out there talking. Not about the sermon or anything along those lines just random stuff. Then come out two men, one being a deacon, and do the same. So I can no longer hear the sermon even though I am underneath the speaker. So i turn to the guys and ask them if there is a reason why they are just standing out there talking. They say no and walk away but not to the sanctuary. I don't know if the women hear me but two of them go into the sanctuary. The last woman is now talking with the girls and getting louder as well as goofing off. So I ask them the same question. The woman gets upset and defensive. Granted I may not have said it with the best tone (my wife is working on me with that) but when she got defensive I stayed calm and just tried to reiterate the question of why they are out there just talking during the service.
I will admit that I was thinking partially of myself because I wanted to listen to the sermon but, I was also trying to get them to think about what they were doing and for the woman to see the example she was setting. I don't think it is a sin to sit out there and talk but shouldn't it make us think about why we wouldn't want to be in the service.
I don't say all this to discuss anything about the woman's behavior but I will ask a question of myself. Was it unreasonable to ask that question? Or, reasonable or not, should I have even broached it?
Thank you for any thoughts. Just trying to gain more perspective.
I will admit that I was thinking partially of myself because I wanted to listen to the sermon but, I was also trying to get them to think about what they were doing and for the woman to see the example she was setting. I don't think it is a sin to sit out there and talk but shouldn't it make us think about why we wouldn't want to be in the service.
I don't say all this to discuss anything about the woman's behavior but I will ask a question of myself. Was it unreasonable to ask that question? Or, reasonable or not, should I have even broached it?
Thank you for any thoughts. Just trying to gain more perspective.