How late may I come to Sunday Service?

I used to be late all the time. I dont know whats with Saturday that keeps me up all night. Now that Im an usher I see a lot of late comers going in. There was 1 man who came at the time that the service is almost over.

Unless they have some special duty to perform, it's fine with me whenever they show up. It's more about the fellowship than just sitting and listening to one person's exposition on scripture.

Look at it from the pastor's point of view. When the church opened, he told them 9, they came at 9:10. So he made it 9:15, they came at 9:20, so he made if 9:30, they came at quarter to 10. Eventually he gave up, and made it 10:33 (yes I know churches like this).

Why is it people feel obliged to attend, but they don't feel excited about attending? That's the real question.

at least you show up, some don't even do that.

People from over 40 different nationalities go to my church.

The thing that always catches a lot of people out is the start and end of the British Summer time (not all countries put their
clocks forward and backward), we often have people turning up an hour early or an hour late during those times of the year.

A couple of points:

Just because someone is late to church doesn't mean they are not excited to attend.
We usually don't know why people are late.
God cares more about your intention (your heart) more than he cares if you are on time or late.
However, some people are late to EVERYTHING (church, work, appointments, parties...) and that is not respectful.

i was always told you make it a point to clock in at work on time , even sometimes showing up early , so people should show the respect and go to church on time

but personally the church i grew up going to the testimony part of the service get dragged on sooooo long sometimes way over an hour you used to find yourself timing when it should be over so you can go in

i love hearing other's testimony but sometimes it went on to to long

testimony service can really drag on and on and some people end up giving little mini sermons instead of sharing what GOD has done with their lives that week. Our church hardly ever has open testimony service for this reason. We normally start 7 minutes after the set start time, but that's because everyone is yapping with everyone else, even Pastor LOL.

You are correct of course. But this does not explain the majority of it. At least not in my experience. Count how many people are late to the movie, or the ballgame.

Do they also come an hour early in the fall?

Much of that yapping is ministry. Heb. 10:25. I think we should train people in the difference between ministry and just yapping, and shorten the service to allow for more yapping, once they are trained.

Hi, yes they do, its quite funny really and the whole church just laughs about it.

We have two services in the morning so people either come early for the second service or late to the first. Or they come very early to the first service and turn up while the worship team are still running through the songs!

Our services are about 75-90 minutes long, although the second service has been known to last 2 hours when
people just don't want to go home and they want to stay and be blessed by the atmosphere or the worship etc.

There are also many people who stay for both services, even though they are the same and they sit through them both.

We also have a teen church where up to 150 (sometimes more) teens meet up and have their own church, they have their
own worship team, their own leaders - under the direction of the church. Their own guest speakers. More often than not, they don't want to go home either!


We have 2-3 baptism services a year and its great to hear what God has been doing in the lives of people. Just think of all
those parties in heaven!!!

Miri, that's the advantage of being in a revival. They don't ask how late the can come, they ask how long they can stay. I remember it well.

Wish we heard "how long can I stay" more often!!!!!!!

It doesn't matter how late it is, though it's best to try to arrive on time.

I think people attend late because they are going out of obligation and that equals a law mentality.

once you have a desire to attend,there shouldn't be a problem.

There are monochonic and polychronic cultures, too.
I don't remember the source in school, so I did the unthinkable, I found the wiki: Chronemics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In America, we are monochronic, at least on paper.
We set a time and expect people to show within five minutes to that time.
However, I went to a country where my choir was scheduled to sing at 9AM and the event hosts and guests did not all arrive until an hour later. Sometimes, I think polychronic is healthier for building relationships.
I remember a regular church service, an ordination service, that went an extra two hours. Yes, I said extra.

If America is a melting-pot, then of course polychronic influences are mixed in with strict time standards.

What makes God so awesome is that God knows our shoes or lack thereof.
And God wants to help us, walk with us...before, during, and after "church."

Timing is important, I get it. But so is considering all the positive, diverse reasons why people are late.
In Acts, it was on their way to church/synogogue that Peter and James healed a lame, begging man. Thereafter, he praised God. To be fair, I don't know if they were made late.

--IDEA

I can only speak for myself. I work all week (and sometimes even on the weekend) and have to adhere to a strict schedule to wake up on time. So when Sunday rolls around, I like it to be a sabbath day; a day I don't have to stress about being on time to something right after I wake up. On top of that, the service sometimes starts a bit late and I don't like to go early and have to listen to the band play tiny snippets of songs for sound check.

On any given day it seems like 25-40% of the people that attend my service show up late (sometime during worship).

I'm almost always late for everything. Well, except work. I think church should be another thing where I should be on time-always.