Church attendance and sport

[FrootLoopy]

If you are a firm believer in attending church regularly, how do you square this up with your desire for your DC to play a sport regularly, when that sport happens to fall on a Sunday morning?

DS1 loves a particular sport (DH has passed on his passion for it) which isn't as common as others, and all the clubs around here seem to do training for it on a Sunday morning. Next school year (or perhaps even birthday if they allow mid season starts) he will be old enough to start training at the clubs. Games don't actually start until he is a few years older though.

But I run Sunday club for half the month, the DC attend it with me, both DH and I are firm Christians and do lots of extra duties at church. The church is quite central to our lives in the community.

I'm finding this difficult to square up. I know there are evensong services (CofE) but they're not the same as communion services at 10 am and we don't have them at our local church so would have to go further afield anyway, the 8 am services are just too early and too 'plain' for the DC - and for me tbh.

We used to attend a cathedral, but have moved to a local parish church when our DC were old enough to understand things, so that they could be part of a church community.

There aren't a lot of other children at church, so if mine suddenly don't attend I think the Sunday school would close, tbh.

But I really want him to play this sport, and if he doesn't start training at the same age as other children, he won't ever have the chance to progress in it.

How do others deal with this?

Go at 8 am.

Why take him to church at all? A decision of faith should be for consenting adults. Children are born non-believers, let them stay that way until they are old enough to make an informed choice.

I would take it in turns with your DH to take him. It may only be for a year, you may find somewhere in that time that trains on other days, etc.

If he doesn't want to miss out on church, the oaf net taking him gets up early and takes him to the 8am service.

Our DS plays a sport x 5 a week in season. It dominates our lives, so we account for it, make compromises, share the load. It's worth it; he's having the time of his life.

oaf net? parent.

There's a joke there somewhere, thanks icrap.

Sorry not read all the replies, we have a similar situation. Our 13 year is thinking about doing surf life saving. This runs on a sunday morning. The way we square this with our faith is as she is older she starts High school in Feb and can go to some of the youth stuff at church which is mid week. My dh and I can alternate who takes her. I also feel that if Christians don't get involved in sport who will tell them about God. I think teaching Kids that church is important but so is building relationships with those that do not yet go to church. Hockey is only for the winter season so its will be gone before you know it.

I really wish those who won't read the whole thread would at least read MY posts! Perhaps their answer would be quite different.

"I also feel that if Christians don't get involved in sport who will tell them about God" if you mean how will they recieve indoctrination? Maybe they won't.

And that's a bad thing?

Thank you Jelly, that's hopefully not going to be all that different to how we are going to try to manage it.

Frootloopy- I was thinking about starting a thread about this idea of what qge children can make their own decisions about faith/not faith because it interests me and I can see why you don't want it on this thread. Would you mind, or would you rather I didn't?

Hakluyt , go ahead. Starting a thread doesn't give the OP ownership of it and I find some of the best discussions arise from the side issues surrounding a central subject. Your call of course.

The OP has dealt with great good humour and patience with the partial derailing of a thread which she put in the wrong topic by mistake. I think she deserves some consideration if I am going to start a thread about a thread about it!

Hakluyt, brilliant idea, I might even post on it!!

Could you link to it, hak so I can join in? So clueless about navigation I will probably never find it otherwise.

I don't mind if you put a link on this thread.

Ds1's cricket matches were Sunday mornings this year. He chose to play, and would go to the evening service when he could (with dh, who was scorer for the team). His view was that he was still a Christian, whether he was at church or on the pitch and we supported his decision.

Friends on the other hand were adamant their dc went to church with them every week even if he'd been picked for the team. Did nothing but build up resentment as far as I could see.

I have another friend who's a children and families worker for a local church, and she says that frankly Sunday is a crap day for church nowadays as there's so much else available. She'd prefer similar services 3 times a week or so so that families could go together at a time that suits them.

Just trying to think of how to word it.......

I'm Anglican. Last I checked, the bible doesn't say you have to go to church every Sunday. It says you should meet with other Christians. The church, really, is not the building but the people who meet in it.

And if you are religious, presumably you believe your child's sporting gift would have come from God?

If I was in this situation, I would support my child's wish to play sport. I would attend an earlier service with or without DC and/or find a communion service on another day.

There are so many options these days apart from the Sunday family service. As my godmother says, sometimes life happens.

The church is a building. It's important to meet there. But it's not the only important thing.

Give your child a choice and the tools with which to make it. Don't use church as some kind of obligation or punishment. If you want your child to want to go, don't just make them.

Jesus didn't like hypocrites or people doing things just for show. Don't force your child to become that. It's not the way.

Woolly - thanks!

Also, some of the people I grew up with (very evangelical church) used to take it a step further, they would openly criticise anyone who was working on Sunday because it was a day of REST!

I got fed up to the back teeth with it one day, and gave them a mouthful. 'A day of REST, how lovely for you. Who has cooked that wonderful meal that you and the rest of the family have enjoyed, having a leisurely 2-3 hour lunch over? Who has done all of the tidying up? (Cause God Forbid a MAN should lift a finger doing any housework) How much rest is THAT for THEM? Do you ever buy anything at the shops? Do you drive around, going to places? Do you participate in making OTHER people work on a Sunday? If so then you are a complete and utter HYPOCRITE and I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANY MORE OF IT!'.

Some of them don't talk to me anymore, I wonder why......

FrootLoopy, you sound ace.