When I go into the Lord’s house my main focus is worship. I get disturbed when I see people talking, playing and walking around during service. I feel that they are not there to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth when they are doing other things not pertaining \u00a0to the Lord’s service, they just don’t realize how serious it is to worship in spirit and in truth.\u00a0\u00a0Am I too critical?<\/p>\n\t
When small children are present, there are bound to be some disruptions as parents attempt to train their children to sit still and quiet. Small children will blurt out at times. They need to use the toilet at inconvenient times. But that is life with small children. I would rather have a few disruptions than be in a church that has no little ones underfoot. Such churches are the ones which are dying.<\/p>\n
But what sometimes happens is that parents don’t put effort into training their children. They are allowed to run as they please and disturb the worship of others. There the problem lies with the parents in not properly raising their children to respect God and others (Proverbs 22:6). As a result, when these children get older, they have no interest in serving God because they are used to doing as they please.<\/p>\n
Worse is when older people, who should know better, talk during services and do things that disrupt the worship service. These things are direct violations of the rules laid down for worship. “Let all things be done decently and in order<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:40) is the summary of what Paul laid out for Christians in I Corinthians 14. In particular, he chastised Christians for speaking out of turn. While prophecy has ended, we still teach from the prophets. “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:29-31). Thus, when one person is teaching the rest is to be respectful and silent. When he is done, another can take a turn at teaching the brethren. People should not be having private meetings during a public assembly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: When I go into the Lord’s house my main focus is worship. I get disturbed when I see people talking, playing and walking around during service. I feel that they are not there to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth when they are doing other things not pertaining \u00a0to the Lord’s service,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-16853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-worship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92681,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-children-be-bringing-food-donations-to-the-front-of-the-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":0},"title":"Should children be bringing food donations to the front of the church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am hoping you can help us with some insight into a situation happening in our local body. During the worship service, during the time of offering, the children of the congregation are invited to come up and donate food items to the church's pantry. Many members of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-uncomfortable-with-changes-made-to-the-order-of-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":1},"title":"I’m uncomfortable with changes made to the order of worship","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I attend a church where some changes have occurred recently. Although several in the congregation are unhappy about it, I still am not sure whether these are scriptural matters or personal preferences. Our order of worship since I have been there is two songs, prayer, scripture reading, song,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57779,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/welcome-to-church-kids-not-invited\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":2},"title":"Welcome to Church … Kids Not Invited","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Thomas I was so distracted once at a church service (away from here), by an overwhelming amount of noise from the audience, that I had a hard time concentrating on the lesson. I tried focusing my attention on the speaker, but the person behind me and a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/01\/no-children-round-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":81545,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-entertainment-and-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":3},"title":"What is the difference between entertainment and worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, Minister, My question to you is, can you kindly explain the difference between true worship and Christian concerts using sufficient Bible passages? I have friends in various denominations who attend concerts organized by various so-called Christian bodies, where gospel singers are invited to perform and do all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66636,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happens-if-someone-makes-a-mistake-during-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":4},"title":"What happens if someone makes a mistake during worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much. May God bless you for the amazing work that you do. I find it hard to switch from one act of worship to another, especially when I believe the one leading has made a mistake. For example, one Sunday, during the Lord's Supper, the one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2872,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-young-boys-lead-singing-in-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":16853,"position":5},"title":"Should young boys lead singing in worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The congregation I am meeting at has, on the last Wednesday night of the month, a singing night. We don\u2019t have classes that night. We come together in the auditorium and sing songs, pray and someone gives a short ten-minute lesson. We let the boys get up in front\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}