Multitasking at Church

Multitasking became an IT buzzword in the 1990’s as computers began doing more than one task at a time through processor timesharing. Of course the tag didn’t remain in the office, but came to define mothers who kept their professional life in the fast lane and their family minivan in the same lane – transporting kids to their soccer games. Soccer Moms even became a political symbol of multitasking in the 1996 presidential campaign.

 Actually the rest of the world was just catching up with teens who could do home work, watch TV, jabber on the phone, chew gum and baby sit – all at the same time. Phenomenal.

As incomprehensible as the brain is, repeated studies prove it cannot fully focus when multi-tasking. Errors increase and productivity decreases. For this one reason alone, 30 states have banned phoning while driving, with 35 outlawing texting while driving.

Multitasking in church is just as detrimental to focus.

Maybe a decade ago, we thought our communion servers could prepare for their task while the speaker was directing the congregation’s attention to the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Bless their hearts, the servers would miss most of the words spoken, pass the emblems to all, ingest the emblems in a micro-second, and then retrieve the empty cups.

Finally, we woke up. A spare room became a 10-minute gathering place just for directing the servers to a personal time with Christ – truly communing with Him. The Lord’s Supper is not a multitasking moment, a lesson every generation and every culture has to personally learn.

Drinking “the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too” was a lesson the church in Corinth encountered in their idolatry-saturated culture. [1 Corinthians 10:14-21] This same church also multitasked the Lord’s Supper gathering with an all-you-eat gorging – with the pushy pigs heading up the food line, leaving crumbs for the shy. [1 Corinthians 11:17-21] Dead wrong.  

Communion is a refreshing interval for self-examination, focusing on the Savior [1 Cor.11:28,29] . . . a revitalizing break in our screaming paced multitasking. Sigh. Can hardly wait til Sunday.