The people in the middle

As our church has grown, we have seen our auditorium filled Sunday after Sunday in both the 9:00 service and 10:45 service. We set up around 750 chairs in a total of six sections with two sections on each side and two sections in the middle. As a result, I have the task of trying to connect with people from all six sections for 35 minutes as I preach Sunday to Sunday. Recently, I have had a few people point out to me that I seem to spend most of my time looking at the sections on the sides and overlooking those sitting in the middle two sections. I’ve even been asked, “What’s wrong with those in the middle?” I thought about some clever, yet fictional answers to that question. You know, things like:

• The people who sit on the sides are better looking (that can’t be true, however, due to the fact that our Pastor of Student Ministries sits in the sections to my left during our first service and our Worship Arts Director sits in the sections to my right during the second service!)!
• The people who sit on the sides give more in the offering so I want to give them more “bang for their buck”!
• The people who sit on the sides are far more in need of spiritual help and need more eye contact in order to be reached!
• Our teens always sit on the side and I need to make sure my kids are behaving!
• My wife sits in one of the side sections and she’s just a whole lot more enjoyable to look at than anyone else in the auditorium!
• My profile is far more attractive and I want that to be the main camera angle up on the big screens so I look my best!

Obviously, I am being facetious (about everything except the part about my wife). So what is the real reason that I spend more time looking at the people on the sides of the auditorium than I do those in the middle? The truth is that I really had no idea that this was what I was doing. If you normally sit in the middle sections of the auditorium on Sunday mornings and are feeling overlooked I can honestly tell you it is not intentional. Some have suggested that maybe it’s the screen in the back that distracts me and causes me to avoid looking in the middle. If anything, it is probably due to the fact that the people on the sides are so much further away from me when I preach that I ultimately overcompensate in trying to keep them connected to what I am saying.

So, if you sit in the middle, please know that it’s nothing personal. I really do appreciate the constructive criticism very much. My desire is to always improve in my ability to communicate and eye contact is a very important part of effective communication. In the weeks to come, I will seriously try to be more conscious of those who sit in the middle.