What is it about the pews at the front of the church that make them unappealing to most of the congregation, myself included?
I know from a childhood spent in the second row, it's very hard to look around when you are up front. Everyone behind you knows the exact moment your attention wanders. It is impossible to casually look over your shoulder to check the clock at the back of the sanctuary.
I know those things shouldn't matter: I am not at church to catalog what everyone is wearing or to make sure my one hour of church service is dutifully time stamped. Those empty front rows bother me. We are crammed into the back of the room, as if we are afraid to sit too close to the front.
And yet, I try to imagine myself moving from my usual half-way back pew, and I can not. Mostly because my attention does wander, sometimes, and I like knowing only about half the people in the sanctuary will be aware it.
I'll be staring at the other half.
I don't know what it is either, but I suspect it has much to do with what you mentioned, that everyone else is watching you and you can't watch anything but the pulpit. We usually have the musicians or choir and sometimes a deacon or two sitting on the front pews. So it's not always that empty... but if they sat elsewhere.. I'm not so sure.
ReplyDeleteAt our church, the older folks are moving forward to fill those front pews. I wonder if I will move up when I'm old too?
DeleteWe sit in the very last pew. We started sitting there when the kids were really young, figuring it would be easier to leave if they made too much noise. Now that they're older, though, we're still sitting there. Habit, I guess. :)
ReplyDeleteI think that's when we made the move too. I was raised in the second row, and naturally sat there until we had a baby. The service time coincided with his need to nurse, and slipping out of the last pew was so much easier than the second row!
DeleteI know what you mean. Probably goes back to being in school and not sitting at the front just in case you might be called upon. Hated that. Sat at the back to meld into the wall and not be noticed at all. When I went to college at the tender age of 24 I forced myself to sit at the front!
ReplyDeletehaha, that is funny. The front rows in our chapel are usually occupied by the people coming late because those are the only seats left!
ReplyDeleteThis is so funny to me. We sit right up front and center, kids and all. I get so distracted if I have people in front of me, so I just sit where I can't see anything except the action in front. I imagine, though, that our little circus of good times creates a bit of distraction for other people. Another advantage of the front pew is that you can sing as loud as you want and not have to worry about being off key because there's no one in front of you to notice.
ReplyDeleteThat's hilarious!!! We joke that we have "assigned seats" in our congregation. We always sit in the 4th or 5th pew from the front. I always sit at the edge of the pew (so it makes it easy for me to get up when I play organ or piano). It always feels SO weird to have to sit somewhere else.
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