Members falling asleep

WHO ME !!!!!!!!

 

I preach on occasion. I have yet to fall asleep in the pulpit.

 

Is the sound system loud enough? Folks who are even a little hard of hearing will nod off if they can't hear well enough to make sense of what you're saying.

And how about the intellectual level? If we have a speaker who talks in very intellectual terms, my husband will fall asleep because he doesn't understand.

 

Hope my wife don't say that!

 

Well you are lucky I am not in your congregation. I have severe sleep apnea(I wake up 300 times in a 2 hour period) and I have severe hyper-somnia, I can and sometimes do fall asleep while standing and talking to someone.If you could keep me awake you would be world class.:tonofbricks:

Video taping yourself and watching is a good idea.

 

Just Thank God there in church

 

Just some thoughts for your consideration.

There has been so great response to your inquiry and I am no expert by any means but maybe I can get your mind to think of some things that might help. I would suggest taking to heart many of the suggestions that have been proposed to this point. In fact, I am taking and applying some to my own sermons as well just because they are so good.

1. Put yourself in the place of the people. Remember when you sat where they are and you struggled with either staying awake or keeping your mind on the sermon or looking around and being distracted. I'm not implying that you are doing all of those but if you think about yourself in the past, each situation has been a battle at one point or another simply because we are human. Now, remember that if you battled or still battle those issues as a man that is called of God, how much easier is it for the people that you are ministering too, to fall into the same kind of distraction? They are just memebers and have not given their lives over to the calling of God. They simply want to be the best they can be. However, that may not be enough to keep the distractions and sleep battles at bay.

2. Give the people an out. Take some of those that are regular sleepers and put them to work in a rotating schedule during the service. Have them pray throughout the service for you and for the people in attendance. This will encourge them to be more alert when they are not praying and it never hurts to have a little extra Holy Spirit help keeping the people focused. I have done something similiar in three different churches I have been in and have had amazing results both in my own life but in the response of the people to the preaching of the Word.

These are just my thoughts, if you want more details about what I did with the prayer during the sermons just PM me.

:thumbs:

 

I remember my math teacher would sneak out and pretend to be away during exams.
He'd be lurking around and knows every crack in the wall wide enough to aim through and fire with his paper bulleted slingshot at anyone who as much as looks sideways to his seatmate.
Nobody fell asleep, or cheated, I tell ya.
Those paper bullets were dipped on some sticky, itchy stuff that made you scratch like crazy.

 

Snoorers are the problem for me!!!:laugh:

Tell ya what do!!! Make a mental note of the sleepers ---- then the next time they're in the car with you drivin' --- go on like you're fallin' asleep at the wheel --- see how they react!!! "I promise never to sleep in church again, Preacher!! I promise!!!!"

 

Medication, work/sleep schedule and sleep apnea may all be playing a part. I would be very careful about embarrassing someone publicly for sleeping. There are most certainly factors at work you are unaware of. I would approach these people privately and ask them if there is something you can do that would help them stay awake.

Another approach is to make them actively involved in your message. Approach them and ask something like, I am having trouble saying um, or putting my hands in my pockets, or fiddling with my notes or whatever (as a younger preacher you can get away with this easier). Then ask them to keep track of how many times during your message you do that.

Here is another idea, tell them you are worried about vandalism or theft in the parking lot and would like them to go out and check the cars once in the middle of your sermon. Ask them to sit in the back and leave quietly. A little walk may keep them awake.

Like Plain old Bill and j barner I suffer from sleep apnea. For several years I lived in denial of this and fell asleep every time I sat down for 5 min or more. I fell asleep at home, work, church and while driving. I could not watch a television program or read a book without immediately falling asleep. I was most miserable. My wife told me I had a problem but I would not listen. My boss finally told me to see a doctor or he was going to fire me for falling asleep at work. I listened to that and my life has improved dramatically. Sleep apnea is a real medical problem that can lead to death. If you suspect this may be part of the problem (look for overweight/thick necks although that is not always there, ask them if they snore or fall asleep other places) then you need to discuss it with the people involved. You may save their life.

 

Habitual sleepers

Habitual sleepers have one of four problems:

1. They do not adequately prepare themselves for the Lord's day by going to bed early and getting adequate rest.

2. They have a health-related problem.

3. They have a spiritual malady — perhaps unconverted, perhaps uninstructed.

4. They are bored.

You need to encourage, exhort, and admonish those that fall under categories 1 and 3. Falling asleep habitually with no good reason is a failure to love the Lord with all one's heart and strength, etc. and is a sin.

Those in category 2 need to seek medical help and if that has already been done and cannot be changed, they need to be left alone.

Those that are in category 4 reflect on your preaching. Are you interesting (I didn't say "entertaining")? Have you thoroughly studied your material so that you could present it without notes? Do you have habits that distract? When you are finished preaching do people say (or can they say) "So what?" :sleep: Do you know why you are preaching what you are preaching? Do the people? Are you feeding them milk and cookies or are you giving them something to chew on?

 

If the sleeper(s) starts to snore, and you have hand-held mikes, put a mike on him and see how long, or how much volume, it takes to wake himself up.

 

Naturally, one of the Puritans actually wrote on this. "A Treatise on Wandering Thoughts During Worship," by Richard Steele. This also catches the ones who are awake but might as well be asleep. A quote:

"If as few bodies as souls were present, how empty would our churches be!

 

How true that is, I have a member whose husband told me she is writing her shopping list while I am preaching. They go shopping right after service. I had thought she was a faithful note taker.

 

A fine young preacher (a good friend of mine) was in Greek I with me some years ago, and he came in on Monday with a dilly of a story. His head deacon (a ring-tailed doozy of a lost Baptist deacon if ever I smelled one) had sat during the sermon reading Time magazine, and holding it where the preacher could see what he was doing. As I told my friend, he has extra grace, because had that happened to me, I'd have sinned, and that old boy would have "Broadman" stamped on his forehead backwards from the hymnal I whomped him with.

 

Now that would hurt Lebuick. Maybe you should go eat dinner with them then.

 

One Sunday in the middle of his sermon a Pastor noticed that 3 members of the congregation were asleep in the front pew.
"Wake those people up!" shouted the Pastor at his Head Deacon. The Head Deacon looked at the sleeping people, then at the Pastor and responded
" You put 'em to sleep, You wake 'em up!"

 

Personally, I went to sleep one time during the preaching of Dr. R. G. Lee, at the Southern Baptist Convention, while he was preaching his most famous sermon "Payday! Someday!".

I have since told various individuals not to be surprised if I go to sleep during their sermons, by saying, "I've gone to sleep listening to better preachers than you, as well as worse preachers than you. So if I go to sleep, while you are preaching, don't take it personally, nor feel like you are a 'privileged character'." :laugh: :laugh:

BTW, the person who spoke of sleep apnea is right on the money. Since I had that diagnosed, and received treatment for it, I have not had any real problem of staying awake for sermons, or during the day. Now, you really have to be boring to put me to sleep, that-a-ways.

Ed

 

Now this was fuuuuuny! Make sure you tie it into the sermon like saying, "Just as David SLEW Goliath with the..." so you can whop him on the word SLEW.

Bro Bob, I joked with her for a while. I usually pace up and down the center isle while preaching. She sits on that end of the pew. I'd walk up behind her and say things like, "don't forget the eggs" and just keep preaching. Me and her hubby knew what I was doing and would chuckle. One Sunday I said, "what, no green peppers" and she looked at me and said, "oh yeah" so I cut that out...

She still writes by the way...

 

I've been one of those persons who have nodded off during sermons but I have also nodded off at some social occassions. Before I understood what I was dealing with I had apologized on a couple of occassions to my Pastor .
I had later gone through a sleep apnea study and nothing showed to be wrong. Later on I was diagnosed with Narcolepsy and have since been prescribed medication for this problem. The medication has really helped with my alertness, I only wish I had found this out sooner.