Rise up and move

There’s a name for them - backpew Christians. They are worshippers who either prefer to sit at the back or get there late and find a seat close to the rear in an effort to not disturb the service. Some are parents with young children who want a seat close to the door in case they need to make a quick exit.

But, what happens when so many worshippers gravitate toward the back that the front pews are left empty week after week?

That was the situation at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church and the problem was so noticeable that viewers of the televised services expressed concern to staff members about what looked like a dwindling congregation. In reality, the church is thriving, topping an average of 1,000 worshippers each weekend, the highest number in the congregation’s history, said the Rev. Britt Skarda, senior pastor.

But to those watching on TV, the sanctuary looked far from full.

“We started getting letters saying ‘We love your services but you’re just dying’ when we were actually growing. We’re in the middle of a neighborhood, off the beaten path but people are clamoring to get here,” Skarda said. “But with people sitting in the back they got the impression that nobody is here.”

The comments prompted Skarda to send out a plea to members - move up front!

He told his flock that when church members sit in the back it creates problems not only for the television film crew, but also for newcomers who often prefer to sit near the back. He urged members to make a commitment to move to the front and join the “Up Close Worship Team.”

“I told them this is your chance to do some evangelizing by sitting up close,” he said.

Skarda said his plea made a difference as members responded, including Kim and Blake Ruff, who answered the call and moved from their usual seats near the back to the front few rows.

“I view it like when you are in school you get more out of being in the front row,” said Kim Ruff. “I was always that student that was up front.”

Ruff said sitting near the back she sometimes had a tendency to let her mind wander to what she needs to do that afternoon while looking at the beauty of the sanctuary.

“In front there’s a sort of accountability and I feel more engaged,” she said.

The couple used to sit near the back in part because they have two daughters (Lilly, 7, and Layla, 3), but Ruff said she has made her peace with the fact that they might make noise but she feels most people are simply happy to have children there. Ruff said she has also noticed a change in Lilly.

“She likes to sit up there,” she said. “She has a coloring binder and a few weeks ago she put it down and said she wanted to listen. She sat and looked at him the entire service. She listened to the entire thing and even asked about it.” SECTION CLOSED

The Rev. Gordon Garlington, pastor of Park Hill Presbyterian Church in North Little Rock, has dealt with back-pew Christians, as well, while serving congregations in Virginia, Texas and Arkansas. Although the makeup and ages of the congregations varied greatly, one thing they all had in common was that the back row filled up first.

The attempts by Garlington and his staff to “encourage” folks to move forward proved unsuccessful, to say the least.

One optimistic usher, intent on changing the undesirable seating habit, roped off the back pews, but come Sunday morning he found the ropes still there but the pews occupied.

“A bit of fun was had with this habit from time to time,” Garlington said, noting that at one church the staff would set up chairs for events in the fellowship hall one row at a time, starting at the front. When the row filled additional rows were added.

The fun even spilled over into the annual stewardship campaign at one church.

“A slightly tongue-in-cheek part of the campaign was to include the promise, for those more generous in their estimates of giving, of front row parking spaces and back-pew seats - a sort of ‘first shall be last’ reversal of the Razorback Foundation’s Super Hog, Wild Hog and Tush Hog” assignments, Garlington said.

Garlington said, just as there are confirmed “backpew” folks, there are also committed “front-row” Christians, for which he is thankful.

“It would discombobulate me if, leading worship one Sunday, I looked up and saw this or that person sitting anywhere but on the front row,” he said. “Mostly, I guess there are ‘I like it here’ folks who understandably have found a comfortable place and seek it out, unless - awkward moment - some unsuspecting guest inadvertently lands in it.”

On a more serious note, Garlington said, where a person sits can sometimes be part of a journey of spiritual healing.

“I remember in a divorce recovery seminar our church sponsored in Bentonville a lady recounting how she, in retrospect, charted her journey through and beyond divorce by where she found herself sitting in the worship service,” he said. “At the beginning, she said, when things were fine in her marriage, she was a ‘front-row’ kind of person. As things deteriorated, she told our group, she found herself sitting farther and farther back in the sanctuary, to the point where she was, finally, on the back row and finding it hard even to come to worship.

“After her divorce was finalized, though, and as the healing process continued, she said, she found herself again moving, but this time closer and closer toward her former place on the front pew.” STUDENT SECTION

At Immanuel Baptist Church in Rogers, the worship center seating is fanshaped in three sections of chairs instead of pews. The Rev. Tom Hatley said he doesn’t see much of a “backpew” problem.

“There are some who prefer not to sit up front but enough that enjoy it that it doesn’t look like the first five rows are sort of a disaster area,” he said. “I have had churches in the past where that was standard and it is a problem in a lot of churches.”

Hatley said he thinks it’s more of a problem in churches with traditional sanctuaries but he said the layout at his church seems to make it easier for people to sit closer to the front. Also, one section is reserved for the youth - a sort of (sometimes rowdy) student section similar to those found at athletic events.

“The youth prefer it and we like them down there,” he said.

At First Presbyterian Church in downtown Little Rock members do sit on the front row. The Rev. Marie Mainard O’Connell said the front rows are usually taken by those assisting in the service, from children helping out to elders assisting with Communion and the offering.

“In practice that can mean that there is a lot of movement off that pew,” she said.

O’Connell said she’s also appreciative that a handful of families also like to sit close to the front.

“On the whole, I think we’re very fortunate to have an attentive and engaged congregation, especially since there is so much involvement of members in the service itself,” she said. “I appreciate that the service doesn’t rest solely on me; the liturgy really is ‘the work of the people’ and you can see that in action on that front pew.”

O’Connell said regular attendees also have their favorite seats.

“One family, when the whole family comes they take up an entire pew,” she said. “And, of course there are those who insist on sitting on the back row. Our empty seats are those in the middle.”