Also… I tried breastfeeding my baby in church, and was approached by a 69 year old woman afterwards who told me, “I know she’s under a blanket and you are very discreet, and probably no one else knows what is going on, but I know you are nursing that baby under there, and church is not the place for that.” I was very upset, but my husband, the assistant pastor at the time, told me not to let it bother me, and that there was nothing wrong with it as long as I was modest. He did tell me however thaat the the Bible says, “If meat causes my brother to offend, I will abstain…”. He had me go to a office and nurse the baby from then on. I often wonderedd what was the use in even attending since I could not hear or see the preacher and my infant nursed for 45 minutes at a shot and always chose to start at the beginning of the preaching!!! I praised GOD when the church purchased hearing assistants for the elderly (it’s battery powered earphones that are tapped into the pa system.) I was then able to hear the message too!

Rather than venting, if you’re feeling frustrated, how about considering how you are engaging with the talk. If you’re being quite attentive, why not chat with people after church about the talk? If you’re actually getting something out of the talks, and talk about how the talks are actually challenging/helping/interesting to you, then it stands as an example to others – hot coals and the like.

Further – if people aren’t engaging with the service – could there be reasons why they are engaging? Perhaps taking some time to chat with them about what’s going on in their lives might be helpful.
And why not simply ask if they could (at a suitable time) not talk/etc. during the sermon/talk? How do they know they are distracting others unless they are told?

@ Xtreme : Thanks for picking up on Overboardbriggs comment! I read it and shuddered. It puzzles me how people attempt to justify their own church practices by looking at Acts out of context… Often elevating the infant church of Acts to a place of perfection (note – the perfect church won’t be until Christ returns). Certainly, there are many things that we can learn from the book of Acts, but to attempt to make church practices prescriptive, from simply an account of what they were doing is unjustified. I heard one preacher, several years ago, further use the transfiguration as an example of how the Bible is against traditional institutionalism… and went on to prescribe the Acts’ home churches as the perfect form.
What we are encouraged to do is to be meeting together, and gathering around God’s word. The church I am involved with does this on a large scale (meeting in lecture theaters and the like) on a Sunday, and in small home groups (Bible Studies) during the week. The church perceived that with a large congregation it is hard to take care of all those people and ensure they are being looked after, and so made the home groups quite core to the ministry to ensure that people are building close, personal relationships in the church, and aren’t being isolated.

I sit in the front so I am not tempted to watch all the weirdness goin’ down…so I can focus on the message.

But my frineds will fill me in with all the weirdness…and nail trimming and the kissing of lips of parents and adult children…ohhhh yea, much fun and very distracting.

I ask ‘what did you think about the sermon?’ andswer ‘wasn’t too long.’

great…..