Do you skip church on Sundays?

Solomon and Perpetue ... encouraging us to reevaluate how we view our Sunday worship.

Dear friends,

After conversations with a number of people, I now judge is right to write a piece on worshipping the Lord together.

The question is” “Why do we need to come to church, and what happens when we skip church?”
Have you ever heard comments that go like this? “What the hell am I here for? This is foolishness, you know.  It is foolish for us to be here.

Do you have any idea how comfortable my bed and pillows are? Do you know how much work I could be getting done right now? I do not have to come to church to be a true Christian! What time must we finish so I prepare lunch. This is foolishness, you know!”

These are some words you hear from time to time from different people. And many people have the habit of attending church once or twice a month and some don’t come regularly at all.. When you visit or meet with them, they have a number of excuses for their non arrival.

Let us consider  some of the situations we might be familiar with:
1) Simon Feh is a sportsman. He likes to participate in different games. Recently he joined a soccer team and this team plays on Sunday morning. To square things with the Lord he decided to play one Sunday and be absent the following Sunday, so that he could still  attend church and worship. Slowly, he begins to feel  that the worship is boring. Now, he decides to only attend church at the end of the month, because he still feels the obligation of tithing and support the church.

2) Peter has just got a good job and wants to impress his manager. He starts to do extra work on Sunday mornings, so that he can keep the job. But he remembers the group which he used to pray with when seeking employment. He can’t see them anymore. He can’t even visit them. He comes home very tired and even phoning ihis friends is hard for him. He feels guilty, but he feels that there is nothing he can do. He needs his job to support his family, God must understand!

3) Paul Mahlangu is an electrician. He does many part tine jobs as he doesn’t have permanent emplyment. Each weekend he receives one or two calls to work, because Saturday and Sundays are the days when people are at home. He doesn’t have time to worship with others, despite the fact that he was part of the choir group and Bible study. He feels that work is more important than church. “Anyone can understand me”, he says.

4) Eunice is 60 years old. She has been in the church for more than 30 years. Eunice is tired of going to church every Sunday. Besides, “Sunday is the only day I can rest, because I work every day. Anyway, my church should have an evening service, so that I join others after my rest on Sunday,” she says.
Each of these fictitious stories illustrates the kind of difficulty that Christians can get themselves into in prioritizing their Sunday worship.

But, is there anything we miss when we skip church?

The writer to the Hebrews made useful comments. He said, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer” (Heb 10:25).

When we start skipping church things start to fall apart. A Baptist minister mentioned few of these potential challenges:

1. Detachment from the body of Christ: - When we are absent from worship we do not know who is sick, who is new to the congregation, who gave testimony of the triumphs sparked by their faith. The consequence is a feeling that the church is no longer a warm place to be

2. It slows down the pace of spiritual growth. In reality we are not placing ourselves in a position to benefit from biblical teaching through our church if we are not present in the church. We find that we experience difficulty with simple devotions and challenges, because we are not getting fed. This is a serious matter, and could lead to backsliding if the conditions are not put right. None would like this to happen to a friend.

3. We begin to prioritize another activity/hobby /interest above our commitment to God and his people. There will be many other things to interfere with our devotion to Jesus. When our own agendas are greater than God’s agenda, God might not want to develop us for a particular task that we have been longing for. Our testimony before the wide body of Christ and before non – Christians friends or work associates  begins to weaken.

If we come back to the writer to the Hebrews, we see that the writers knew that Christians were not always seeing the benefits of gathering for worship. There is a time coming that will require us to be strong in the faith. In different parts of the world there are Christians who gather in secret places. Here at St Mark’s, we have all liberty to meet as we please. The Lord’s day is near, we need to grow:

• By reminding us of whom we serve (Jesus Christ)
• By teaching us Biblical principles that we need to change the way we live By giving us an opportunity to express praise to God, along with other believers, something we were designed to do
• By gaining strength from our brothers and sisters to overcome their challenges through the power of Christ.

One can go on and on with this subject. But the issue of fellowshipping with other believers (together) is bigger than how we can imagine, or how we take decision day by day in our busy schedule of life, especially in Johannesburg where life is fast.

Are you skipping the church? Reconsider the wisdom of letting other things draw you away from the chance you have to meet for corporate worship.

God Bless

Solomon