Regular church attendance is often emphasized in Christian preaching as vital for spiritual growth, fellowship, and worship (Hebrews 10:25). Illustrations use everyday scenarios, statistics, and personal testimonies to highlight the benefits of gathering together and the challenges or excuses people face in attending. The subject frequently draws on images of community, commitment, and the contrast between secular and sacred priorities.
Mother says to Charlie, "Get out of bed. It's Sunday morning and time to go to church." He replies, "I don't want to go and I have two good reasons - they don't like me and I don't like them!" Mom says, "I'll give you two good reasons you have to go:
#1, you're 31 years old,
#2, you're the pastor!"
#611
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Letter to editor:
I would strongly urge another course for church growth students: How to make church attendance half as pleasant as dozens of other Sunday morning choices. Any seminary that fails to come to grips with the fact that church is usually boring, and preachers are usually the most boring part of it, is doing a disservice to the whole concept of evangelism. Many people stay away from church because there's no good reason for them to go.
(Edmonton, Canada)
Survey of religious attendance percentages around the world:
Malta 91%, Ireland 72, Mexico 54, United States 43, Germany 21, Korea 19, Britain 14, Norway 7, Japan and Finland 4, Denmark and Iceland 3.
#891
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From a letter to Ann Landers:
Which is more important to Americans, sports or religion? I’ll bet nine out of 10 people would say sports. Well, they would be wrong. The late writer George Cornell did some research in 1992 and found that $56.7 billion was contributed by Americans to religious groups. That is 14 times more than the $4 billion spent that year on professional baseball, football and basketball combined. According to the Gallup Poll, attendance at religious functions totaled 5.6 billion in 1993. That is about 55 times great than the 103 million Americans who attended professional football, baseball and basketball games that year.
In 1990, the overall attendance at U.S. sporting events was estimated at 388 million. This includes both professional and college football, baseball, hockey, basketball, boxing, tennis, soccer, wrestling, and harness, auto and dog racing. In comparison, the religious attendance in 1990 was estimated at 5.2 billion — more than 13 times the overall sports total. More people turned out for worship in one month in 1990 than for all these sporting events for the entire year.
===============
Another version from SermonCentral by contributor D. Greg Ebie:
The Bible tells us that where your treasure is, there your heart is also. That means we could accurately say that many folks are more committed to professional sports than they are to the church. In 1993 the total attendance at worship services in the U.S. was 5.6 billion, while the total attendance at U.S. professional baseball, football, and basketball games combined was only 103 million (less than two percent of the worship attendance, or for every 100 people who attended church less than two were at a sporting event.)
Now the rest of the story: Contributions to churches for the year totaled $56.7 billion (that’s just over $10 per person), but the amount spent on professional baseball, football, and basketball totaled $4 billion (that’s nearly $40 per person or almost four times what people gave to their local church per person). Is it any wonder that we look at some fans and say that they really are fanatics? They are more sold out for their team than many church attenders. How could we change the nation if the church quadrupled its commitment of resources, discipleship, and evangelism?
In order to make it possible for everyone to attend church next week we are planning a special no-excuse Sunday.
1. Cots will be placed in the vestibule for those who say, "Sunday is my only
day for sleeping in".
2. Eye drops will be available for those whose eyes are tired from watching TV
too late on Saturday night.
3. We will have steel helmets for those who believe the roof will cave in if
they how up for church services.
4. Blankets will be furnished for those who complain that the church is too
cold. Fans will be on hand for those who say the church is too hot.
5. We will have hearing aids for the parishioners who say, "The pastor doesn't
talk loud enough." There will be cotton for those who say, "The pastor
talks too loud."
6. Score cards will be available for those who wish to count the hypocrites.
7. We guarantee that some relatives will be present for those who like to go
visiting on Sunday.
8. There will be TV dinners available for those who claim they can't go to
church and cook dinner, too.
9. One section of the church will have some trees and grass for those who see
God in nature, especially on the golf course.
10. The sanctuary will be decorated with both Christmas poinsettias and Easter
lilies to create a familiar environment for those who have never seen
church without them.
See you in church!
#1466
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According to a recent newspaper report, only 8 percent of British men attend church regularly, though 53 percent identify themselves as Christians.
And the situation is similar in other Western nations, with more than 40 percent of U.S. evangelicals not attending church weekly and more than 60 percent of American mainline Christians not attending weekly, according to Pew data. In short, millions who consider themselves Christians limit their church attendance largely to holidays, weddings and funerals.
If you’re among these millions, please give church another chance. By getting involved, you’ll discover that what you once viewed as a chore is actually a blessing. Here are 10 reasons why:
1. Church involvement is evidence that you’re a Christian in the first place. It also helps keep you from abandoning the faith. According to the author of Hebrews, the antidote to developing an “unbelieving heart” that leads you “to fall away from the living God” is to “exhort one another” (Hebrews 3:12-13) -- an activity that occurs most prominently in the church.
2. Gathering with a church encourages believers to love others and do good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25).
3. A church is the main venue for using your spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1-31). God has given you abilities and talents intended to help other Christians. If you’re not involved in a church, others are being deprived of what you have to offer.
4. A church helps you defend Christianity against those who attack it. When Jude told the early Christians to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3), he directed his instruction toward a group of believers, not a scattering of lone-ranger Christians. Answering challenges from coworkers, friends and family members is always easier when you can ask fellow church members for help and wisdom.
5. A church is a great venue for pooling resources to support missions and benevolent works (2 Corinthians 8:1-7; 3 John 5-8). Your money combined with that of fellow church members can do a lot for Christ.
6. A church helps its members maintain correct doctrine (1 Timothy 3:15). You might begin to adopt unbiblical ideas without realizing it yourself. But you probably won’t adopt unbiblical ideas without someone at your church realizing it, and they can help you get back to the truth.
7. After your family, a church is the best group of people to meet your physical needs in an emergency (1 John 3:16-17; 1 Timothy 5:3-16).
8. A church supports you when you face persecution (Acts 4:23-31; 12:12-17). You may not be imprisoned for your Christian beliefs like the apostles were, but a church family is still a great source of comfort when you face stinging words or unfair treatment.
9. A church is where you can be baptized and take part in the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Ephesians 4:4-6). These two ordinances are a vital part of any believer’s walk with Jesus.
10. A church provides the setting for corporate worship (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). Though it’s a blessing to praise God alone, there is a unique joy that accompanies singing God’s praises with an entire congregation of Christ followers.
The list could go on, but you get the idea. It’s worth it to start attending church.
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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #18617]
Things to ponder . . .
Question: "Can I be a Christian without going to church?"
Answer: "Yes!!!"
It is just as possible as being:
... A soldier who will not join an army.
... A student who does not go to school.
... A citizen who won't vote or pay taxes.
... A sales person with no customers.
... A captain of a ship without a crew.
... A business person on a deserted island.
... An author with no readers.
... A tuba player without an orchestra.
... A politician who is a hermit.
#3861
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The death of his parents caused Ian Frazier to search through his family's past. Cleaning out their home, he began to keep two files, a Mom Museum and a Dad Museum, and to let the leads he found there take him where they would, looking for "a meaning that would defeat death."
Frazier realizes that however closely he may feel himself linked to his ancestors, they and he remain starkly different. Take the matter of religion:
"I imagine myself in a grange hall full of ancestors - their dark
clothes, perhaps a woolly, smoky smell, their inward demeanors - and I
think conversation between me and them would be even more strained than
usual at family get-togethers. My ancestors talked and wrote a lot more
about God and Jesus Christ than I do.... They approved of mirth but not
'dissolute mirth.' They could be a tough audience. In church, they
often hummed when they liked what the preacher was saying and sometimes
hissed softly when they didn't. Compared to them, I suppose I am an
infidel. They might call me a Nothing-arian - the name regular church-
goers in the nineteenth century sometimes applied to those who weren't."
Despite his own lack of orthodoxy, Frazier comes to see the central role religious faith played in the founding of the country and is led to a conclusion that seems as eloquent as it is currently unfashionable:
"The people who founded the country came from a tradition of thinking
about God and man and about how people best should live, a tradition
more passionate then than it became or is today. And if the founding
words about freedom and justice and equality were traduced the moment
they came out of the speakers' mouths, traduced by crimes against people
unlike the speakers themselves, still no fact of history tells us we
cannot believe the aspiration."
It pays to listen to one's critics. Recently, one church surveyed its community asking why people DIDN'T go to church. The answers are instructive.
1. There is no value in attending. 74%
2. Churches have too many problems. 81%
3. I don't have the time. 48%
4. I'm simply not interested. 42%
5. Churches ask for money too much. 40%
6. Church services are usually boring. 36%
7. Church services are irrelevant to the way I live. 34%
8. I don't believe in God, or I am unsure
that God exists. 12%
Personal observations from Roy Medley: People are looking for an experience with the Holy, and they don't necessarily think church is the place to find it. That's a devastating critique - after all, as one national ad used to say, "It's our only business." In part, it is reflective of the fact that mainline Protestantism has tended to lapse into a sterile scholasticism which stimulates the mind but neglects the heart. People want to know that we understand the spiritual aspects of life and are in touch with God. The best of Baptist worship and preaching stirs both the mind and the heart, and brings one into the presence of the Living God as a whole person.
Also, people would rather fight at home. Life for most is filled with more than enough conflict and people don't want to find it when they come to church. People are looking for community, not disunity.
Many areas of America are highly "unchurched." According to data from the National Council of Churches, 41% of residents in the average U.S. country are "unclaimed" by a recognized Judeo-Christian church. Residents in those areas with the weakest church attendance tended to be affluent (Aspen, Colorado, with 83% unclaimed), young (Yolo County, CA, 72% unclaimed, with a large student population that leans toward New Age and other alternative religions), and male (Nye County, Nevada, 79% unclaimed, an area dominated by the mining industry).
As might be expected, church attendance remains high in the Southeast, the traditional "Bible Belt." It is also high in the "Bible Sash" that runs up and down the Great Plains (consider Faribault County, Minnesota, where church attendance is at 100%). And in Rich County, Utah, 1,676 residents go to their Mormon temples on Sundays while the remaining 24 residents sleep in.
#3412
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After intentionally bumping a vehicle that was keeping him waiting at a toll plaza in Saddle Brook, Raymond Bachelor hoped to escape with a fine as punishment. He got the fine - $455, including court costs. He also was ordered to get religion. Municipal Judge Nicholas Nasarenko told Bachelor to go to church, talk to a minister, and give the court a note from the minister saying he had counseled his congregant.
[details of incident given]
Ed Martone, director of the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said it is unconstitutional to "impose religion as a sentence." "I'm sure most religious leaders don't think church is an alternative for jail. It's ludicrous," Martone said.
#3568
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My grandfather is 94 years old, and acts 60. He has unbelievably good health and an active lifestyle. My grandmother is almost as active at 88. They live in It, Mississippi. Yes, It. That’s the name of the community just off Interstate 55 south between Gallman and Wesson, Mississippi. There is a sign proclaiming, “This is It.” I have always wanted a second sign not far down the road reading “That was It.”
Every Thursday, my grandfather drives about 20 miles to Wal-Mart in Hazelhurst. That is senior adult day, and he can get free coffee. He doesn’t miss that day at Wal-Mart. When I envision my grandfather at Wal- Mart, I see him making sure everyone knows he’s in the building. After all, when you’re 94, you want everyone to know you’re still alive.
When I asked my grandfather why he drives the 40-mile round trip for a free cup of coffee, he says, “Well, I like the free coffee, and I also like the way the clerks hug on me.”
Once when my grandfather went to Wal-Mart, it just happened to be his birthday. When he entered the door, he found the clerks had thrown him a birthday party -- cake, candles, balloons, ice cream and a newspaper photographer were all there. (Of course, there was free coffee, also.) Wal-Mart knows my grandfather, and they know his name and when his birthday is.
Now it is very interesting that my grandfather does not go to church. He is a Christian, and my grandmother doesn’t miss church. But my grandfather just doesn’t go. And I think I know why. At Wal-Mart he gets what he doesn’t get at church. The ingredients he misses at church? Hugs, people knowing his name, birthday parties, a sense of belonging and being appreciated.
You see, it doesn’t matter if you are 4 or 94, you like this type of attention. Age is not the issue. The issue is feeling like you belong and that you are a part of what’s going on. If my grandfather were in your church, would he get the Wal-Mart reception?
________
Marler is field services planning and projects coordinator in the field services section of the Baptist Sunday School Board’s ministry and leadership development department. Copyright (c) 1996 Baptist Press
In 2020, life circumstances changed which made it more difficult to attend church services. And, before they even realized it, many haven’t walked into a church building in a couple of years.
For many, that’s described their current post-pandemic situation. But it also corresponds with post-high school life experience for many previously churchgoing young adults.
Lifeway Research found 66 percent of churchgoing teenagers drop out for at least a year between the ages of 18 and 22. Recent Lifeway Research surveys of both pastors and Americans indicate many pre-COVID parishioners are still missing from the pews.
Thinking about the similarities between a church dropout during college and COVID may provide pastors and church leaders with more realistic expectations moving forward and ways to think about reaching those who still haven’t returned.
First, we must discover why people are missing and then what to do to bring them back.
Some intentionally leave because of a change
As teenagers transition to young adults, many also transition away from the religious beliefs and practices they previously held. In the Lifeway Research study of young adults, 29 percent of those who dropped out of the church say they planned on taking a break from church after high school. When asked for a specific reason they dropped out, 32 percent point to hypocrisy or judgmentalism of other church members. And 25 percent say they disagreed with the church’s stance on political or social issues.
Some of those same factors may be at play post-COVID. In a February 2021 Lifeway Research study of churchgoers, 86 percent said they were proud of how their church responded during the pandemic, but 12 percent said they were ashamed. Pastors probably heard repeatedly from that 12 percent who were upset the church was doing too little or too much in response to COVID-19.
The primary reason young adults leave the church after high school, and more than likely the primary reason churchgoers have not returned post-pandemic, is not, however, an intentional decision. Most simply drifted away during those college years. And the same is true for many during COVID.
Most unintentionally got out of the habit
So why do 2 in 3 churchgoing teenagers stop attending church for at least a year as young adults? Among those who dropped out, 71 percent say their leaving wasn’t an intentional decision. It just happened during life transitions after high school. Almost half (47 percent) of those who dropped out of church and attended college say moving to college played a role in why they were no longer attending church.
Their habits and routines of life were disrupted, and many didn’t make the intentional effort needed to find a new church. Many teens aren’t changing their beliefs, but their beliefs aren’t enough motivation for the work of church hunting and attending.
It seems the same is happening with many pre-COVID churchgoers. They never planned on cutting back on church attendance, but they haven’t made the effort to restart.
In February 2021, 91 percent of churchgoers said they planned on attending in-person services as much or more than they did prior to the pandemic once things became safe.
Now, as almost all churches are physically re-opened, many previous churchgoers have not returned. Churches may still be missing as many as 1 in 4 attendees. Some churchgoers themselves admit they’re no longer attending as often as they did prior to the pandemic.
Like young adults who got out of the habit during college, many previous churchgoers have now fallen out of the practice of regular church attendance during the pandemic.
Most haven’t made some radical change in their theological beliefs. They probably haven’t even changed their feelings toward their churches. The cultural benefits of embracing the “Christian” label have declined, so many of those missing members have just filled their Sunday mornings with something else.
That’s good and bad news for churches. Good news: Your missing churchgoers aren’t actively rejecting you. Bad news: Your missing churchgoers aren’t actively thinking about you.
Churches seeking to draw them back aren’t trying to overcome antagonism, but rather apathy. That’s a different hill to climb. It may not be any less difficult, but it’s different. Still, both hills can be scaled.
Some return
As the saying goes, the best offense is a good defense. So the best way to help young adults return to church is to help them stay in church. But you can only address the current situation, so what about those who are currently missing?
When young adults drop out of church, they’re not all gone forever. In fact, 7 in 10 eventually return to some type of attendance, including 31 percent who attend twice a month or more. What drew them back? God working in their hearts, people extending invitations, and life circumstances causing them to rethink their priorities.
The most popular reason returning young adults give for plugging back into church after an extended absence is parents and other family members encouraging them to attend (37 percent). Another 19 percent said friends or acquaintances invited them.
Around 1 in 3 (32 percent) say they felt a desire to return, while 28 percent said they felt God was calling them to church. And 12 percent specifically felt convicted of the need to return.
Other returning young adults pointed to getting married and wanting to attend with their spouse (19 percent), having children and wanting to attend for them (18 percent), and having a crisis in their lives such as a death in the family (14 percent).
Just as God can draw back missing young adults, He can draw back missing adults and families of all ages. He often works directly in the hearts of people, but frequently He couples that with working in the hearts of others to encourage those who are missing to return.
He’s working right now among those you haven’t seen in a while. But He’s also working in you and your church to take steps to draw them back. There are some practical steps you can take in your church and in your communications with those who are missing to play a role in God bringing them back.
Instead of a spiritual encouragement, for many their father is a spiritual stumbling block.
Norman Rockwell has a famous illustration of a prim and proper mother, dressed in her Sunday best, walking through the living room on her way to church.
Following her are three kids, in their Sunday best.
She is glaring at a chair in the middle of the room. The kids look at it with longing.
Because scrunched down in this chair, trying to be invisible, is a pajama-clad Dad with his coffee and newspaper.
A Nashville newspaper carried a tongue-in-cheek story about Mrs. Lila Craig who hasn't missed attending church in 1,040 Sundays although she is in her eighties. The editor commented:
"It makes one wonder, what's the matter with Mrs. Craig? Doesn't it ever rain or snow in her town on Sunday? Doesn't she ever have unexpected company? How is it that she never goes anywhere on Saturday night so that she's too tired to attend the worship service the next morning? Doesn't she ever 'beg off' to attend picnics or family reunions, or have headaches, colds, nervous spells, or tired feelings? Doesn't she ever oversleep or need time to read her Sunday newspaper? Hasn't she ever become angry at the minister or had her feelings hurt by someone and felt justified in staying home to hear a good sermon on the radio or TV? WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MRS. CRAIG ANYWAY?
1. I suspect Mrs. Craig made a priority out of the church.
2. I suspect that serving and worshipping God were important to her.
Reasons I Stopped Attending Football Games
1. Every time I went, they asked me for money.
2. The people sitting next to me didn't seem very friendly.
3. The seats were too hard.
4. The coach never came to call on me.
5. The referee made a decision I disagreed with.
6. I was sitting with hypocrites - they came only to see what others were
wearing.
7. Some of the games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
8. The band played songs I didn't like.
9. The games were scheduled when I wanted to do other things.
10. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11. Since I read a book about football, I know more than the coaches, anyhow.
12. I don't want to take my children, because I want them to choose for
themselves what sport they like best.
(Teresa’s Jokers)
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Fox River gave life to the country town of Colby Point, for the road and the river ran alongside one another. Colby Point was really the name of a road that crept between the hills and valleys of McHenry, Illinois. Homes were scattered here and there -- mostly summer homes and retirement homes. At the very end of the road three houses all faced one another. Three sisters -- all single, all seniors -- lived in one of the homes. Across the way their widowed first cousin lived in a yellow house. Next to her lived their brother, Bill, and his wife, Cleo.
Cleo had multiple sclerosis, so the pair had moved to Colby Point seeking a quiet, relaxed life. Little did they know when they relocated to this serene area that they would end up rearing their granddaughter, Margie. Before long, the once-quiet neighborhood became active with the sounds of a child.
Margie always looked forward to the arrival of Christmas, and this year was no different as winter began to settle like a warm blanket around Colby Point. Everyone was in a flurry, for at the church Margie and her family attended, the congregation was preparing to share their Christmas wishes with each other. Since Cleo couldn't make it to church, and Bill didn't like to leave her alone for too long, he was in the habit of dropping Margie off at church early on Sunday mornings; the aunts would bring her home.
As Margie sat in church that morning, she rehearsed in her mind over and over what she would say. She wasn't afraid, for she knew what an important wish this was. The service seemed to drag on and on. Finally the pastor uttered the words Margie had been anticipating all morning, "This is a special time of year when everyone around the world celebrates peace and goodwill toward our fellow man. This year, here at St. John's, we want to hear your Christmas wishes. We cannot fill everyone's wish, but we would like to try and fill a few. As I call your name, please come forward and tell us about your Christmas wish."
One after another, the church members shared their wishes, large and small. Margie was the last and the youngest to speak. As she looked out at the congregation, she spoke confidently, "I would like for my grandma to have church. She cannot walk, and she and my grandpa have to stay at home. They miss coming so much. So that is what I wish for. And please don't tell them, for it needs to be a surprise."
Riding home with her aunts, Margie could tell they were speaking in low tones about her wish. She hoped that they would keep her secret. As the next Sunday came around, Margie was getting ready for church when Grandma asked, "Why are you so fidgety? You haven't sat still all morning."
"I just know that something wonderful is going to happen today!"
"Of course it will," said her grandma with a chuckle. "It's almost Christmas, you know."
Grandpa was getting on his coat when he happened to look out the front window. He saw some cars coming down the dirt road one after another. Now at this time of year there wasn't too much traffic, so this was really amazing. Margie pushed her grandma to the window so that she could see all the cars. Pretty soon the cars were parked all up and down the road as far as a person could see.
Grandpa looked at Grandma, and they both looked at Margie. Grandpa asked, "Just what did you wish for, Margie?"
"I wished that you and Grandma could have church. And I just knew that it would come true. Look! There's the pastor, and everyone from church is coming up the walk."
The congregation arrived with coffee and cookies and cups and gifts. They sang Christmas carols and listened to the pastor speak on giving to others the gifts that God gives. Later that night, Margie slipped out the back door and walked outside to look up at the stars. "Thank you," she whispered, "thank you for giving me my wish."
That was just one of the many wishes granted for Margie as she grew up. Her childhood overflowed with the love of her grandparents, four great aunts and many wise, caring neighbors. Margie was truly a blessed little girl.
I should know -- I was that little girl.
________________________
By Margaret E. Mack from Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul, Copyright 2000 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
*
A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going. After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him. It was a chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited.
The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the play of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet fascination. As the one lone ember's flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and “dead as a doornail.” Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting. Just before the pastor was ready to leave, he picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.”
One of the essential aspects of the Christian life is membership in and faithful commitment to a local church, says Mark Dever. Dever serves as pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington D.C., as well as senior fellow of the Center for Church Reform (CCR) there.
Church membership, Dever said, is the clear mandate of Scripture.
"You can have all the wonderful, thought-through stances on everything from the complete foreknowledge of God of future events to abortion," he said. "But if your church doesn't know what it means to be a church, you're like a great mass of muscles with no skeleton.
"What do you do if you have a wonderful stance on abortion and you pray for pro-life issues, that people respect God's great gift of life, [but] then you say nothing when members work in abortion clinics?"
A biblical understanding of one's responsibilities and duties as a church member requires more than merely sitting in the pew, Dever said. It requires glorification of God by ministering to others. While ministry is important for laypersons, Dever said, it is a necessity for pastors as well.
"We live in a consumer-driven culture where we are called by everything around us to be consumers," he said. "[God] calls you to become a provider for others as he entrusts the gospel with you. I fear many treat the seminary and even their church as consumers."
Dever added that too many members ask: "What can [the church] provide for me?"
In holding that Christians are called to be more than consumers, Dever noted, "Even as Abraham was called to be blessed by God in order to be a blessing to others -- so God has provided for us ... so that we will turn and provide for others."
Dever said Christians should join a church as a witness to non-Christians in order to demonstrate what it means to live as a sinner whose heart has been redeemed by the grace of God.
One facet of this is excluding from the membership those who live in deliberate, open and unrepentant sin, Dever said. By this, he added, they will perhaps be awakened to the fact that they might be lost.
"It may seem counter-intuitive to our modern ears," Dever said. "But being willing to exclude individuals from our fellowship for the purpose of clarifying in their hearts and minds what God has not done is a great act of love. As best we can, we want to insure that each person who unites with our church believes and obeys Jesus Christ.
"So we want to take action when someone says he is a Christian but lives like a non-Christian. And what is the most loving thing to do? Encourage an unbeliever in his sin? Or to make that sin known and encourage that person to trust in Christ?"
Believers also should join a church for the sake of both weaker and stronger Christians in order to encourage and strengthen both, he said. Christians should also join a local church to help leaders in that body better minister to them.
"Commit yourself for the sake of those leaders that God raises up -- the elders, the pastors in local churches -- that you may be blessed by their ministry and also be a blessing to them."
Believers should join a church also for God, whose idea it was to bring the church into existence, Dever said. He pointed out that in Scripture, in places such as Acts 2 and 2 Corinthians 2:6, the local church is usually spoken of as having a definable number of people. In Paul's conversion on the Damascus road, Jesus set forth the church as his body by asking Paul, "Why do you persecute me?"
"This is where Paul got this image of the body as the church. Christ has so identified himself with the church that he is at work building it. It is his work, it is his body. And this is a largely forgotten idea today -- even among seminarians."
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[previous illustration at this ID was a duplicate of HolwickID #19221]
TEN REASONS WHY I NEVER WASH
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Though I attend church faithfully, I never wash. Here are my reasons:
1. My mother made me wash as a child.
2. The soap makers only want my money.
3. There are so many different soaps, I'd never decide which was right.
4. I used to wash, but it got boring, so I quit.
5. I do wash on special days like Easter and Christmas.
6. I work hard all week and am too tired to take a bath on the weekend.
7. People who wash are hypocrites. They think they are cleaner by far.
8. I get along very well without washing.
9. Hardly any friends I have, wash.
10. I'm still young. When I get older and dirtier I may wash."
(Church Bus News, April-June 1997)
Daddy had a little boy,
His soul was white as snow.
He never went to Sunday School
Cause Daddy wouldn't go.
He never heard the Word of God.
That thrills the childish mind,
While other children went to class,
This child was left behind.
As he grew from babe to youth,
Dad saw to his dismay,
A soul that once was snowy white,
Became a dingy grey.
Realizing that his son was lost,
Dad tried to win him back.
But now the soul that once was white,
Had turned an ugly black.
Dad even started back to church,
and Bible study too;
He begged the preacher,
"Isn't there a thing you can do?"
The preacher tried, failed, and said
"We're just too far behind;
I tried to tell you years ago,
But you would pay me no mind."
And so another soul was lost,
That once was white as snow;
Sunday School would have helped,
But Daddy wouldn't go.
- Pulpit Helps
“I never go to church,” boasted a wandering member. “Perhaps you have noticed that, pastor?” “Yes, I have noticed that,” said the pastor. “Well, the reason I don't go is because there are so many hypocrites there.” “Oh, don't let that keep you away,” replied the pastor with a smile. “There's always room for one more.”
- Unknown
48% of church-goers attend an average of once a month. U.S.A. Today,
5-25-94 If You Want to Kill the Church Never go to your church or meetings held there, If you do go, be late,
it's no one's affair. If the weather is bad, either too hot or
snowing, Just stay home and rest, for there'll be others going. But
should you attend, be sure and remember To find fault with the work,
each official and member. Be sure to hold back on your offerings and
tithes, The bills will be paid by the rest of the guys. And never take
office if offered the post, But eagerly criticize work of the host. If
not on a committee you're placed, be sore! If you find that you are,
don't attend any more. When asked your opinion on this thing or that,
Have nothing to say, just turn 'em down flat. Then after the meeting,
shine out like the sun By telling the folks how it should have been
done. Don't do any more than you possibly can, Leave the work for some
other woman or man. And when you see faithful ones work themselves
sick, Then stand up and holler, "It's run by a clique!"
Football in the fall. Basketball in the winter. Baseball in the spring and summer. This pastor has been an avid sports fan all his life. But I've had it! I quit this sports business once and for all. You can't get me near one of those places again. Want to know why... Every time I went, they asked me for money. The people with whom I had to sit didn't seem very friendly. The seats were too hard and not at all comfortable. I went to many games, but the coach never came to call on me. The referee made a decision with which I could not agree. I suspected that I was sitting with some hypocrites -- they came to see their friends and what others were wearing rather than to see the game. Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home. The band played some numbers that I had never heard before. It seems that the games are scheduled when I want to do other things. I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up. I don't want to take my children to any games, because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.
- Author Unknown, At Calvary, Covington, KY
=============================================
Another version from the Abe Kudra Collection:
The reasons why I’m giving up sports: football in the fall, baseball in the summer, basketball in the winter. I’ve had it all. I quit attending sports once and for all, and here are my 11 excuses:
1. Every time I went, they asked for money.
2. The people I sat next to didn’t seem friendly.
3. The seats were too hard and not comfortable at all.
4. I went to many games but the coach never came to call on me.
5. The referees made decisions that I couldn’t agree with.
6. The game went into overtime and I was late getting home.
7. The band played numbers I’d never heard before and it wasn’t my style of music.
8. It seems the games are always scheduled when I want to do other things.
9. I suspect that I was sitting next to some hypocrites. They came to see their friends and they talked during the whole game.
10. I was taken to too many games by my parents when I was growing up.
11. I hate to wait in the traffic jam in the parking lot after the game.
*
When nonbelieving friends learn that I go to church every Sunday to worship the living God, their faces usually register surprise. Why, they ask, does someone like me, a person who functions relatively well in the “real” world, go to church at all?
In response to the litany of criticisms aimed at organized religion - like, “Isn’t the church full of hypocrites?” or “Isn’t the church corrupt?” - I nod my head in agreement and try to be clear about what I think the church is and isn’t.
The dialogue is especially intriguing when people involved in 12-step recovery programs - many only recently aware of a Higher Power in their lives learn I am recovering from similar addictions by relying on my Higher Power, Jesus Christ, without ever setting foot in a 12-step meeting.
Step 2 of the “12 steps” states, “We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” The remaining steps emphasize that the quintessential basis of recovery is spiritual, acknowledging God (“as we understood Him”), prayer, confession, making of amends, and similar actions as elements of “spiritual awakening.” Yet, while millions of 12-step meetings have taken place in churches and much spiritual growth has occurred, participants have quietly, and almost universally, steered clear of Christ and his church.
Don’t I, they ask kiddingly, have rocks in my head for believing the Rock of Ages is real and relevant? Might I be in the throes of denial (a commonly used term)? I shake my head and cite the past 11 years free of drugs and other addictive behaviors.
TOTAL ACCEPTANCE
Like many of my contemporaries during the sixties, I was a hippie. I marched in protests, defied the establishment, and professed peace and flower power. But unlike many of them, I did not fall away from the church - because I was never “in” it to begin with. The church, any church, had never been the place for me.
For the first 33 years of my life I never willingly set foot in a house of worship, nor did I think that my personal problems were solvable by religious or spiritual means. As a boy growing up in a white, middle-class family, I never even heard God acknowledged (except in profane terms). Our family never attended church. We were agnostic by benign neglect.
In 1977 I was on the verge of suicide. I suffered depression and constant frustration, and believed that life was a hopeless, cruel riddle. When a neighbor told me my problem was my disconnectedness from God, I rolled my eyes and sighed. He explained that God’s Son, Jesus Christ, had come to save me from bondage to sin and had provided the free gift of eternal life with him and the Father forever in their heavenly kingdom. I shook my head and walked away, insulted at hearing such nonsense. Three weeks later I was lying in a wheat field, pleading for Jesus to save me. To my total surprise, he did. Immediately I experienced peace. As I began to pray and apply Scripture to my life, my marriage (once at the point of divorce) started to heal, and my battles against infidelity, drugs, and pornography turned from defeat to victory.
To my surprise, I found total acceptance at church even though I was sinful and imperfect. Fellow Christians listened, advised, and encouraged me and my wife (who accepted the Lord three months after my wheat-field experience) to grow into the people God wanted us to be. No finger-wagging. No shocked expressions. There was only the demonstration that the church is his body, commissioned to do his work, “to have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Like many of my 12-step friends today, I once thought of the church as fallible and just as “fallen” as the rest of the world. It seemed to me to be a cracked flower pot, with no real value; being clay, it was always in a state of crumbling. While Paul acknowledges that “we have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Cor. 4:7), at the time I was blinded to the “flowers” (treasure) the pot contained, My eyes only saw the container, not the beautiful flowers “in” it.
Today I attend a local congregation of Presbyterians in suburban Minneapolis. While the cracks and crumbling are still visible to anyone - as much here as in any congregation-in this fellowship of believers I am nourished spiritually, socially, and intellectually (like the ad for the Episcopal Church said a few years ago, “Jesus came to save our souls, not to steal our minds”). My church is now the first place I turn to for help, it is where I laugh more than anywhere else, and where the meaning of a life in Christ becomes clear.
I no longer fault the church for its earthly imperfections, but I am there to celebrate and experience the invisible, eternal Creator and Maker of the universe, Jesus Christ. Knowing the name of my Higher Power makes God personal; it gives him an identity; and it reveals his character. Unlike an impersonal, fuzzy divine “Force,” I am on a first-name basis with the Maker of the universe. What’s in a name? I’d say it makes the Invisible much more tangible; it implies a relationship.
WHERE EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR NAME
Like the characters who crowd into TV’s “Cheers” bar, I join the crowd at my local church to experience togetherness. I am a Presbyterian today mainly because the first church where we were nurtured 11 years ago happened to be of that denomination and the people were - like those in “Cheers “ - friendly. I have found, to my surprise, that I could bare my soul there. I have received comfort there like I had never encountered before. I have been especially amazed to find that whole-hearted singing, applause, and laughter were part of the celebration and brought no lightning bolts from above. Gradually, I realized that the institution itself, while unworthy of his presence, is something that be nevertheless inhabits, like the beautiful flowers in the cracked flower pot.
My own participation in a local church starts with worship, but it goes beyond that. It leads me to action - loving action. Despite shortcomings of myself or other members (of any congregation), an objective, even skeptical observer will discover evidence of practical service to the local community: day care for children and the elderly; programs for the mentally handicapped;
help for refugees; as well as free clothing and food; a counseling center; and a summer camp. Hundreds of churches in the U.S. and in other countries reach out in similar ways.
These programs - financed by church members and staffed by volunteers - exist for only one purpose: to bring God’s loving Spirit to as many hurting people as possible. Just as I experienced. Just as Jesus did when he walked this earth.
For the past 11 years Jesus has proved himself real to me again and again, and he has demonstrated his presence by giving me the power to say no to many habits, addictions, and attitudes (mainly selfish) that once enslaved me. Although I’ve never entered a formal 12-step recovery program, my Higher Power has helped me recover from chemicals and other addictions, and I am grateful to serve in his name as part of his body - the church.
So, to answer the question why some one like me goes to church, I can say my church provides me with relief after a long week of struggles, refreshment in seeing how God is working in others’ lives, a community where mutual feelings of love for God and one another can be shared, and a haven where I can be completely myself.
A study once disclosed that if both Mom and Dad attend church regularly, 72% of their children remain faithful. If only Dad, 55% remain faithful. If only Mom, 15%. If neither attended regularly, only 6% remain faithful. The statistics speak for themselves -- the example of parents and adults is more important than all the efforts of the church and Sunday school.
____________
Warren Mueller
DANVILLE, Ky. (Oct. 5) - Politicians have jostled over who can attend Thursday's vice presidential debate at Centre College but one seat was put out of reach right away, having been set aside for "Dead Fred," a portrait of a famous alumnus.
Centre college, where the debate is taking place, is so proud of a former student, the late U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson, that a portrait of him is always seated at the college's football games and other important events, such as the debate between vice presidential candidates Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Dick Cheney.
"Dead Fred is already seated in the auditorium," a college spokeswoman told Reuters on Wednesday. "He always goes to all of the important events on the campus."
Vinson, who died in 1953, always attended football games at his alma mater. The college alumni decided soon after his death that out of loyalty to him, a portrait would always be seated at games.
_______________________
Will our dedication to God's house be remembered this way?
*
I had a "drug" problem when I was a young person and teenager.
I was "drug" to church on Sunday morning.
I was "drug" to church on Sunday night.
I was "drug" to church on Wednesday night.
I was "drug" to Sunday School every week.
I was "drug" to Vacation Bible School.
I was "drug" to the family altar to read the Bible and pray.
I was also "drug" to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents.
Those "drugs" are still in my veins; and they affect my behavior in every thing I do, say, and think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack or heroin. and if our children had this kind of "drug" problem, America would certainly be a better place to live.
*
Why do churches have so many people on their membership rolls who give little or no evidence of Christian commitment or even conversion? Why do many churches find it difficult to motivate members to give, serve, pray and share their faith? The answer is simple. The members were allowed to join with no expectations placed on them.
You get what you ask for!
COMMITMENT. It's like the difference between couples who just "live together" and those who get married. While becoming a Christian means to commit yourself to Christ, becoming a church member means to commit yourself to other Christians. It is a commitment to a specific group of believers -- to practice the "one-another"s of the New Testament.
Paul mentions two different types of commitment in 2 Corinthians 8:5: "First they gave themselves to the Lord; and then, by God's will, they gave themselves to us as well" (GN). At Saddleback, we call these the first-base commitments. You commit yourself to Christ for salvation and then you commit yourself to other Christians for membership in our church family.
In our church we define koinonia (fellowship) as "being as committed to each other as we are to Jesus Christ."
Jesus said that our love for each other was to be the mark of discipleship (John 13:33-34).
I believe it's an indictment of American Christianity that most believers can quote John 3:16 but they can't quote 1 John 3:16: "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." When was the last time you heard a message on this verse? Today, most churches are silent about developing that level of commitment to each other.
The phrase "one another" or "each other" is used more than 50 times in the New Testament. We are commanded to love each other, pray for each other, encourage each other, admonish each other, greet each other, serve each other, teach each other, accept each other, honor each other, bear each other's burdens, forgive each other, sing to each other, submit to each other and be devoted to each other. All of these commands are what membership in a local body of believers is all about. These are the responsibilities of membership.
At Saddleback, we only expect of our members what the Bible clearly expects of all believers. These expectations are summarized in our Membership Covenant.
The most important part of a marriage ceremony is when the man and woman exchange vows. Before witnesses and God, they make certain promises to each other. This covenant between them is the essence of the marriage. In the same way, I believe the essence of church membership is contained in the willingness to commit to a membership covenant. It is the most important element of our membership class.
Throughout the Bible and church history, spiritual covenants have been made between people in order for mutual edification and accountability.
At Saddleback we have four requirements for membership:
1) A personal profession of Christ as Lord and Savior.
2) Baptism by immersion as a public symbol of one's faith.
3) Completion of the membership class.
4) A signed commitment to abide by Saddleback's membership covenant.
I urge you to prayerfully prepare and adopt a membership covenant in your congregation if you don't have one. It can revolutionize your church. You may worry, "If we adopt a membership covenant, there will be some who leave our church over it." You're right. There will be some. But here is the fact of reality: People are going to leave your church no matter what you do. Don't be afraid of people leaving. People even walked away from Jesus. When your congregation adopts a membership covenant, at least you're choosing the kind of people who stay.
Here is a copy of our membership covenant:
__________________________________
The Saddleback Membership Covenant
Having received Christ as my Lord and Savior and been baptized, and being in agreement with Saddleback's statements, strategy, and structure, I now feel led by the Holy Spirit to unite with the Saddleback church family. In doing so, I commit myself to God and to the other members to do the following:
1. I WILL PROTECT THE UNITY OF MY CHURCH
...By acting in love toward other members
...By refusing to gossip
...By following the leaders
"So let us concentrate on the things which make for harmony, and on the growth of our fellowship together." Rom. 15:19 (Ph)
"Have a sincere love for your fellow believers, love one another earnestly with all your hearts." 1 Peter 1:22 (TEV)
"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs..." Eph. 4:29
"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be no advantage to you." Heb. 13:17
2. I WILL SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF MY CHURCH
...By praying for its growth
...By inviting the unchurched to attend
...By warmly welcoming those who visit
"To the church ... we always thank God for you and pray for you constantly." 1 Thess. 1:2
"The Master said to the servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes, and urge the people there to come so my house will be full.'" Luke 14:23 (NCV)
"So, warmly welcome each other into the church, just as Christ has warmly welcomed you; then God will be glorified." Rom. 15:7 (LB)
3. I WILL SERVE THE MINISTRY OF MY CHURCH
...By discovering my gifts and talents
...By being equipped to serve by my pastors
...By developing a servant's heart
"Serve one another with the particular gifts God has given each of you..." 1 Peter 4:10(Ph)
"God gave...some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built up..." Eph. 4:11-12
"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ...who took on the very nature of a servant..." Phil. 2:3-4,7
4. I WILL SUPPORT THE TESTIMONY OF MY CHURCH
...By attending faithfully
...By living a godly life
...By giving regularly
"Let us not give up the habit of meeting together...but let us encourage one another." Heb. 10:25
"But whatever happens, make sure that your everyday life is worthy of the gospel of Christ." Phil. 1:27 (Ph)
"Each one of you, on the first day of each week, should set aside a specific sum of money in proportion to what you have earned and use it for the offering." 1 Cor. 16:2
"A tenth of all your produce is the Lord's, and it is holy." Lev. 27:30
_________________
Warren is pastor of Saddleback Valley Community Church, Lake Forest, Calif.
*
I was a supply preacher for a small town Texas church, coming in early Sunday, preaching a sermon to the congregation, and then leaving after lunch. Arriving early one Sunday I sat down at a local donut shop, opened my Bible and went over my sermon notes. A man was sitting down the counter from me and he said, “You a preacher or something?”
I replied, “Yes I preach at the Christian Church here in town.”
He got excited and said, “Hey, I'm a member of that church.”
The church was small and I knew all the regulars so I said, “I've been preaching there for about three months and I've never seen you there.”
He looked at me kinda strange and answered, “I said I was a member of that church. I never said that I was fanatical about it!”
________
Submitted by Charles “Sandy” Ridenour, Clovis, New Mexico
Gone to Church Lately? It May Depend on Where You Live!
The February 2000 American Demographics reports that one of three Americans said during the early fall of 1999 that they had not attended a religious service during that month. A very slightly smaller 29% said they attended five or more times during the same time period. Continuing trends noted earlier, 33% of women attended five times or more, versus 25% of men. Religious worship is strongest in the south, where 36% say they attended services five or more times a month, and weakest in the west, where 41% admit to not going at all.
*
Not For Entertainment
Read: Psalm 95:1-7
Oh come, let us worship and bow down. --Psalm 95:6
Some people think that going to a church service is not much different than going to a music concert. There are similarities: We travel to get there, we assemble with people of a common interest, our attention is focused on the front, and the ceiling is high.
There are many differences, though. You don't have to purchase a ticket to get into church. No popcorn is allowed. But most significantly, the purpose of church is not for entertainment.
That's where a lot of believers have the wrong idea. They think the people on the platform are putting on church for their sakes--to excite, enthrall, and entertain them.
Wrong. All wrong. The focus of the church is to be on God. We are there to worship Him.
John Phelan Jr. wrote in The Covenant Companion: "Worship is not meant to please me, to make me feel good, to meet my criteria, my standards, my tastes. Worship is for God! I am not to be the center of worship. God is to be at the center."
In our Bible reading for today, Psalm 95, we are urged to come joyfully, thankfully, and reverently before the Lord. "Oh come, let us worship" (v.6). --DCE
THINKING IT OVER:
What is my motivation for going to church?
What can I do to prepare my heart for worship?
How could I better focus my thoughts on the Lord?
True worship gives God center stage.
Church Tourists
Read: Acts 2:40-47
Let us consider one another . . . , not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. --Hebrews 10:24-25
Well, it's happening again. As the holidays approach, churches are gearing up for their largest attendance of the year. Sanctuaries that usually have plenty of room will be filled to capacity.
Church leaders sometimes refer to these seasonal attenders as "C and E churchgoers"--people who visit only at Christmas and Easter. They can make pastors feel as if their churches are two-season tourist attractions.
Most churches welcome the influx of visitors and try to show them that peace and good tidings are in season year round. But why don't these "church tourists" attend regularly?
An interviewer singled out some of these people for a news story last Christmas. One woman pointed to busy lives and demanding careers that keep her family from church. Most of those interviewed admitted, "I know I should come to church more often, but . . ." A parent commented, "When the holidays come, it reminds me of all the things we cherish. I want my daughter to experience some of that."
Church isn't merely something we should "experience" or attend out of guilt. We need to be with God's people whenever we are able (Heb. 10:24-25). It's only together that we can become all that God wants us to be. --DCE
Our week's not complete till we make it our goal
To honor the Lord's Day and nourish our soul;
The help that we need for the tasks that we face
Will come as we worship and draw on God's grace. --DJD
If absence makes the heart grow fonder, some people must really love the church.
Good Church Members
Read: Romans 15:1-13
Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. --Romans 15:2
Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), the great preacher, asked the operator of a local livery stable for the best horse he had. Brooks explained, "I am taking a good friend for a ride and I want the very best for the occasion." As the livery man hitched up a horse to a buggy, he said, "This animal is about as perfect as a horse could be. It is kind, gentle, intelligent, well-trained, obedient, willing, responds instantly to your every command, never kicks, balks, or bites, and lives only to please its driver." Brooks then quietly said to the owner, "Do you suppose you could get that horse to join my church?"
Yes, what a powerful church we could have if we all had those qualities! We are naturally prone to think only of our own desires and wishes and to forget the good of others. Paul said in Romans 15:2, "Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification."
The more we grow in grace, the more we will think about the needs of others. In our church life we should not think only of ourselves but always be willing to yield our desires for the good of the whole. Our example is the Head of the church, Jesus Christ, for even He "did not please Himself" (v.3).
What kind of church member are you? --M. R. De Haan, M.D. (founder of RBC Ministries)
To think Jesus died for me
Upon the cross of Calvary
Should move my selfish heart to pray,
"For others, Lord, I'll live each day." --DJD
What kind of church would my church be if all its members were just like me?
Why Go?
Read: Psalm 122
Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. --Hebrews 10:24-25
It's Sunday morning, and our neighborhood is alive with activities. One neighbor is backing his boat out of the driveway as his family prepares for a day on the lake. Another sits comfortably on his front porch reading the newspaper. My daughter's friend calls and asks her to go to a basketball game. At the same time, our family is racing to find a missing pair of shoes so we can get to church on time.
Has that ever happened around your house? If so, you may feel as if you're swimming upstream against a current of apathy. It might even be easy to give in and give up going to church. Before you do that, think about what you'll miss.
* The joy of gathering with others who love to praise God for His
greatness (Ps. 122:1).
* The encouragement, care, and unity that occurs when believers meet
together (1 Cor. 12:25).
* Obedience to God's command to meet together regularly (Heb. 10:25-26).
* The instruction, edification, and challenge that come from the teaching
of God's Word (2 Tim. 4:2).
No other Sunday activity can replace what you'll get by meeting with fellow believers. See you there! --JDB
Our week's not complete till we make it our goal
To honor the Lord's Day and nourish our soul;
The help that we need for the tasks that we face
Will come as we worship and draw on God's grace. --DJD
Christians are like coals of fire--together they glow; apart they grow cold.
"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some." --Hebrews 10:25
An infant requires at least four things: food, fresh air, exercise, and the help of others. This is also true in the spiritual realm. We need food (Bible study), fresh air (praying), exercise (service and witnessing), and help from others (fellowship in a good church). A follower of Christ who neglects any of these four practices cannot expect to be well-rounded and growing in his spiritual life.
This reminds me of a story about a man named Bill. He had never gone to church in his life. No matter how much he was coaxed, he couldn't be persuaded to attend even on a special day such as Christmas or Easter. "When it freezes in June," he would say, "then I will go to church."
One year there was an unusually cold spring, and it stayed that way into June. The first part of the month the temperature dipped to freezing for several nights. Everyone thought about Bill and what he had said. Perhaps this spell of cold weather would finally get him to attend church.
It did! One Sunday, Bill made his first appearance in the church building -- while the organ played softly. Six men carried him in! Bill finally made it, but he was lying in a casket instead of sitting in a pew.
Don't be like old Bill! --HGB
I love to be with God's people,
To read the Bible and pray,
To sing the songs of salvation,
So I'll go to church today. --Hess
Those who think they don't need church don't think much of the one who founded.
The Rev. Arthur Gustafson will shuffle to the pulpit of his small church this morning, just like he does every Sunday. The pews will most likely be empty, just as they are on most Sundays.
Gustafson, the 78-year-old leader of the Emmanuel Evangelical Covenant Church since 1947, is a pastor without a congregation; a preacher with no one to preach to, a shepherd without a flock.
But still he preaches.
"If no one is here, God is here and he hears prayers," Gustafson said, looking across his empty church in this central Wisconsin community of 9,500 people. "I felt I heard the Lord say to stay so I stayed."
One by one, church members have drifted away, and the last member of his congregation left town about two years ago. Even his church building, owned by the Central Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago, is for sale.
"Sometimes, we have a number of visitors. A family from Pine River has been coming fairly regularly," Gustafson said, a smile covering his bearded face.
"When someone is here, I am encouraged," he added. "When they are not here, I just feel this is the way it is and this is the way I accept it. There's a lot to thank the Lord for."
Gustafson is the church's sole supporter, donating some of his Social Security check and an investment that earns $62 a month. The Park City Baptist congregation in Merrill helps with the bills by leasing Gustafson's church for services Sunday morning and evening.
The church was formed almost 100 years ago to meet the needs of Scandinavians settling in central Wisconsin. Since he's been pastor, the congregation seldom exceeded 30 people, he said. "It has always been a small struggling church."
These days, Gustafson, a frail, man of slight build, struggles with his health, too. "My hearing isn't so good. I wear a couple of hearing aids."
Every Sunday, Gustafson prints six church bulletins, listing the order of worship and a few announcements. His service is simple. He reads the Bible, gives a short sermon and sings. For hymns, he plays the melody on a piano with his right hand, faintly singing the words.
Paul Nulton, pastor of the Christ United Methodist Church in Merrill, believes Gustafson hasn't retired because his church and its rows of pews with cracking paint are like family. "If he quit preaching, he would die," Nulton said. "He doesn't have a family. He doesn't have any other reason to be Art Gustafson unless he is a preacher."
Other ministers understand Gustafson's devotion and realize that for him to get active in a thriving congregation would be difficult, Nulton said. "It would be kind of like a 78-year-old person joining a new family because his old family died off. It just doesn't work that way," Nulton said.
Gustafson became a minister after becoming disgruntled with his career as a Chicago banker more than four decades ago. He said he had problems because he believes lending on interest is a sin.
The Lord will tell him when to retire from the pulpit, he adds, saying church leaders have urged him to move into a retirement center in Chicago and continue his ministry there. "We will just have to wait and see. You know, it is interesting how we discover the Lord's will. I seem to hear the Lord say very definitely that I should stay. And that is the last word I seem to have."
Last Sunday, Gustafson prepared enough wine for 12 people to drink during communion, the church's celebration of Jesus Christ's last supper with his disciples.
No one showed.
"I always like to have plenty," he said, smiling.
*
The Devil's Beatitudes
If the devil (whom we don't hear much about today) were to write his beatitudes, they would possibly go something like this.
Blessed are those Christians who are TOO TIRED, TOO BUSY, too distracted to spend time with God - they will spend their time for me.
Blessed are those Christians who are TOO TIRED, TOO BUSY, too distracted to spend time with their fellow Christians in Church - they are my best candidates to backslide.
Blessed are those Christians who WAIT TO BE ASKED and EXPECT TO BE THANKED - I can use them to slow things down.
Blessed are those Christians who are TOUCHY, with a bit of luck they may STOP GOING TO CHURCH and get others to quit - they are my missionaries.
Blessed are those Christians who are VERY RELIGIOUS but GET ON EVERYONE'S nerves - they are my most effective stumbling blocks.
Blessed are those Christians who are TROUBLEMAKERS - they are my best wrecking crew.
Blessed are those Christians who have NO TIME TO PRAY - they are easy prey for me.
Blessed are those Christians who are COMPLAINERS - they are my best discouragers.
Blessed are YOU when you read this and THINK IT IS ABOUT OTHER people and not yourself - I've got you.
(Annie Dean Smart)
Last week I voted...
For churches to close
For Sunday Schools to cease
For the Bible to be banned
For Gospel music to be forgotten
For God to be ignored
And for the Lord Jesus to be cast out again
Last week I voted...
For church buildings to be sold
For ministers to be unemployed
For Christian charities to stop
For missionaries to come home
For Bible schools to be abandoned
And for Jesus to be crucified again
Last week I cast my vote for all this - by the simple act of staying home from church.
Attitude Adjustment (From Fair Dinkum Magazine, Issue 57)
"Johnny, it's time to get and go to church!"
"Ah, Maw, I don't want to go to church!"
"Johnny, there isn't much time. You've got to get up and go to church!"
"Ah Maw, they don't like me down there."
"Johnny, for the last time, get up and go to church!"
"Ah Maw, give me two good reasons why I have to go to church."
"Number one, you're 52 years old. Number two, you're the pastor!"
Even for us who attend church very regularly, we sometimes find our enthusiasm for church waning. We find our desire to go to church dropping off a bit.
We can tell our interest in church attendance is dropping when:
1. We find many excuses for not attending evening service.
2. We think that church on Wednesday night is the last place we want to be.
3. Our church attendance even on Sunday morning is becoming spotty.
Even for those of us who regularly attend church we sometimes need an "attitude adjustment".
We need to get more excited about church attendance. A verse that helps me is Psalm 122:1 - "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD."
Our problem is that we have lost our joy for attending church. Why should we be glad to attend church services?
1. CHURCH IS THE PLACE OF GOD'S PRAISE
We should come to church to worship God! Revelation 4 shows a heavenly scene. In this scene I feel the 24 elders represent the church. And in Heaven when the heavenly spirit beings give adoration and praise the elders fall down and worship. Revelation 4:10-11
Hebrews 13:15 tells us to worship continually. Colossians 3:16 and Psalm 34:3 indicate that worship is corporate as well as individual. Psalm 111:1 reminds us that our worship is to be total. So often we don't get much out of worship because our lips are moving but our hearts are miles away. Matthew 15:8
2. CHURCH IS THE PLACE OF GOD'S PRESENCE
Matthew 18:20 We should be joyful about frequent church attendance because when we meet there the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of us. He's here, right here, right now!
He is here to answer prayer.
He is here as the founder and head of the church.
He is here as observer and judge.
He is here to bless, to guide, to encourage, to strengthen.
He is here to bestow power and peace.
The size of the meeting does not matter. He is here!
3. CHURCH IS THE PLACE OF GOD'S PEOPLE
John 10:27-28 - We are His sheep. John 1:12 - We are His people.
The church is to be a place of friends, mutual support, a place for brothers and sisters, and for the closest of relationships and fellowships John 13:34-25.
4. CHURCH IS THE PLACE OF GOD'S PEACE
Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. He is in the midst of the church. John 14:27, John 16:33 Some churches have no peace. It is our responsibility to resolve conflicts so there will be peace.
If peace can not be found, perhaps a person is in the wrong church. Psalm 133:1, Ephesians 5:21, Romans 12:18, Matthew 5:9
5. CHURCH IS THE PLACE OF GOD'S POWER
There is Power In Prayer - Acts 4:31, Matthew 18:19, John 16:24. There Is Power In Preaching - 1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.
6. CHURCH IS THE PLACE FOR THE BELIEVER'S PARTICIPATION
In Worship. In Growth - 2 Peter 3:18. In Giving - 1 Corinthians 16:2. In Exhortation - Hebrews 10:24-25. (Pastor Jack Peters)
Many people offer a multitude of reasons as to why they don’t go to church. But they tend to gloss over the real reason. They don’t want to go. I talked to a man one time who told me all the reasons why he didn’t go to church: he’d rather stay home and read the funny paper, he had to work ... he had all sorts of excuses.
I said, "Would you like for me to tell you the real reason you don’t go to church?"
He was startled, but he said, “Yes.”
I said, “All right. This is the real reason why you don’t go to church: Very simply, it is because you have never been born again. Many people think you don’t have to go church to be a Christian. But if Christ is truly in you, you will want to go to church."
Corporate worship is for our benefit. We need each other in the Body of Christ. As logs in a fire need to stay together to burn, so a log by itself will see its fire go out. We are a body of believers, and none of us can function alone.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. — Hebrews 10:25
EXCUSES FOR MISSING CHURCH
Why I stopped going to ball games:
1. Whenever I go to a game, they ask for money.
2. The other fans don't care about me.
3. The seats are too hard.
4. Coach never visits me.
5. The referee makes calls I don't agree with.
6. Some of the games go into overtime and make me late for dinner.
7. The band plays songs I don't know.
8. I have other things to do at game time.
9. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
10. I know more than the coaches do anyway.
11. I can be just as good a fan at the lake.
12. I won't take my kids to a game either. They must choose for themselves which teams to follow.
CITATION: Mike and Amy Nappa, A Heart Like His (Barbour, 1999),
pp. 182-183.
KEYWORDS: Attitudes; Church; Church Attendance; Excuses
SCRIPTURE: Romans 12:4-5; Romans 12:10; Hebrews 10:25
This is my church...
It is composed of people just like me.
It will be friendly if I am.
It will do a great work if I work.
It will make generous gifts to many causes if I am generous.
It will bring others into its fellowship if I bring them.
Its seats will be filled if I fill them.
It will be a church of loyalty and love, of faith and service if I, who make it what it is, am filled with these.
Therefore, with God's help, I dedicate myself to the task of being all these things I want my church to be.
I don’t think a man can say he loves God very much if he doesn’t attend church regularly. The Bible instructs us to worship God in His house on a regular basis. Do you remember how you used to “hang out” at your wife’s place when you were still dating? They couldn’t have kept you away with mortar fire! That’s what love does!
Jesus established the church. He loved the church and gave Himself up for her. While the people of God, not a building, are the church, the institutionalized church is the historic vehicle for the people of God to come together. The physical church, a facility, has been part of spiritual life since ancient times. Before buildings (synagogues), there were tents. King David’s last act was a building fund drive for a new temple for God.
Join a church where Christ is honored and the Bible is held in high regard.
Sermon on why we need church. Hebrews 10:22-25
WHO NEEDS CHURCH?
=================
I. Don't go to church!
II. The church is a divine institution.
A. God set it up.
B. God should be the focus.
C. God can look after the church.
III. God's goals for a church. Acts 2:42
A. Authentic worship.
B. Sound instruction.
C. Effective service.
D. Intimate fellowship.
IV. You need church more than you realize.
A. Many drop out due to hurts and slights.
B. Our individualism can defeat us.
C. To discover fulfillment, try commitment.
While on vacation a man and woman visited a local church for the Sunday service. They always like to sit close to the front, so they entered a pew in the second row. Shortly after settling in, an usher came up to them, tapped lightly on the gate, and said, "This pew is saved."
The husband replied, "That's okay, so are WE!"
"72% of the youth that grow up in the church or enter the church during their adolescence leave the church before the age of 18."
-- American Baptist missionary David Reed, on the need to retain young people in the church.
People who leave the church aren't necessarily abandoning God, according to a pastor and sociologist studying what he calls "post-congregational" Christians.
Rather than being marginal churchgoers, Alan Jamieson found in research for his book, "A Churchless Faith," that 94 percent had been leaders -- such as deacons, elders or Sunday school teachers -- and 32 percent had been full-time ministers.
To Jamieson's surprise, he also found that for many the break came not because they lost their faith, but because they wanted to save it.
Rather than writing off those who leave the church due to burnout, spiritual abuse or frustration at not being allowed to ask hard questions, Jamieson believes congregations should listen to those who opt to go their faith journey alone. Ironically, he says, they might be the Christians best equipped to reach postmoderns.
Twice a month, 30 or more people gather at Jamieson's church, First Baptist Church in Wellington, New Zealand. Seated at cafe-like tables and sipping tea in the subdued light of the basement, they talk freely. No topic is off limits -- the nature of God, homosexuality, spiritual abuse, the role of women.
The focus, Jamieson told FaithWorks magazine, is "on where we are going instead of what we have left."
"Spirited Exchanges is not designed to be church," Jamieson says. "It is a place where people can talk about anything they want to talk about, without any sense of being 'out of line' or being told their thoughts are inappropriate."
Jamieson says he is aware of about 50 other groups like Spirited Exchanges.
Not surprisingly, the three-year-old program has brought Jamieson criticism from all directions. "Some people insist I am encouraging people to leave the church, and others are just as indignant that I am scheming to lure people back into the church."
But Jamieson is unshaken in his commitment to teach churches to become "leaver sensitive." The reasons: (1) Leavers need the church, (2) the church needs leavers, (3) leavers take their time, skills, efforts and wallets with them, (4) leavers tell their stories to others, and (5) leavers take their children with them.
Other researchers back up Jamieson's findings that many of the unchurched are still spiritually inclined.
"Relatively few unchurched people are atheists. Most of them call themselves Christian and have had a serious dose of church life in the past," pollster George Barna said in "Re-Churching the Unchurched."
David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, estimates there are about 112 million "churchless Christians" worldwide, about 5 percent of all adherents, and he projects that number will double by 2025.
Jamieson isn't the only recent author to focus on reaching out to these churchless pilgrims.
American pastor and student worker Mary Tuomi Hammond, in "The Church and the Dechurched," turns her attention to those battling emotional, spiritual or mental scars they associate with their church experience.
Included among that population, she identifies "rabid atheists, silent agnostics, committed humanists, practitioners of distinctly non-Christian spiritualities." But she also finds believers who still cling weakly to a faith they carried with them when they fled.
Hammond's wounded souls "are among the church's strongest critics, because they are outsiders who were once insiders."
Hammond has been chastised for "attacking the faith" by recounting stories of spiritual abuse, but she denies that charge.
"My love for the church compels me to challenge the church to hear and attend to the cries of its own wounded," Hammond replies. "I love the church and I wrestle with it. I love the Lord and I wrestle with my faith as well. In that visceral relationship between loving and wrestling, I find strength, hope and life that cannot be extinguished."
She challenges congregations to become "church for the dechurched." She points out that Jesus spent most of his ministry reaching out to the "de-synagogued." But she warns it can be a long and difficult effort, as her own journey attests.
When her husband, Steve, was called to be pastor of a Baptist church in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1979, it had 12 members. Mary and Steve, who eventually became co-pastors, prayed for the church to grow but with little success. Then one morning in 1998, Mary said, she felt a definite call of God: "I have sent you to the one and not the 99."
They have since rearranged their ministry to address needs of the dechurched. Mary admits that ministering to the "one" is time-consuming and filled with contradictions. The "one" is "off the beaten trail, perhaps too unorthodox for the 99, too needy, too confused or even too cynical."
But, she insists, "As Christians we must face the issues we would rather not address, ask the questions we cannot always clearly answer, and listen to the voices that are most difficult to hear."
Jamieson, meanwhile, asks the larger question of why so many people with a deep longing for God are coming to the conclusion that they must abandon their congregational homes in order to continue growing spiritually.
Adapting the work of sociologist James Fowler's landmark "Stages of Faith," Jamieson divides "leavers" into four types: disillusioned followers, reflexive exiles, transitional explorers and integrated wayfinders.
Jamieson says many churches are unaware -- and unconcerned -- about those who have left. The overwhelming majority of 108 leavers he interviewed in his study said no one from their church ever talked with them about why they left.
Jamieson recalls one successful pastor's declaration that Jesus' parable of the lost sheep doesn't apply to those "who know where the paddock is and intentionally wander away."
Jamieson feels differently, and he uses a different analogy to make his point. He envisions a non-swimmer attracted to the beach. Befriended by a swimming club, he enters the water and takes lessons. A quick study, he soon is going to the beach at every opportunity and inviting his non-swimming friends to do likewise.
But eventually, perhaps after years, he senses a faint inner stirring to swim beyond the flags that mark the "safe" area. His old coach advises him such thoughts are dangerous. Gradually he becomes uncomfortable at the beach and begins staying at home. But the call of the deep haunts him. Eventually he plunges back into the ocean, this time to swim beyond the flags, totally alone if necessary.
Rather than abandon such swimmers, Jamieson says, the church should accompany them.
Recently someone sent Jamieson a copy of a water-safety poster that pictured a fish swimming toward the left as the rest of the school swam to the right. The caption read: "Don't swim alone."
Although he works with a lot of lone swimmers, Jamieson admits the poster is "a pretty good reflection of my feelings. That's why we need to go out beyond the flags ourselves. It's dangerous for anyone to swim dark spiritual waters alone."
_______________
Craig Bird is a free-lance writer living in San Antonio, Texas.
*
In a little East Texas town, the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches were located one after the other along a beautiful tree-lined street. Squirrels occupied the attics of all the churches, chewing up the insulation, cutting the wires, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Nothing seemed to budge the bushy-tailed rodents, and in exasperation each congregation called a meeting to deal with the menace.
The Presbyterians met first but soon adjourned after an Elder pointed out that the squirrel invasion was preordained, and from a theological standpoint there was nothing they could do.
Next to meet were the Methodists. A dear old soul pleaded with the congregation to handle the problem in the gentle spirit of John Wesley, so the church bought a bunch of humane traps and turned the squirrels loose at the edge of town. By morning all the Methodist squirrels were back in their attic.
Finally the Baptists convened their business meeting. In short order the squirrels were voted into the membership of the church and now they come only on Easter and Christmas.
____________
Some versions substitute "bats" for "squirrels".
*
With amazing regularity, the national media take notice of the fact that, generally speaking, America's conservative churches are growing while the more liberal churches are losing members. If this is news, it is almost a half-century old by now. What is going on?
Observers of American church life notice this striking phenomenon -- the high levels of lay involvement in evangelical churches. Against the backdrop of decline and membership losses in the more liberal denominations, trends related to attendance, giving, and active participation among church members are setting evangelical churches apart from larger trends. Why?
Liberal churches and denominations are suffering massive membership losses and the evacuation of active church members from congregational life. While some observers are interested only in the levels of church attendance and membership, others note that active participation in the life and ministry of the church is directly linked to long-term involvement and attendance.
Researchers have offered various sociological and demographic arguments for this pattern, but the most salient factors related to this issue are deeply theological. Churches that expect much of members tend to receive much in terms of active participation -- and those expectations are directly related to doctrinal commitments and theological motivations.
The involvement of laypersons in church life is directly related to evangelism and the health of congregations. At one level, the evangelical understanding of ministry is poles apart from what is customary in many mainline Protestant churches and in Roman Catholicism. Put simply, evangelicals have historically offered greater resistance to the professionalization of the clergy and the sacredotalism or clericalism that shifts the work of the ministry from the people of God to pastors or priests. Where ministers are understood to bear sole responsibility for the fulfillment of the church's ministry, church members naturally feel no obligation or motivation to be highly involved in the life of the congregation and its work. Church participation is largely linked to the level of the spectator, or directed toward community involvement that is unrelated to evangelism and church outreach.
While evangelicals have been sorely tempted by market-driven models of professionalism, congregations demonstrating the highest levels of lay involvement are most often led by pastors who see the teaching and preaching of the Bible as central to the task of mobilizing church members for ministry, mission, and action. These pastors put their priority on the teaching ministry of the church and on biblical preaching as the means by which God equips His church for action and witness.
Faithful preaching has always been the central means through which God has energized His people. Preaching the word “in season and out of season” requires that the pastor present biblical truth with clarity and courage, establishing clear boundaries between belief and unbelief, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, truth and error.
This is in stark contrast to what sociologist Nancy Ammerman identifies as the “lay liberalism” found in many more liberal churches and denominations. These “lay liberals” have only a weak grasp of a diluted Gospel, and tend to see doctrine as a matter of little or no consequence. For them, Christianity is reduced to a vaguely positive way of life that often comes down to little more than being kind to others. Ammerman and her team have identified this as “Golden Rule” religion, and it goes hand in hand with low levels of lay involvement.
This correlates directly with research undertaken by Dean R. Hoge, Benton Johnson, and Donald A. Luidens, who looked at the religious patterns of mainline Protestant baby boomers. In VANISHING BOUNDARIES, these sociologists argued that members of more liberal Protestant denominations -- especially baby boomers -- understood Christianity to require very few beliefs that would put them at odds with the larger secular culture. On matters ranging from the identity of Jesus Christ and the nature of the Gospel to the Bible's teachings on sexuality, these mainline baby boomers saw no firm boundaries between the church and the world, belief and unbelief. Unsurprisingly, they were not highly involved in the life of any church or Christian movement. Why should they be?
Evangelicals should look to this research as a warning of what can and will happen if Christianity is redefined at the expense of biblical doctrine and a clear affirmation of Christian truth. The transforming power of the Gospel is what energizes Christ's church -- and biblical preaching is its Spirit-blessed fuel.
A look across the evangelical world indicates that lay Christians are most involved in the life of congregations and in the work of ministry when they are continually confronted with clear and convictional biblical exposition, and when the congregation takes the formation and fulfillment of a comprehensive Christian worldview as one of its central tasks.
Bold beliefs lead to bold action, and church members are energized to ministry and motivated to greater faithfulness and deeper discipleship when they can see biblical truth as it is presented to them by the church's commissioned teachers, and when they are then able to “connect the dots” between Christian truth and the demands of everyday life.
In these churches, members are motivated and mobilized precisely because they come to understand the demands of the Gospel and to understand the New Testament's vision of a church fully deployed for the cause of the Gospel. Christians are confronted with a biblical call to action and involvement. A commitment to Gospel priorities is produced by the prophetic preaching of God's Word -- and a passion for the glory of God will animate the congregation to action.
Churches hoping to energize members by the use of faddish programs and slick motivational messages should think again. The saints are not slumbering for lack of public relations and programming.
The development of “lay liberalism” among the mainline Protestant denominations should remind evangelicals that without clear biblical preaching, serious commitment to doctrinal fidelity, and passionate commitment to the Great Commission, the same phenomenon could arise in our midst. Indeed, studies of evangelical young persons suggest that such developments could be fast upon us.
This much is clear -- resistance to “lay liberalism” will be found only among those with deep conviction. The preaching of the Word and the church's confidence in the Gospel will, over time, produce a congregation of motivated members who are mobilized for ministry. But then, we shouldn't need a team of sociologists to tell us that.
*
[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #303]
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