How important is church attendance? Should Christians be there every time the doors are open? Should believers make it a habit to attend Sunday School? Is Wednesday night attendance important for believers? Have we put too much of an emphasis on being at the church facility?
Give me some feedback…
Tags: Church Attendance
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:32 pm
Great topic. This is the kind of discussion that matters, I think, and is worth discussing and/or debating. I heard there was a podcast about this and if so I really would like to hear it.
I fear there are many subjects where I am ceasing to be teachable (and that kind of scares me), but this is not one of them. I think culture plays at least a part of answer, but there are many other factors as well.
On one hand, it bothers me that people base their spirituality on lists–I don’t drink, smoke, cuss and I go to church X amount of times per week. And there is story I always have in the back of my mind of a friend of mine who used to drive by a soccer field on Sunday Nights on his way to church and see a group of migrant workers playing soccer. He wanted desperately to go play with them and build relationships and try to evangelize them, but because of his position, he could not miss Sunday Night church. Stuff like that gets me a little. I also recall my dad missing Sunday mornings once a year every year because the cucumbers had to come in. Here was a man who read his bible daily, lived with integrity, went to church 4 hours a week essentially every week, and then he would get harassed for missing one service one time a year.
But the other side is why people miss. A lot of it is apathy, if my experience is accurate. So I think it comes down to what you are doing instead. If you feel you genuinely need a time to relax or family time or evangelism time, I don’t think it’s super important to go every time the doors are open. But apathy is not a good reason.