I recently attended a daylong seminar where Andy Stanley was one of the speakers. One of the things that he said was that there has been a shift in church as it relates to one’s participation in worship. Indeed things are always shifting, in culture and in the church. Some shifts are good. Our country has shifted from viewing people of color as chattel to viewing all men as created equal regardless of their race. That has been a good shift. Our country has also shifted from believing in certain moral absolutes to seeing all morality as neutral or relative. That is not a good shift.
The church also experiences shifts. In the last couple of decades the church has shifted in its missiology. In years gone by missionaries would often taken their American culture and impose that on believers instead of working through that cultures’ constructs. Today missionaries are committed to imparting the gospel and separating it from our culture’s distinctives. That is a good shift.
Another shift in the church has been the move away from participating in the central worship service. According to Stanley, today believers are not even particularly committed to a single church family and are even less committed to being a regular participant on a weekly basis. As a response to this, North Point Community Church, where Stanley serves as the lead pastor, closes down the last Sunday of the year and doesn’t meet.
Now it may be obvious from the direction of these thoughts, but I don’t think this is a good shift. In fact, it seems to me that the lack of commitment to a local church family and the Sunday morning gathering is a shift that reflects a general lack of commitment and individualism that we see our culture. Not all individualism is bad but one of the things that should be so true of us as believers is that we are a body, a family, and together we are so much more than we can be on our own. In fact, God calls us to that unity.
In the book of Hebrews chapter ten God tells us that in light of Jesus’ great sacrifice we should approach God’s throne with confidence and we should draw near to God with confidence. But he also says, in light of Jesus sacrifice, don’t forsake gathering together, as some are doing, but make it a time to encourage one another to love and to do good deeds. I guess one response could be to give into the shift, stop resisting and just take the last Sunday of the year off since many people aren’t going to come anyway. But something in me says we should defy this shift and encourage just the opposite; commitment and faithfulness to be here every Sunday whether we feel like it or not and be here regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. After all, it is Jesus’ sacrifice that God says provides the motivation to come and encourage one another.
Less you think this doesn’t affect us at BCBC, did you know that our attendance can fluctuate as much as fifty people from Sunday to Sunday? I believe quite often folks are deliberating on Saturday night or even getting up on Sunday and deciding then whether they will be a part of the Sunday gathering. I realize there will always be major things that cause us not to be here—sickness, vacation, work or travel but if I could, I want to challenge us to make being here not optional. Why not decide, even as you read this, that from this point on being a part of your church family gathering on Sunday morning will not be up for debate or discussion? Why not choose to be here if at all possible and you make it a priority?
When I was a new Christian at Ferrum College, Jeff Denlinger was encouraging me in my new commitment. I was supposed to meet him at the cafeteria and we were going to church that Sunday morning. Well when the alarm went off, I was tired and decided I wouldn’t go so I rolled over and went back to sleep. In what seems like just minutes later there was a knock on my door and there stood Jeff. “Aren’t you coming with me to church” he asked? I gave him some sheepish reply about being too tired and so he left. I got back in bed, wide-awake now, laying there thinking about what I had just done. Jesus died for me, rose again, and I was too tired to be a part of his family? Alan, my brother was my roommate, and he too was wide-awake. “You want to go,” I asked? “Absolutely” he said, and we were up and moving fast. That Sunday morning I made a commitment in my heart I would be at worship with God’s people on Sundays and by the grace of God that has been my heart. And I wasn’t a pastor then-- I was a college student!
Let me ask you to make the same commitment today. Won’t you decide even as you read this that being a part of your church family on Sunday will not be optional? Won’t you make a commitment that unless it is something that can’t wait, you will make God’s people your priority on Sundays? I love you and I hope that you will resist this church shift and you will be one of the family who others can count on to be here and be an encouragement to those around you!
