I’d like to hear from some of the wise sages here about your thoughts on church attendance.Do you believe you should be in church every time the doors are open?Do you still hold to the “forsake not the assembling†mindset of yesteryear?Do you count someone who isn’t there for every service as not faithful?Thoughts________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
I’m just an attendee. I do not know how my pastor feels about that. But in my opinion MANY pastors think that someone who is not ‘in church’ every time the doors are opened is ‘not fully faithful’ and lacking in the spirit.I also feel there is a little truth to that. With lots of exceptions LOL ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
Well, I used to be one of those that believed in being there every time the doors were open. In hindsight,I think that was a terrible mistake on my part. Shoot, one time my brother came home on leave from the service and instead of seeing him, I went to church instead because my pastor would have thought of me as “less than faithfulâ€. I missed one of my younger sisters weddings as well because it interfered with church. Looking back, that was sheer stupidity on my part.Now that I’m retired I’m still there every time the doors are open, but I’m questioning my motives. In my heart I do not feel obligated, instead I think I’m there more out of habit or tradition. Plus, there are places I want to go and things I want to see while I’m still able to do so, and not everything can be scheduled so as not to interfere with church________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Yes…yes it was.I do believe in weekly attendance. Using Rick Warren’s concentric circles model the weekly attenders are the core members of our church. The people that show up maybe 3 weeks/month are what I would consider the committed members. Then the congregation would be people that attend regularly, but that may be monthly…but it’s regular. Then you’ve got the crowd which I would define as the Easter, Christmas, and crisis attenders. People that would tell their friends, I go to Life Pointe, but almost NEVER actual come to LPC. From there it is the community, and that would be your city that you are still called and commissioned to minister, but don’t have any association with the church. We are also putting a continually greater emphasis on small groups so that people can meet in homes and off-campus.
Your last sentence sums it up nicely,I think________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Against my wishes, the majority of our congregation decided to bring back Sunday evening services. I’d rather have a unified church than divided over personal preferences. So here we are. The attendance on Sunday evening is less than half of what it is on Sunday morning. When I was a younger preacher, I probably would have viewed those who didn’t attend on Sunday night as slackers. Honestly, I don’t give it much thought anymore. People have lives outside of the church. Ron, hearing your stories reminded me of all the things I sacrificed when I was younger because it was drilled in my head that those who didn’t attend every time the doors were opened were spiritually backslidden.
I believe (and have openly taught) that there is no set frequency of church attendance in Scripture. My sincere hope is that people actually
Have said it as it should be. Yes FLRon many of us have did the same, to our later regret.My sister, a wonderful preacher’s wife and now in heaven told me she said to her husband when he told her he was called to preach: Honey I am with you, I will do every thing in my power to be a good pastor’s wife, but only if you tell me our children will never ‘suffer’ because of church nights. If they need the time to study for school in emergencies, they get it. If they want to do sports in school they can, if something happens at school and I need to be there on a church night I will go. If you can agree with that I am aboard until death. But my children will have a normal child hood. He agreed, they did and both boys did will in life and for God. ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
So let me give you the other side of that coin. My sister and I were in church CONSTANTLY. We never missed church for a school or sporting event – ever! I’ll never forget, in my senior year I was invited to an indoor track meet for the 8 best athletes in each event. Colleges would be there, and it was a huge honor just to be invited, but it was on a Sunday. For that, my dad relented and allowed me to go. The day before the event the indoor coliseum that hosted the event had a sprinkler pipe burst and the entire building flooded…event cancelled Anyway…when my sister and I were born my parents both worked in the church and felt like it was exactly what God wanted from them. My mom recently told me that almost every day she prayed, God, I’m doing what you’ve told me to do, but you’ve got to take care of my kids. Neither my sister or I ever went through a strong rebellious stage, and today we both love Jesus AND love the local church. In fact, we both work for churches.
Great responses from everyone. For sure, I do NOT feel the same way about this subject as I did as a young Christian and then young preacher.It has taken me a long time to come to grips with the idea that I am to be the church, not just attend church. I guess I always knew it, but didn’t live it like I really believed it.As Da Shiek said, it is amazing what time and experience will do to a man’s perspective. Unfortunately,there’s no way to undo what’s done. As someone once said “you can’t fix stupidâ€. What I can do however is try to educate others who may have this same question________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Check out Daniel Im’s book No Silver Bullets has some really interesting data about the relationship to regular attendance and measurable spiritual growth. Yes, I am aware that last statement is not ecclesiastical rocket science – but it certainly does argue against a come-when-you-want mentality toward church attendance.No Silver Bullets
Problem is there is no ‘one way’ to raise kids in church. I know kids from very strict pastor and members families whose kids have never attended church after adulthood and some from the same family are dedicated Christians and there every time the doors are open. A close friend of mine whose dad was a good evangelist and pastor. If you said a word against his dad to this day, you would be out cold. He became a heavy weight contender. But never attended church after he left home for the military.I have some sad memories of PK’s of very high ranking COG preachers who died as alcoholics. They were teen age friends of mine.We are free moral agents I hear, so we decide our own future and fate. I disappointed my dad, and it hurts to this day. But he died knowing I was not in the ministry but I was in the fold.I will be the one of the strong supporters that attending church for the right reasons as often as you can, is good for the soul. I now attend on Sunday and Wed nites. my former friends who are retired preachers like to kid with me that they are glad I finally got saved. I smile. It is nice to have a pastor I can hear and understand.Preachers, if you preach a mile a minute and don’t take time to pronounce your words, you are missing at least 25% of your congregation. (hint)It is wonderful to be blessed (and corrected) when you can understand the pastor________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
I expect people to have family time, Vacations and sick time. I do Believe faithfulness is a sign of commitment. An example in the Midwest is staying out of church because you saw a flake of snow, but knowing you would go to work if there was 6†of snow on the ground speaks to what your committed to. Like in everything more commitment is necessary for leaders. A teacher that calls off regular at the last minute will not be teaching. What you show and tolerate becomes the norm. I pastor in an area that many of my members work on Sundays at least 2 of 4 Sunday’s. Their faithfulness is based on their ability not their lack of attendance________________
Tom Sterbens wrote:Check out Daniel Im’s book No Silver Bullets has some really interesting data about the relationship to regular attendance and measurable spiritual growth. Yes, I am aware that last statement is not ecclesiastical rocket science – but it certainly does argue against a come-when-you-want mentality toward church attendance. No Silver Bullets
The day has changed.Where we needed 2 times on Sunday and Wednesday night to be fed the Word of God and socialize with other believers – we can get much more word through podcasts, etc… today.And we don’t physically see our own families as much as we once did – we keep in touch through texting, video chat, etc… We keep in touch with other believers the same way.I think the statistics are a little self serving in wanting it to be like the old days. It is skewed to older, solid Christians that grew up that way. But todays guys aren’t going to follow those norms – and can be just as solid of Christians.Hey, guys don’t go to see their sports teams in person as much either – but are they less rabid for their team than before? No, they actually see their team a lot more today than 30 years ago – in fact every game through TV, internet, phones, etc.. I think we get a lot more preaching and socialization today than 30 years ago.It’s just a different delivery today________________
I am not a sports enthusiast, but I do get your comparison, and it is true.I know something in my heart, because I was there. In my early life a COG member (or any Pentecostal/Holiness church member) was lived as sort of an out cast. You read this and may not understand it, but most of my school peers thought I was in a CULT. Crazy people who ran and jumped up and down in church and babbled like wild people. My wife has a friend who tells her, You and your church scared me to death when I was a child, I thought you were crazy.That said, many Holiness people could not wait for church. To be able to sit, visit, hear and fellowship with like minded people. I remember very well the feeling of playing after church with boys who Knew what and who I was other than a ‘Holiness preacher’s boy.’ Because of what was considered ‘persecution’ (and it was to an extent) people would stay at church and talk until 11PM the fellowship was needed so much.Now the Baptist/Presb, Meth, are not so bad, some of us even believe they will go to heaven and they seem to think the same. SO MENTALLY WE DO NOT NEED THAT ‘COG’ CAMARADERIE as much as we did at one time.Hey, that is just an opinion. I enjoy going to church. I even attend Sunday night and Wednesday nite now. I do love our pastor and I think he feels I just got saved! ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
We are to exhort one another daily, but I don’t think that means we have to hav ea big church meeting every day. I grew up going to church quite a bit. In high school, I’d go Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Then I was at the church building between Sunday services and Saturday mornings for Bible Quiz practice. In college, I counted about 7 or 8 church or ministry meetings I would go to a week. Later in life, I was in Hawaii. A lot of churches in Honolulu rent schools or other facilities. They might have mid-week meetings in homes, but a lot of people went Sunday morning. I had four kids, and I started going to a church that had a lot of meetings. I’d been doing family devotions with the kids before that. I found myself one week going to Sunday morning, a Monday night Sunday school teacher’s training, Tuesday night Bible study. There was a prayer meeting Friday my wife attended. When I took my kids to one of the meetings, they just played in the kids room, trying not to get hit by one of the little boys while some teenagers watched them. I realized I’d studied the Bible for years, but my kids weren’t ‘getting fed’ spiritually that night and it was too late to study the Bible with them when I went home. If you go to one of those Pentecostal churches where you get guilt tripped if you don’t attend ‘every time the church doors are open’, then you probably aren’t going to get involved in anything else in life. It minimizes sports activities, music recitals, etc. for the kids. Who is going to serve on the school board if all the Christians are in church all the time during week nights? The atheists and LGBT activists? Too many church meetings combined with a legalistic rule that you have to attend everything can make it hard to connect with other people, evangelize and be salt and light________________