5 Reasons To Take Church Attendance Seriously

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Church attendance is in critical condition in the 21st Century Church.  The 4th commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” The principle of the commandment is to reserve and revere one day out of the week as a time to focus intentionally and intently on our relationship with God. The Christian church, perpetually celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, recognizes Sunday as that day.

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A seat is waiting for you

An alarming trend among church members is that we are attending church less often.  Them Rainer has identified the decrease in attendance frequency as the number one reason for the overall decline in church attendance figures.

Let me share with you five reasons I believe we should take church attendance more seriously than many of us do. Read More

How Your Ears Can Speak Volumes

One of baseball great Yogi Berra’s famous quotes was “you can observe a lot just by watching.”  I like to paraphrase his quote by saying, “you can hear a lot just by listening.”  Listening is a lost art.  We all want to be heard, but no one wants to take the time to genuinely listen.  Yet, listening can make our speaking so much more effective.

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I have a friend who will ask you a question, but before you have the time to answer it completely he asks another – sometimes totally unrelated – question.  Really, a conversation with him can be quite exhausting and usually seems unproductive. Because of this scenario, our conversations are mostly superficial and we never discuss deeper topics and issues.

I believe that God created us with design and intention, and as a result He purposefully gave us 2 ears and one mouth.  How would our conversations be different if we listened TWICE as much as we spoke?  Consider James’ admonition to us: Read More