“I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.” Perhaps you’ve heard that line, or even uttered it yourself. Or maybe you’ve heard it with different phrasing. Something like, “Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian.” That statement is incorrect! In fact, I’ve never heard an active church member make that statement. It usually comes from someone trying to justify their neglect of church.
If you are still reading, allow me to make a distinction and explain what I mean.
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Pop-up ads are the scourge of the internet. I have finally eliminated most pup-up ads, but now find myself a victim of pop-up autoplay videos. Some of the videos are ads; some are news stories. All of them startle me and distract me from the work I am trying to do when online.
Recently, however, I have been trying to cultivate the proactive of pop-up praying in my daily routine. Pop-up prayers are spontaneous, short prayers triggered by something that I experience during the course of the day. I often utter pop-up prayers when driving, talking on the phone, or working at my desk. I find the more I have intentionally looked for pop-up possibilities, the more involuntarily they have occurred.
Besides my family, one of God’s greatest blessings of my formative years, was attending a Bible-believing and teaching church. God used Pine Forest Baptist Church to shape me into the man I am today. I’ve learned much since my younger days in church, but the lessons I learn today build on their foundation. Because of my experience, I am convinced families need church.
Church taught me much about God’s Word, and how to live in community with other believers. Thankfully, I sat under the preaching of some gifted pastors, and loving staff members modeled ministry skills for me. Lay leaders and teachers provided learning opportunities that helped me prepared for God’s calling on my life.
Recently, both the church I currently pastor and my home church have experienced the grief of losing long-standing members. I have reflected much over the last couple of weeks on the blessings so many people have been in my life. Yet today, my generation of parents and those just younger than me seem to miss the importance of family involvement in church.
The church today faces increased competition of the time, attention, and resources of young families. School, sports, and a multitude of other options provide distractions from the important role church plays in child development. With that in mind, I offer a plea to young families to get involved in a Bible-teaching church.
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.
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
Most pastors I know work very hard at the most important thing we do – teaching and preaching God’s Word. I am sure there are a few who take short cuts and preach sermons already prepared in a book or online, but most that I know spend a good amount of time and pour a lot of spiritual energy into each sermon. Many of us prepare three sermons a week.
More than 20 years ago, God led me to Colossians 1:28-29, and that passage has since been the Biblical motivation for me as I prepare and preach. I see it as God’s commission to me as a preacher and because I take the verse and commission seriously, I prepare as fastidiously as possible.
Him [Jesus] we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me. – Colossians 1:28-29
I’ve heard some preachers confess that they spend as much as 12-20 hours on the Sunday morning sermon alone. Thirty years of preparing sermons week after week has taught me how to research and compile material more quickly than I did at first. Digital tools and resources (which I have amassed over the last several years at the cost of a small fortune) have made the process more streamlined for me and saved me some time as well.
I wondered what would happen if listeners prepared themselves to hear as diligently as preachers prepare themselves to preach. I certainly wouldn’t expect it to be an equal amount of time, but my fear is that most hearers sit down in church to hear a sermon having given little to no thought or prayer to prepare themselves for what God wants to say to them.
Yesterday, Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources posted an article on his blog that gave some practical steps we can take to prepare ourselves to hear God speak through the sermon. I am including a link to the article below, and I want to challenge you to read it and take some time this week (and every week from this point on) preparing yourself to hear what God wants to say directly to YOU on Sunday.
I believe your preparation will make you a better hearer and certainly make your preacher a better preacher.
Use the comment section below to share ways you prepare yourself to hear God’s Word.
Seven Ways Church Members Should Prepare for a Sermon by Thom Rainer
What does the church look like when she functions the way Jesus designed? Here is a look at four “snapshots.”
We live in a day and age of the “cut back.” Businesses are cutting back employees to increase an ever-elusive profit margin. Local governments are cutting back services to try to balance their budgets. I wish the federal government would cut back on their funded programs and cut back on my taxes. According to my doctor, I should be cutting back on my carb intake. Maybe when the government cuts back I will too.
Cut backs have even extended to the church. Members have cut back on their attendance for several reasons. In response to declining attendance, churches have cut back the number of worship services they hold, many eliminating the poorly attended Sunday Evening service.
The Bible addresses the gathering of believers quite clearly in Hebrews 10:24-25:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
That phrase in the last part of the passage really stands out: all the more. “The Day” to which the passage refers is the day that the Lord Jesus returns. Much of Biblical prophecy concerning the “end times” seems to indicate that we are living in the last days. Given that scenario, we need to be together all the more.
Working in a God-hating culture, we need the encouragement of fellow believers. Living in a sin-polluted culture we need the accountability of fellow believers. Enduring the faith-challenging circumstances in these last days, we need the collective strength of fellow believers. Now, more than ever, we need each other all the more.
As your life gets busier and you are forced to cut back some things from your schedule, please don’t cut back your church attendance. You and your family need what the church gathered provides. You can’t get it anywhere else, and all of us need it all the more.
There are four very dangerous members of every church I have ever seen. Admittedly, sometimes I have invoked their names myself, thinking that they were my friends and that they were on “my side.” But every time, I soon found out they were snakes in the grass – not my friends, but very dangerous adversaries.
Somehow, they manage to get appointed to every committee or ministry group in the church. They are the most faithful members of the church; they NEVER miss, NEVER get sick, NEVER take a vacation, and NEVER play hooky. They fill their pew every time the church doors open. At first glance, they seemed to be pillars of the church, but now I realize, they are pure poison.
Some of you reading may know them; you may be their kin. In fact, you may be them. At times, I have to confess that sometimes, I am “them.” Who are these four members? I, Me, My, and Mine. I call them “The Quartet.”
One of the most dangerous things that can happen in a church is for any one of the body parts to become overly “self-aware.” Church does not belong to me. It is not my church. In fact, it is not even “our” church. The church has been bought and paid for and is under singular management – we are the body of Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 4, Paul warned us that unity would be a chore to maintain.
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. – Ephesians 4:3
Paul calls the task of maintaining unity an “effort.” It does not come naturally, easily, or automatically. Notice the hub around which the wheel of unity rolls – the Holy Spirit. We cannot have unity around the Quartet. Unity is not achieved by either unanimity or majority opinion. There has to be ONE singular central place where the buck stops, and in Jesus’ church the buck stops with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Soloist in the church’s performance. He is the Superstar. The best The Quartet can hope for is to be the backup singers, the supporting cast. The Quartet has to take a back seat to the Soloist. Church only works when you and I seek the will of the Holy Spirit even to the exclusion of our own desires and preferences.
In the ensuing verses of Ephesians 4, Paul goes on to use the word “one” seven times referring to God and His work in and through us. That is the basis for our unity. Not a preacher, not a deacon, not a class, committee, ministry, and certainly not The Quartet.
It’s not about Me… or I… or… My… or Mine.
He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease. – John 3:30
One thing we did when playing ball at school or in the neighborhood as kids always causes awkward and uncomfortable moments: choosing sides. I hated being the team “captain” and having to choose whom I wanted on my team. Invariably, someone would get their feelings hurt because a captain chose them after someone they thought was not as good a player. The strategy was not always to choose the best player, but to choose one’s closest friends. I always felt sorry, too, for the last person chosen.
As uncomfortable as that was for a childhood activity, it is equally uncomfortable, and infinitely more abominable in God’s eyes when we do it in church. You know the scenario: something doesn’t go someone’s way and that someone sets about recruiting people to be on his “side.” It is even more shameful when done by one in lay or pastoral leadership.
Our role as leaders is to equip the church to function efficiently and effectively as a cohesive body. Gathering “our people” to support our cause creates an “us against them” lose-lose situation. It’s not just leaders that stir up trouble, however, lay people often fall into the same trap. Emails, phone calls, secret meetings to plan strategy are worldly ways of conducting heavenly business.
In Proverbs 6:16-19, God tells us that there are 7 things that God finds abominable. The 7th item on the list is one who sows discord among the brothers. It is OK to disagree; in fact, disagreements usually prove beneficial as ideas are exchanged and insights shared. Not every one has to agree with everything all the time – that is an unreasonable expectation. The problem comes when we employ fleshly means to come to a spiritual conclusion. According to 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 God considers such behavior as immature and childish as choosing sides on the ball field. It’s one thing to have a childlike faith, it’s something else altogether to act childish.
The Bible gives us both reactive and proactive instructions relating to divisions in church. First, in a reactive way, we are told to notice and avoid those who cause division (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11). Then, in a proactive, prescriptive way, God tells us to seek unity not in a person, but in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:1-3). Rather than rallying people to our side, we should make sure we are on God’s side and we should seek to know and do God’s desire rather than any individual.
Let’s stop choosing up sides and recognize that God has chosen us to be on HIS SIDE. Let’s quit trying to win people over to our favor and work feverishly to promote the kingdom of God.
Quiet time exercise: read the Scriptures linked above and ask God to help you see those who cause division for what they are and to show you how you can help bring about unity of the Spirit.
I must admit, I am not in very good shape these days. I can pinpoint two main reasons for my conditioning decline: I was not eating right and I was not getting sufficient any exercise. Recently I have taken steps to improve my conditioning. I am more discerning about what I eat, and I am trying to get more exercise and be more physically active. After a few days, things are looking some better, but I still have a long way to go.
I have observed that what plagued me physically, plagues many believers spiritually, especially the lack of “exercise.” An alarming trend has emerged in Church-life over the last several years. With more frequency, believers are looking for churches where they can “just go” and not be asked to do anything. Citing burnout, being taken for granted, or not being appreciated, they either move to another church where they can begin again under the radar and not be asked to serve, or they lapse into infrequent attendance and inactivity in the church which holds their membership.
I can understand the reasoning; I have felt that way before, too. The problem with that line of thinking, however, is that it is fleshly and ignores that fact that God has uniquely gifted each believer to be a function part of a larger body. Two things happen when we decide to refrain from serving in the local body: the church suffers because she is forced to function handicapped, and the believer suffers because as a body part, they fall into atrophy.
…from whom [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. – Ephesians 4:16
Please don’t let the spiritual gift God has given you go to waste. If you are being tempted to shrink back from serving, please reconsider. Your church needs you and you need to serve. Don’t let the body get out of shape.
