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.

God modeled a Sabbath pattern for us.

God created the world in six days, then He “rested” on the Sabbath.  Have you ever thought about why God rested?  Was it because 6 days of creative work exhausted Him? Certainly not, He is all-powerful!  He took a break to model the importance of setting aside 1 day to put aside all other pursuits and focus on Him.

God commanded we assemble.

In Hebrews 10:25, the Bible encourages us not to forsake assembling ourselves together.  Whether or not we realize it, meeting together provides a necessary spiritual benefit that is unavailable any other way.  We simply cannot be all God intends if we do not regularly come together to worship.  It’s not that you cannot experience God outside of church in a Sunday morning, it’s just that more likely you do not.

Tweet: It’s not that you cannot experience God outside of church in a Sunday morning, it’s just that more likely you do not.

We NEED the time devoting our attention to God.

I would dare say that those things we choose over regular church attendance do not draw us closer to God, but rather contribute to the slow and steady drift of a heart already turning away from God.

Church attendance is a sacrifice to God of our most valuable possession – time.

Time is an irrecoverable commodity.  Once it is gone it cannot be recouped or recaptured.  Each moment of time is like the broken alabaster box that the woman broke open to anoint the feet of Jesus in worship.  Once broken, it cannot be used for anything else.  When we give God this prime time, we demonstrate that He is worthy of the most valuable possession we have.

Tweet: When we give God this prime time, we demonstrate that He is worthy of the most valuable possession we have.

We set priority habits for the next generation.

The subtle messages we send our kids when we allow their pursuits to take them away from church is alarming to me.  Is a job for a teenager or young adult so important that we allow it to take them from church? Are we telling them that making a living is more important than making life?  Is a travel ball team more important than the body of Christ? We allow our kids to miss church (and take us away too) for whatever us their latest pursuit, and then we wonder why they don’t want to come to church when they leave home and have lives of their own.  We set the pattern for them while we have them with us.

Being at church is important.  I hope that you will be in your place at your church THIS Sunday.

For further reading:

The Number One Reason for the Decline in Church Attendance – Thom Rainer