Coming Together

I have been on the board of a large church for 8 years and in the last several years we have noted an interesting trend. Although membership has held even or a little up, and giving has gone up, attendance at weekend services has trended down. 

One of the board members who is in a group with a lot of 30-40 year olds says that they faithfully attend the small group, but don't show the same commitment to worshiping with the larger church. Part of it is kids' sports becoming a year-round affair, including Sundays. Our church went to Saturday and Sunday services a while ago to try and accommodate this. A part of it is, though, they just don't see why they need to. Let's start with Scripture and go from there.

Paul says in his letter to the Hebrews: 

24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25. 

The context provides a partial answer - He wants us to help each other persevere in love and good deeds. There are certainly weekends when we go to church that I have got nothing left. At church I will meet someone or hear something during the service that will start to re-charge my spiritual batteries, whereas if I had stayed home, I would have stayed on empty. But what else might be behind Paul's admonition?

Perhaps Simon Sez. One of the things I like about Christ is that He was direct. He never presented loving God as some esoteric, otherworldly activity; He simply said, "If you love me, obey me." John 14:15. The premise of the children's game Simon Sez is simple - to see who is really listening.  The command to not neglect coming together may fall into this same sort of category. He can't transform us if we aren't listening. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, come together... are you really listening? As you do these things, you begin to be transformed with compassion, with insight, with wisdom as to what is really important in life. If you love me, obey me. 

Then there is the Lone Ranger mentality. One of the common reasons given for not attending is that you don't have to be in church to fellowship with God. That is undoubtedly true, but if the Church is the Body of Christ in the world today and that means a team. If you are not a part of it, your gifts are lost to the Body and the honing of your gifts relationally with others is lost to you. Get in the game with the team! God is relational and at our deepest level, we are designed to be relational as well. Both sides suffer if we walk off and try to play the Game of Life on our own.

How about consumerism? Our culture conditions us to think like consumers and the Church needs to shape its "product" to our perceived "needs." The Church coming together is a tangible demonstration of Christ's Body to the rest of the world. This has nothing to do with what we want, but what God wants. We live in such a "Me-centered" world that rationale often never hits people's radar screens.  It's not all about me - us. Really. 

The Church coming together is also a foreshadowing. I do not believe that we just stand around in some heavenly choir for eternity. God is eminently more creative and busy and has made it clear that He wants us to partner (junior partners, of course!) in His work, so I fully expect that in heaven we shall all be seeing and doing things that we cannot now even imagine. There are times, however, when the whole family of God will assemble and worship God and doing so with millions of people of all colors and tongues and backgrounds boggles the imagination. Our corporate worship here on earth is a very pale reflection, but it is a reflection and He apparently wants us to get in the habit now. Who are we to say "no"?

There are other reasons to be sure why we as Christ-followers should not neglect coming together, but I think these are certainly some of them. I hope that they are a catalyst to thought and action. The team needs you and you need the team.