Why Bother with Church?
I grew up going to church every week. Several times each week, in fact. Sunday morning was for Sunday school and the weekly worship service. Sunday evening was youth group. The Wednesday night service was what we called a “prayer meeting,” but it was pretty much like Sunday morning, only less formal.
But as a boy I didn’t see going to church as gathering with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God. Other motives predominated: pleasing my parents and avoiding their disapproval, seeing my church friends, showing off in “sword drills” and other opportunities to demonstrate my superior knowledge of the Bible, and of course flirting with the girls.
But we were a church-going family. I remember once when I was a boy and my family was on a two-day trip back to Ohio from visiting family in Texas. The trip spanned the weekend, so the second day of travel was on a Sunday.
I remember that we stayed in a motel somewhere in Tennessee, got up Sunday morning, dressed for church, and after breakfast began driving north. A couple of hours later we pulled off the highway to find a church. We ended up in a little church in Kentucky, where the pastor preached against the moonshiners in the community. (True story.)
When I went away to college, the Christian school I attended encouraged but did not require church attendance. With that arrangement I soon discovered exactly how important it really was for me to make it a habit to gather with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God.
Wednesday night prayer meeting was the first casualty. Sunday evening service was a toss-up. Being with the people of God on Sunday evening was decidedly less important if, for instance, I was involved in a football game with the guys on the lawn in front of the dorm, or if I had a lot of homework that weekend.
But Sunday morning was deeply ingrained in my weekly habits. I rarely missed a Sunday morning. It just didn’t seem like Sunday morning if I was anywhere except at church. It wasn’t a matter of guilt; it was just that being anywhere else on Sunday morning didn’t feel right.
Which meant that the first Sunday I experienced the live-stream version of our service during the pandemic shut-down was beyond weird. It was actually surreal to be watching two of our pastors and a small praise band conduct our worship service in front of an empty sanctuary, accompanied by a small and faithful tech team working behind the scenes.
And I was watching it all on our large screen TV from the comfort of the couch in my family room.
In my pajamas.
Weird.
We’ve since re-instituted on-campus services, but many are staying home and continue to watch the live-stream. Our weekly attendance is about half in-person and half live-stream. Many – perhaps most – are staying away out of concern for their health. And we are all grateful that the technology allows us to include them even though they cannot be present.
In other words, we are not really able yet to “gather with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God.” We all long for those days when we can all be together again.
But I wonder what kind of effect this extended period of non-attendance will have on us.
The hiatus has broken long-standing habits for many. And once the toxic fog of the pandemic has lifted, many will be asking themselves this question: Why bother with gathering together physically when technology has made it possible for us to take in the “content” of the worship service (the music and the preaching) without actually being present?
There are two reasons, actually, one vertical and one horizontal:
1. Primarily, the vertical reason: the gathered church is not primarily for my benefit or even our benefit but for God’s.
When we gather to worship, the “performance” isn’t the music or the preaching. We want our music and our preaching to be top-notch, of course, but not so that we can build a following. In a worship service, the performers are not the people in front performing for the people in the pews. A worship service is performance of all the people in the room for the Audience of One.
We gather together to bring our collective worship and thanksgiving and praise to the One who bankrupted heaven to make worshipers out of rebels. Sure, I can praise God alone as I read my Bible and pray, and I should do that. But I cannot be part of the collective offering of worship without gathering with the people of God to celebrate the goodness of God.
The primary reason I want to be part of the gathered local fellowship is that I want to be part of that group that praises and worships and thanks the King together. I want to be part of that choir singing His praises.
2. Secondarily, the horizontal reason: It is only as we are gathered together that we can each use our particular gifts to serve one another.
Every local fellowship is like a commando unit; each believer brings a different specialty to the mission. Each of us brings a different set of skills, gifts, and passions to the work we do together.
One is good with his hands and loves to help; one is gifted with words and loves to study the Scripture and explain God’s truth to God’s people; one is gripped with a passion to show mercy to the outcast; one is gifted with administrative skills to organize our efforts.
One of my favorite verses describes this dynamic so beautifully. In his discussion of spiritual gifts, Peter shows us that our gifts and abilities are a resource that each of us must manage carefully. Each of us is responsible to manage our gifts, skills, and passions “as good stewards of God's varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10, ESV).
All of us have been blessed by God’s people using their gifts to serve us according to their unique talents and gifts, and the way God’s grace is expressed in spiritual gifting is indeed varied. One of the most precious ways we experience God’s kindness and grace in our lives is by other believers using their gifts to bless us and by our using our gifts to bless our brothers and sisters; this is something we cannot do when we are not gathered together.
So when that day comes and we are all able once again to gather without hindrance, when we all finally can reboot our church habits, let’s not neglect the marvelous opportunity we have to be together to worship God and bless one another.
Persevere,
Paul Pyle
Discipleship Pastor
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