I have had this blog in the back of my head for a long time, but have been holding my tongue. I have been watching for a long time trying to gain some insight into the patterns of church attendance among young adults. I did not want to write too quickly, nor be too harsh, but I think I’ve seen all I need to see to write honestly and accurately. The jury is back, the verdict is in: THIS GENERATION IS ESTABLISHING AN UNHEALTHY TREND IN CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
A couple of generations ago, this was not the case. I can remember being in churches that were attended by many senior adults and if one was missing, the others were calling promptly to make sure they were not in the hospital. A couple of generations ago, believers took more seriously the biblical call to regularly, consistently, faithfully, and (insert lots of other synonyms here), gather together as the Body of Christ. That was the norm. Two generations later, we have a culture where skipping church about half the time is the norm. Even in very large, very strong churches, the pattern I am hearing is that, among the twenty and thirty somethings, their most faithful members attend about once out of every three Sundays. If I am to be a faithful voice for truth, I must say plainly, THIS IS NOT OK!
Is it because of the way I grew up going to church every time the doors were open? Maybe a little, but that’s not primarily why I am disturbed. I am disturbed because this tendency in our day is a direct disregard to what God says about the priority of the assembly in Scripture. In Hebrews 10:25, the author says “Let us not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Faithful church attendance is not an option for the authentic believer, it is a mandate according to God’s Word. When we neglect the assembly, in essence, we are demonstrating several fallacies in our faith journey:
1.) We prove that we are more infatuated with other things than we are with worshipping God.
The truth is that late nights on Saturday nights spent pursuing personal pleasure make for lazy Christians on Sunday morning. When we choose the bed over the worship gathering, we are proving that our heart loves entertainment more than it loves God. How tragic that the Wii (or whatever else) gets more consistent attention than the King of Kings! For the record, I get that Sunday morning is not the only time people can worship, but I am asking you to check your heart. Here’s the bottom line, do you believe that gathering together regularly to worship God is important? If so, then live out that belief by rearranging your life so that it is high priority. Don’t forget this fundamental commandment- You shall have no other gods before me (Ex. 20:3)
The quick defense here is to say, ‘wait a minute, I do love God and I worship Him on my own all the time: in my car on the way to work, at home watching the Church Channel, etc… To this, I would say great! We should worship Him alone all the time. But, it does not change the fact that God has spoken, and He has called us to worship Him TOGETHER. All throughout the Bible, we hear the words, “Gather yourselves”, “Assemble yourselves”, “Come together.” There is something special and unique that God has for us in corporate worship, it cannot be neglected.
2.) We neglect the pastoral guidance that comes through preaching.
One of the reasons we gather is to listen to the Word of God. God has ordained that the public proclamation of Scripture be a staple for the church. Titus 2:3 says, “God has manifested His Word through preaching.” Paul charged young Timothy, “Preach the Word!” (II Tom. 4:2) The weekly preaching of the Bible is part of what makes God’s Word come alive (be manifest) for you and spurs you on to more passionate study of it on your own. The sermon every Sunday is meant to give counsel, and conviction, and comfort. Preaching is one of God’s ways of keeping you focused on Him and walking in His ways. Sometimes preaching brings about rejoicing, sometimes preaching brings about repentance, sometimes preaching brings about renewal. It is a channel through which God can speak to your heart. To consistently neglect the public preaching given in the assembly is to say, ‘I don’t need to hear this.’
Have you ever had a “no show” for a dinner at your house? You remember how that feels? You cleaned the house all day. You went out and bought just the right ingredients. You spent all afternoon cooking a wonderful meal. You looked forward to spending time serving your friends and visiting with them. And then the call comes: “sorry, something came up, can’t make it.” And you’re like, “what? seriously?” I just invested a day getting ready for this. You feel really let down. Every week, pastors in churches across the country spend hours in prayer and careful study of the scriptures to hear from God and bring a relevant and encouraging message to their people. And every week, according to statistics, well over half of all church goers make the call to say “sorry, something came up, can’t make it.” And here’s the real point, it’s not about hearing from the pastor, it’s about hearing from the Word of God TOGETHER as being built up as the Body of Christ.
Another defense raised here is, “but i listen to pod-casts all the time.” To this again, I would say great! Me too! I love Driscoll and Piper and Keller too. But here’s the deal, someone across the country is not going to hold you accountable in your daily life, and they are not going to come and visit you when your life is falling apart, and they are not going to be there to comfort you when you are down. That’s why God has ordained local churches to put you into a place where you can hear truth taught in the context of real relationships.
3.) We flake out on our family.
When we skip church regularly, it’s like skipping a family reunion. You know those gatherings in your family that it’s just not acceptable to miss, where if you miss it, it always comes across like your dissing you’re peeps? In essence, that’s what chronic skipping of church is like. Let us not forget that “We are members one of another” (I Cor. 12:14-27, read this whole passage carefully). There is no part of the Body that is not important. According to this analogy in Scripture, when you are missing for weeks at a time, it’s like the rest of us are living without an arm or a leg for weeks. We need you! We need all of you! Once you commit to a local Body of Christ, you are a part of that Body that is necessary for the rest of the Body to function. This is why Paul says “when one rejoices, we all rejoice, when one suffers, we all suffer.” Have you considered that you have brothers and sisters at church who need you to be faithful like family because they are going through something and they need support? To chronically skip is to say, ‘good luck with that, see ya around sometime.’ That’s not the way family acts! What if I have a really bad week and I really need a hug from my brother and my brother is never there? I pray that our generation can recapture in the church the feeling that we are a family who does not let one another down.
4.) We show complacency toward the mission of the Church.
The mission of the church is to glorify God and to expand His kingdom locally and globally. We are here to serve and to reach others. When a significant percentage of a church body is missing on any given week, it is like taking one step forward and two steps back toward the mission at hand. It is next to impossible to build momentum and bring about consistent growth if a culture of chronic skipping is present. Here’s the questions we need to think about: Do we really care about reaching the lost with the Gospel? Do we really want to go into the world and make a difference in practical ways? Do we really want to grow as a church so that we saturate our community with God’s love? Do we really want to plant more churches? Do we really want to give away a lot of money to provide aid to those in need globally? Do we really want to advance the Kingdom of God forward at this time and in this place? If these things are indeed our mission, then it will take faithfulness and diligence and loyalty to accomplish it. You can’t get on the field and play when half a team shows up on game day. If you’re on the team, then suit up and get on the field!
Now let me get very practical for a few minutes here. You may be thinking, life is not that simple. People just can’t make it every Sunday with the pressures and time constraints that people have today. There is some truth to this. I totally understand that sometimes, people just have to work or study or go on business trips or take care of urgent matters. That’s real life and I get that and I do believe that God understands this as well. I even understand and encourage the fact the we just need some good time off sometimes to take a weekend trip and go have some fun and relax a little. I love vacations and get aways just as much as the next guy! So especially in a community such as ours, faithful attendance will probably not be 52 weeks a year, but simply coming as much as a crazy schedule allows for. So I do NOT judge anyone who is just with their back against the wall trying to get through a difficult stage of life. What I am getting at today is a heart of neglect, not the honest struggle to manage an impossibly busy career. There is a huge difference between the two and only you can assess where you stand in your faithfulness to the assembly.
So, sorry for being so long-winded and sorry for going so ‘preachy’ here, but this is a big deal. It has everything to do with how we as a community of faith honor God through regular worship, grow as disciples through regular preaching, support one another by regular family meetings, and reach the lost through regular missions activity.
I want to say two things in closing. First, that I love this generation and have a heart to see us become all that we can be as the Body of Christ in our place in history. I only come down hard on this issue because it breaks my heart to see us not live up to our potential. We are living in those times “as we see the DAY approaching” and we need to be gathering together “all the more” not all the less. I love you and want all that God has to offer through His church to be a part of your life. Secondly, I want to say that I am so grateful to be a part of a church where we DO have so many very faithful members. At The CitC, I feel like we have a very committed core of people who regularly serve together, regularly worship together, regularly pray together, and are really there for one another. Let’s lead the way in inspiring all believers in our generation to be faithful members of their local Body.
