If your church meets several times during the week, what does the Sunday morning crowd look like compared to the Sunday afternoon or Wednesday night crowd?
For most of us, you can take your Sunday morning number and pretty much cut that number in half. And we’ve just sort of come to expect it - “that’s just the way it is.”
But is it what God expects of His people? Do we find anything in Scripture that will shed some light on the “church attendance problem?”
I think we do. And I think what we find is that God is far more serious about this issue than many of us have been.
Old Testament Foundations of Gathering
In Leviticus 23, we find the feasts and Sabbath referred to as “holy convocations” (NKJV). The word “convocation” means “called out” or “a public meeting” (Strong’s). So these were “holy assemblies” (NET).
While the feasts occurred at various times throughout the year, the Sabbath came around each week on Saturday. Later on, we find the Jewish people gathering together on the Sabbath in the synagogue to worship and read the Scriptures (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14-15).
For several of the feasts (Passover and the Day of Atonement), there were serious consequences for failing to observe these days.
But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person shall be cut off from among his people, because he did not bring the offering of the LORD at its appointed time; that man shall bear his sin. (Numbers 9:13)
And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. (Leviticus 23:28-30)
Failing to “keep” the feast days and “holy assemblies” was disobedience and sin.
However, the Lord extended grace to those who were unable to observe these feasts and assemblies as He had commanded.
* Men who became unclean from handling a human corpse for burial were allowed to keep the Passover the following month (Numbers 9:6-13).
* During King Hezekiah’s day, we find this same situation playing out with many of the people remaining ceremoniously unclean. God graciously healed the people and accepted their worship (2 Chronicles 30:18-20).
So, from the Old Testament, we discover the principle of God’s people gathering together for a “holy assembly” being expected.
Grace and mercy were extended to those who had something happen that prevented them from assembling. But those who willfully neglected the “holy days” and “holy assemblies” were considered unfaithful to the covenant and disobedient.
The Gathering of the Church
The Early Church Practice of Gathering
Acts 2:42-47 shows the first church of our Lord devoting themselves to “the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Each of the four practices involves the church being together.
In Acts 20, Paul arrives in Troas and remains there for seven days. Why? It seems the answer is found in what he does at the end of those seven days.
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight. (Acts 20:7, ESV)
Paul waits around in Troas for a week so he can assemble with the church in Troas, eating the Lord’s Supper with them (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), and talking with them - no doubt teaching the Scriptures.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth about giving when they came together “on the first day of every week” (1 Corinthians 16:1, ESV). There was an expectation that the church would be assembling each week on Sunday.
A Warning Against Neglecting the Gathering
The book of Hebrews was written to remind Christians - especially the Jewish Christians - that Jesus is better and is everything and everyone the Law of Moses pointed forward to. Some were going through a tough time in their faith, and the writer of Hebrews warns them against failing to assemble.
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. (Hebrews 10:24-25, ESV)
What they needed was motivation to continue in love and good works, and encouragement from one another - but how would they receive that if they neglected meeting together?
The church gathering is not just a time to worship God, although it certainly is that. The assembly is also a time to encourage each other and strengthen our resolve to live for Christ.
Earlier in Hebrews, the Christians were urged:
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "TODAY," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13, ESV)
Defining “neglecting”
The word used in Hebrews 10:25 for “neglecting” in the ESV is a word that means “to leave, leave behind; to forsake, abandon” (Mounce). It shows up about ten times in the New Testament, sometimes translated as “forsaken” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; 2 Corinthians 4:9; Hebrews 13:5), “abandon” (Acts 2:27-30), or “deserted” (2 Timothy 4:10, 16).
The picture given by this word is of someone who has turned his back on an individual or a group of people and walked away, abandoning them to their fate.
What About Churches With Multiple Assemblies?
As we’ve already seen, Christians in the New Testament were expected to gather together on Sunday each week. It seems that if their circumstances allowed it, they would meet together more often (Acts 2:46), but they at least met together once each week on Sunday (Acts 20:6-7).
This was simply the expected practice of the Lord’s church.
The History Behind Multiple Gatherings
During the 1600s and 1700s, many Reformed and Puritan churches began having two services on Sunday. There would be worship in the morning, and more teaching would be done later at an afternoon or evening service.
For example, the Westminster Assembly’s “Directory for the Publick Worship of God” (published in 1645) encouraged meeting multiple times for teaching the Scriptures on Sunday.
In the 1800s and 1900s, around the time of the “Second Great Awakening,” many American Protestant churches began having Sunday night services to reach working people who were unable to attend in the mornings. These evening assemblies were usually more “evangelistic” to reach those who were not Christians.
Around this same time, some churches started having Wednesday night services centered around prayer, Bible study, and uplifting one another. This Wednesday night meeting became common practice in many churches by the early 1900s.
Practical Reasons for Multiple Gatherings
Some of the practical reasons churches started having multiple meetings each week include:
* Accessibility: As work schedules shifted, the church provided multiple opportunities for people to meet that would better fit.
* Discipleship: More time together meant more opportunities to teach the Bible and go deeper into study and encouragement to live out the faith.
* Evangelism: The Sunday evening service especially became an opportunity to “invite a friend” and reach the lost with the gospel of Christ.
* Family Training: “Sunday School” and Bible classes were added to help train the children and families in the Scriptures.
The Importance of Obeying Church Leaders
The Hebrews writer reminded Christians to be submissive to the leaders of the church.
Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:17, ESV)
The various meeting times of the church allow the shepherds to see the whole “flock” together and help them evaluate how the sheep are doing. Of course, this shouldn’t be the only time that leadership “checks in” on the flock (James 5:14), but it certainly offers them a wonderful opportunity.
If the shepherds determine the flock needs to meet together multiple times throughout the week, the church needs to “be submissive” and do everything in their power to obey their leadership.
We ought to treat each assembly as an opportunity to worship God and to encourage one another to “love and live” for God each day (Hebrews 10:24-25).
When We Miss the Church Gathering
Sometimes, despite our best efforts and desire, we just may not be able to assemble with the church. Perhaps health problems prevent this, or something happened at work that kept us longer than we wanted, or maybe we are out of town.
On these occasions, I think we can rightfully apply the principle we saw earlier from the Old Testament about God being gracious and merciful to those who had something happen that prevented them from being at the “holy assembly.”
However, for those who choose to skip the church gathering simply because they don’t want to go, I hope you will reconsider.
We learned from the Old Testament that God took the assembly of His people seriously, and to “skip” these assemblies without a good reason was disobedience and sin against God. We also saw in the New Testament that the early church was simply “expected” to meet together.
How Should Church Leaders Respond to a Gathering Problem?
I think everything we’ve observed from Scripture up to this point shows us that the wilful neglect and “skipping” of the gathering of the church is sinful.
And if this behavior is a sin, it must be dealt with - otherwise, not only are their souls in danger, but ours are as well.
“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 3:17-21)
So, how should the church’s shepherds handle the sin of someone who is habitually, wilfully neglecting the assembling of the church?
Be a shepherd
The leaders of the church are responsible for keeping watch (Hebrews 13:17) over the “flock of God that is among” them (1 Peter 5:2). This means they must know the people and what’s going on in their lives.
The leadership must know why a person continues to be absent from the assembly: is it health reasons? Job-related? Or is it a stubborn refusal to be there?
Teach and Encourage Faithfulness
Perhaps a person simply needs a reminder, or to be taught for the first time, why they must meet together with the church. Our brethren are God’s gift to us, to help us, and for us to help them.
We are meant to be there for each other to encourage each other (Hebrews 10:24-25).
Offer Practical Help
Perhaps someone isn’t assembling with the church as they should because they lack a consistent way to get there. Help by arranging a ride for them back and forth from all the assemblies of the church.
Or maybe it’s a family with several young “active” children who are such a handful at times, the parents are discouraged from even trying to attend. Perhaps ask some of the older women without young children to sit near or with this family to be an extra set of hands to help with the children.
Sometimes, all it may take to help someone gather with the church is to help meet a very practical need they have.
Warn About the Spiritual Danger
Remind those who are absent from the church gathering about the danger of missing out on the encouragement from their brethren (Hebrews 3:12-13).
Sin is deceptive, and while we might think we can handle things on our own, Scripture reminds us repeatedly that we cannot.
Is a More Drastic Step Needed?
In some of the Old Testament examples we studied earlier in this article, God said that the one who was wilfully absent from the “holy assemblies” was to “be cut off from among his people,” must “bear his sin,” and would be destroyed by God from among His people (Numbers 9:13; Leviticus 23:29-30 ESV).
Church discipline is always a challenging and difficult thing. However, it is a necessary process that must be taken to protect the church from sin and to hopefully restore the lost brother or sister (1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15).
While wilful neglect of the assembly is not one of the sins the Holy Spirit gave in 1 Corinthians 5:11 that warrants the church withdrawing from a brother or sister who refuses to repent, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 might extend to a Christian who continues to be stubborn in refusing to assemble with the church. At the very least, there is a sobering warning given to Christians who neglect the assembly (Hebrews 10:24-31).
I think there is room in Scripture for leadership to use its better judgment in these cases.
Assembling is Supposed to be a Gift, Not a Burden
David penned:
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” (Psalm 122:1, ESV)
The gathering of the Lord’s people should be a time of praise, joy, and encouragement. It’s not meant to be a burden or a drudgery.
When we understand who God is and when we remember what He has done for us, coming into His presence as His people should be a joyful occasion. It should be something we look forward to doing.
Wilfully skipping church is spiritually serious.
It’s time we all start making the gathering of the church a priority throughout our week.
It’s not merely about “showing up” and filling a seat. It’s about loving Jesus and His church - His body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). It’s about receiving and giving encouragement to live for Him.
Let’s commit ourselves to gathering with the Lord’s people. To worship Him with “thanksgiving in our hearts.” To the mutual encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
