Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 2, 2022

A Christian radio broadcaster piqued my interest with something he said recently while sharing a list of reasons why we ought to make church attendance a priority.

Topping his list was the biblical mandate (Hebrews 10:25) that Christians ought not neglect meeting together for worship, prayer, discipleship, and community (italics mine for emphasis). But further down his list was one particular reason that caught my eye, or rather, my ear: our church attendance is an encouragement to the pastor.

Church attendance in America had already been in decline prior to COVID-19, according to Carey Nieuwhofs Eight Disruptive Church Trends that will Rule 2021, and COVID has only exacerbated that decline.

For many, virtual church is the new norm, offering the convenience of watching church from their couch a now-entrenched habit from which they still wont break, even after COVID. The average church has seen its re-opened attendance come in at around 36% of previous levels, with almost no expectation of it ever jumping back to pre-COVID levels for a while, Nieuwhof writes.

How, then, do we regain the habit, discipline, rhythm, and priority of Sunday morning church attendance? All habits begin in the mind. We think and, therefore, we act. We must, then, retrain our minds to prioritize church attendance. Why not calendar it weekly, as a way of jogging our memory?

How about intentionally getting to bed by 11 p.m. on a Saturday, so that we can have at least seven or eight hours of sleep? Before going to bed, can we set the alarm for 7 or 7:30 a.m. so that oversleeping is not an issue? And how about refusing to hit the snooze button, but instead, stretching and getting out of bed to thank God for the blessing of another day; to shower, dress, have breakfast, and then head out on time to a 9 a.m., 10 a.m., or 11 a.m. service, or a discipleship program prior to the service? We must command our bodies into doing. That is what leads to the discipline of habit and rhythm.

Regaining the habit, discipline, rhythm, and priority of Sunday morning church attendance has nothing to do with a legalistic, perfunctory, or obligatory giving to God of one solitary hour each week before rushing on with the rest of our lives. It has everything to do, as the Bible project video Image of God points out, with a group of Jesus-followers calling out the best in each other, striving for the ideal of Jesus-centered community as a form of witness to our neighborhood.

Christian community is best depicted by the organic connectedness of a cluster of grapes, which all share the same source. From that idea, we get the word congregation, which emanates from the Greek word for synagogue or place of worship. Jesus command to abide in me envisioned our continuation in the habits that allow for Christian community rooted in him as the Source.

We share his life whenever we meet together in his name. Our connection to Jesus is personal, but never private. Whatever happens to one affects all because we are all connected to the same Source.

According to the Hebrews passage alluded to earlier, Christian community is marked by these four practices: intentional attentiveness to one another; stirring up one another; encouraging one another; and serving through love and good works, all of which we need to be doing in light of the fast-approaching Day of the Lord.

Isnt it time you went back to church? We hope to see you next Sunday. Your attendance will be a real encouragement to us, to say nothing of the pleasure it will bring to our Lord Jesus. See you then.

Theo Griffin is lead pastor of Browns Chapel Wesleyan Church. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.

Here is the original post:

Hope for Living: Isn't it time you went back to church? - Greenfield Daily Reporter

Category: Synagogue
Tags: