When You Miss Church ...

Bill Brinkworth

All should go to church: saved and unsaved. An unsaved person will learn God’s way to heaven and, hopefully, be saved. A saved person should go to church because God commands it (Hebrews 10:25); it is the place to learn about spiritual things; it is a place to serve God, and it is a place to receive spiritual encouragement.

Too many born-again people stay away from the house of God. Sometimes the excuses are legitimate, such as sickness or an emergency; but too many times, they are not legitimate. When a Christian stays home from attending services at the house of God, he can do damage to himself and to the cause of Christ. Some of the negative impacts of his avoiding church include:

His lack of faithfulness to the house of God is a bad example to other believers and the unsaved. If his avoiding church is observed, others may justify their staying home as, “Well, if so-and-so doesn’t go to church, why do I have to go?” The lack of attendance encourages others also to miss. Others observe our actions and reactions. We may be all of “Christ” many see. It is important to be a good testimony to others. We never know who is watching us.
He will miss a blessing that God intended for him to hear to help him through life. The day the believer stays home may be the day that God laid a special message on the pastor’s heart that was desperately needed by the one that did not make it to church that day. Encouragement from the Word of God, taught in church, is spiritual food a believer needs to make it through life’s trials.
When a person stays home and misses church, he is showing God and others what is important in his life; and unfortunately, it may not be the things of God.
A saved individual is born into the family of God. When he misses church, he is missing a “family” gathering. When any family does not spend time together, they grow apart. When a child of God misses church, he too, can grow apart from his spiritual family.
A stay-at-home Christian is showing the unsaved world that church is not really important.
When a believer stays home, it can discourage those that know he is gone, and also discourage the preacher.
If a believer is involved in a ministry and misses church, others have to fill in the empty spot his absence has left. Most of the time, the ones picking up the slack are those that are already busy in their own ministries. They soon get tired of doing too much and get discouraged, all because a believer missed church.
If a believer stays home, he often does not give to the cause of Christ for the time he missed. The money not given is needed to keep the ministry running. A church will suffer, because all are not giving their share.

God went to a lot of trouble to have a local church for us to go to. He called a shepherd for the flock of believers. Many gave, so the church would have its doors open. Many sacrificed their time to minister to the needs of others. Avoiding church is missing what God intended for us to have. Be at church every time the doors are open. It is the right thing to do!

“Someone once said the difference between watching a sermon on television rather than going to church to hear it is the same difference as talking to a girl friend on the phone as opposed to taking her
out on a date.”

This lesson was featured in The Bible View #169.