I. Pray

II. Introduction

I have shared this before, but I think it applies to what we will be discussing this morning. When I first came to Cornerstone I had just graduated from college and left the Church I had worked at while being in school. So, for three years in college, I had taught youth Sunday School and was involved in the worship service as well at the Church where I worked. Yet, when I came to Cornerstone, I was not working for the Church and I had no official responsibilities to be here on Sunday mornings. But here's my question and the question for this morning, 'In reality, did I still have responsibilities to attend and be involved at the Church?' It had been clear to me while I was working for the Church in college that I had responsibility to attend and be involved every Sunday morning. Yet, now that I was at Cornerstone with no official responsibility to teach or lead in the worship service, was I relieved of my responsibility to attend and be involved every Sunday? In pondering these questions during this time God taught me a valuable lesson about the believer's responsibility to attend and be involved in a local Church. This is the issue we want to explore this morning.

III. Biblical Foundations for Church attendance:

A. The first passage I want to look at this morning is Hebrews 10:19-25, 26. The author of Hebrews has been leading up to these conclusions. Even as we have seen on Sunday mornings (as Lee preached through the book of Hebrews), the author has argued for the supremacy of Christ and the importance of us holding to that confession. In this passage he draws some clear exhortations for his readers. Thus, we see the weight of the exhortation to not give up meeting together as we consider the author's reason for this exhortation, which is his call to believe and his warnings against unbelief (look at verse 26 and 3:12-13). This is key to understanding why the author would exhort us to not give up meeting together. The author makes a clear link between gathering together for corporate worship and holding fast to the faith.

We also see another clear purpose identified for us meeting together. This purpose is to labor for one another's belief by encouraging one another and spurring one another to love and good works. Thus, attendance without involvement is not what the author has in mind here. Rather, he is calling his readers to meet for the purpose of encouraging one another in their walk of faith. It is vital that we see this. Otherwise, the only exhortation we may gather from this text is simply to make sure that we are filling a pew on Sunday morning. Again, the call is to encourage and this involves more than mere attendance (although it calls for no less than that).

B. There are a couple of other passages that we need to mention this morning. The first is Acts 2:42-47. In this passage, which deals with the early Church, fellowship and community are emphasized in their meeting together. There is simply the assumption of attendance and involvement which leads to fellowship and community. Dr. Dubis will be addressing this text in more detail in a couple of weeks, so that is all I will say this morning. A second passage to mention is 1 Corinthians 12-14. Here we see Paul encourage the Corinthians to labor for edification in their meetings together. Over and again Paul calls for edification in the Body (see 14:4-5, 12, 26). Thus, as the many members come together it should be a time of great edification for the whole Body.

C. Before we move to more particular application, I want to identify some basic principles we can draw from these passages. First we see that faithful attendance is a biblical command. This is made clear in the Hebrews passage. A second principle that follows the first is that faithful attendance implies involvement. Thus, walking in, sitting in the back, listening to the sermon, and leaving, does not meet the biblical requirement for attendance. There is more to being involved than just being present. In fact, these passages call us to attend for the purpose of encouraging others and being encouraged in the faith (Hebrews 10, 1 Corinthians 12-14). This is what these passages call us to labor toward. As we see the warnings against unbelief in the book of Hebrews, we see the need of attending for oversight (Hebrews 3:12-13). As we talked about a couple of weeks ago, the elders are to offer oversight for the members of the Church. They cannot fulfill this task if we are never around. Also, lack of attendance is a good sign that things are not going well with us spiritually. Consider what Whitney says is Spiritual Disciplines for the Church, "Neglect of Church attendance is almost always one of the first outward signs of backsliding and one of the initial steps taken by those whose path ends in complete apostasyâ€¦Without the encouragement to persevere that is provided by the public worship of God, the preaching of the Word of God, and the fellowship of the people of God, there is a much greater tendency to drift spiritually" (18). Thus, we see the need for Church Discipline in this area, which can be very difficult, but is nevertheless, necessary. A last principle to mention is that community requires that we commune together (Acts 2). A very basic principle of community is that we simply meet together. We cannot hope to call ourselves a community if we are not faithful in simply meeting together. Thus, these passages point out some clear principles for our attendance and involvement in the local Church.

IV. Applying these principles in our living:

A. Of course we need to address the issue of how to apply these principles to our daily living. The first point we will make is this: we must make faithful Church attendance a priority. One of the ways we communicate the importance of the local Church is through our attendance. If we prize and value and sense our need for what is taking place on Sunday mornings, then our attendance and involvement in those activities will bear witness of that. Thus I encourage you to only miss for legitimate reasons. Now obviously this begs the question, 'What are legitimate reasons?' Answering this can be difficult. Yet again, I think our answer to it will communicate just what we truly think about the importance of the local Church. I am not trying to be legalistic, but I do want us to take seriously our commitment to attending the meetings of the Church. We need to be honest with ourselves on this issue and we need to encourage one another towards faithful attendance and involvement.

Then the question comes, 'What meetings should we attend?' Again, this can be difficult to answer and yet, how we answer reveals much about us. I do think that Sunday morning service attendance is definitely the priority. Gathering with the people of God to hear the Word preached corporately is vital to our spiritual walks and should be viewed as such. Yet, I also think corporate prayer is a great opportunity for us to labor in encouraging the body. Obviously Sunday School and Wednesday night classes are great opportunities for us to study and learn the Bible together. Yet, let me say this, we have tried to intentionally not schedule so much during the week that one neglects other responsibilities that the Bible calls us to keep (family, studies, etc.). Our hope is that we can build a faithful covenant community that encourages family commitment and educational responsibility. Again the question of what meetings should I attend can be difficult. I do not want to offer hard and fast rules. Yet, I encourage you to consider what the Bible calls us to and to labor to be faithful in that calling.

B. The second point in applying these principles to our daily living is when you are at Church, be involved in edification. It is so vital for the health of our local Body that when we gather together we seek for ways to encourage one another. One of the ways that we can do this is to engage in meaningful conversations. Be willing to approach people and ask them what God is doing in their life. Have conversations about the sermon or the service or the Bible study or whatever you have been involved with that gathering. It is hard to encourage people specifically without talking to them. Thus, we need to be engaging in conversations as we meet together. Another way we can intentionally encourage others is to participate in classes, singing, giving, praying, etc. There are appropriate ways in which we can be involved in what is going on and we need to take advantage of those opportunities. Speaking up in a discussion class can be so helpful for others there and it can be very encouraging for the teacher as well. Ephesians 5 calls us to sing to one another and the major way we do that in our corporate gatherings is through corporate singing. I can say this, I am so encouraged on Sunday mornings to hear the Body singing. There are a number of other specific actions we can take to encourage one another, but I believe you get the picture. We need to take our call to encourage one another seriously and we need to always be looking for ways to do that. May our attendance and involvement in the local Church always reflect our gratefulness to Christ for His work in providing a "new and living way through His flesh" by which we can approach the throne of grace with confidence.

V. Close in prayer

Importance of Attendance and Involvement