We started IDC with the conviction that weekly gathered worship is the central hub of a church’s life together. Here is where the ordinary means of grace are supernaturally dispensed. Here is where loving unity is established and constructed. Here is where corporate celebrations of God’s grace stir the soul. Here is where members are equipped and then commissioned as Christ’s ambassadors. All of that, and so much more, we believed down to the level of our spiritual gut.
The issue then became helping our members to see that wisdom and joy found in devotion to gathered worship.
A Uniquely Ordinary Struggle
Since its inception in January of 2013 IDC has assembled each week at a local Baptist church on Saturday nights. Gathering on Saturdays at 5pm has been a unique struggle. There is no shortage of competition for our people’s attention on Saturday nights—more so than on Sundays mornings, I think. About six months into the church’s life I began to notice a pattern with our members: the majority seemed to be gone half the time. Things are not always as they seem, so we spent the next six months keenly observing our attendance patterns, lest my assumptions be misguided. Our examination of the sheep revealed the average member was missing 22-26 weeks out of the annual 52.
Corporate health and unity can’t survive when most family members are gone six months each year.
We needed to get to work.
Putting a Plan into Place
At a Family Meeting (our bi-monthly members’ meeting) we communicated the pattern we’d observed and tried to address it biblically. We said,
We don’t want you to feel as though we are looking over an attendance list in a legalistic fashion, merely checking off who is present and not present. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “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.” In light of this verse, one of the things we covenant to as a church is, “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.”
What we want to do is encourage all of us to examine our orientation toward Saturday night. We are not expecting every member to get a “Perfect Attendance” ribbon at the end of each year, instead—because of Hebrews 10:25 and our church covenant—we want to encourage you to an ordinary prioritization of gathered worship. Here is where God promises to meet his people in the fullness of His mercy and grace. The corporate gathering is also the ordinary place where Christian discipleship and unity occurs. To be gone from gathered worship with great frequency means not only missing out on this “atomic power” of discipleship, but it also means putting your soul in a dangerous place. As Hebrews 10 says, commitment to corporate worship keep us close to Christ as we await His return.
That simple discussion got us headed in the right direction. To fuel growing affections for gathered worship we focused our efforts in four areas: shepherding, preaching, praying, and discipling. In other words, pastoring with a particular concentration.
Shepherding. Part of our elders’ shepherding work is a monthly check-in, normally by phone, with every member. On Sunday afternoon one elder sends out a breakdown of that week’s shepherding contacts. He gives a list of names, their contact info, and attendance pattern over the previous ten weeks. Thus, whenever a family has been absent for something like six weeks out of the last ten the elder is able to have that shepherding conversation with awareness. God has been very kind whenever these conversations have happened. He’s allowed our shepherding on this matter to be received for what it is—loving encouragement, not overbearing oversight.
Preaching. I’ve yet to preach a sermon on obedience to or do an exposition of Hebrews 10:24-25. I probably won’t. Rather, whenever the texts warrants it, I try to show how its truth bears on our corporate life together. I want to, through God’s word and Spirit, awaken our sense to the treasure of corporate worship. Instead of saying something like, “You must come to corporate worship,” we’d rather say, “Oh, do you see the power and joy found our weekly meetings? Do you see how God loves to meet with His people? Why would you want to miss out on fuel for happiness in God!” I hope our teaching stirs affections of delight more than adherence to duty.
Praying. The elders pray often for God to grant our church a degree of joy in weekly fellowship that creates palpable longing to be with God’s people. In the pastoral prayer I will sometimes pray for us to have growing eagerness to gather with the congregation. We have prayed along these lines at our monthly corporate prayer nights as well.
Discipling. We encourage small group leaders particularly to be conduits of Christlikeness in modeling and exhorting faithfulness to gathered worship.
Small Steps Still Mean You’re Moving
How then are we doing after almost twelve months of striving in these four areas? We still have so far to go. Yet, small steps are visible. At a recent elders’ meeting we talked about a member who had voiced concern over another sister in Christ who’d been gone for quite a while. And she’d taken it upon herself to reach out to this other member. We rejoiced in a small group leader who sat down with his group at the start of this year and humbly exhorted them to renewed devotion in gathering with the church each week.
We can get discouraged at the small steps or we can minster with gladness because of them. Small steps are indeed movement.
Where in your ministry do you see tangible steps in the right direction? Faithful plodding brings God glory no less than stupendous leaping.