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Am I just imagining things, or is there a trend among members of the Body of Christ to treat all of the church’s worship assemblies as optional anymore? If there is, it is indeed disturbing to me.
Ever since I can remember anything about “going to church,” I have been aware that a few people never come to Bible study on Sunday morning or on Wednesday evening. I have also known that many don’t regularly attend worship services on Sunday evening. There are a few who frequently miss worship on Sunday morning. Those who regularly miss classes or worship services on Sunday and/or Wednesday—or both—have always proved themselves to be among the spiritually weak in every church I have known from my youth.
It is quite discouraging, to say the least, to see brothers and sisters who know better, forsake even the Sunday morning assembly when they find something they want to do more. It is a complete mystery to me how such brethren satisfy a conscience which must condemn them. Or do they listen to it anymore?
The attitude of some of our ladies toward ladies’ Bible class is hard to figure out. I have not heard anyone rabidly opposing this class. But the utter indifference of some toward the class is a wonder to behold. When some of the “too busy” type of excuses are offered, we can almost hear the Lord repeating, “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful” (Luke 10:41–42).
Some have recently arisen within the church who are very loud in proclaiming freedom from any need to assemble with the saints. They insist that individual families can worship just as acceptably in their own homes on the Lord’s day. I think they must be making some disciples when on any given Lord’s day, it is easy to count up 100-150 able-bodied members out of 450 who are AWOL.
Hebrews 10:25 still reads like it always did—and like it will read on Judgment day. Some of us need to reread it. Can we ignore a direct command of God with impunity? If so, why can’t we ignore them all? Do some of us need to re-examine our attitudes toward our worship and study assemblies? Do some of us need to publicly repent?
[Note: I wrote this article for and it was published in the November 20, 1974, edition of Granbury Gospel, weekly bulletin of the Church of Christ, Granbury, Texas, of which I was editor.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
