{"id":8345,"date":"2020-08-11T15:54:57","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T15:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8345"},"modified":"2026-02-20T19:22:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T19:22:50","slug":"thoughts-on-attendance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8345","title":{"rendered":"Thoughts on Attendance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 8<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note<\/strong><strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Assuredly, there is more to being faithful to God than \u201cchurch attendance.\u201d However, does faithfulness require it (to please God, to grow spiritually, to be saved)? I am not asking if the preacher and\/or elders and other members care, but does God care? Scripture gives a resounding affirmative answer. Consider the following:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>The Lord\u2019s Day assembly: <\/strong>Saints are commanded to partake of the Lord\u2019s supper to remember the death of Christ (1 Cor. 11:24). Both apostolic example (Acts 20:7) and uninspired early church history confirm that the assembled church ate the Lord\u2019s supper each first day of the week. To provide money for the work of church, the assembled church was commanded to give each first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1\u20132). These things were taught and practiced \u201ceverywhere in every church\u201d (1 Cor. 4:17). To <strong>willfully <\/strong>miss the Lord\u2019s Day assembly is to disregard these apostolic commands and examples.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Other assemblies: <\/strong>Are other meetings (e g., Sunday evening, Sunday morning Bible school, Wednesday evening, Gospel meetings, Bible lectureships, et al.) Scriptural or unscriptural? Various meetings besides those on Sunday were held with apostolic approval in the early church (Acts 2:46; 4:23; 12:12; et al.). Meetings for study, worship, and fellowship strengthen us and thus serve a Scriptural function (Heb. 5:12ff; 2 Pet. 3:18). In spite of the Scriptural precedent and practical need for these meetings, some still irresponsibly cling to the \u201cLord\u2019s Supper only\u201d attendance mentality.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>A direct command: <\/strong>The New Testament explicitly prohibits fornication, theft, murder, <strong>and <\/strong>\u201c\u2026forsaking our own assembling together\u201d (Heb. 10:25). Positively stated, this verse commands us to attend the assemblies of the church. It neither specifies nor limits these either to the Lord\u2019s Day or the Lord\u2019s Supper assemblies. To be absent is not the same as to \u201cforsake.\u201d The sick person who is thereby prevented from attending is <strong>absent<\/strong> from but isn\u2019t not <strong>forsaking<\/strong> the assembly. To forsake means to <strong>choose not to attend <\/strong>when one is able to do so. Whenever there is a gathering at which we can be taught and exhorted and at which we can praise God and His Son, Scripture obliges us to be present. Question: Why would any of God\u2019s children <strong>not want <\/strong>to be present?<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Miscellaneous principles: <\/strong>True lovers of God have always cherished worship and study opportunities (Psa. 42:1\u20134; 84:1\u20132, 10; Mat. 5:6; et al.). Can one seriously claim to \u201cseek first the kingdom\u201d (Mat. 6:33) while one carelessly forsakes its assemblies? What do you think? Does God care where you are when the saints meet?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> I wrote this article for and it was published in <em>The Lighthouse, <\/em>weekly bulletin of Northpoint Church of Christ, Denton, TX, September 24, 2006, of which I was editor.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>www.thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, proprietor, curator, and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 8[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] Assuredly, there is more to being faithful to God than \u201cchurch attendance.\u201d However, does faithfulness require it (to please God, to grow spiritually, to be saved)? I am not asking&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8345\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Thoughts on Attendance<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350,73,134,137,162,36,206,17,378,77,94,149,487,72,250,279,256,366,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attendance","category-blood-of-christ","category-cross-of","category-deity-of","category-church-historygeneral","category-faith","category-faithfulness","category-fellowship","category-finances","category-fornication","category-influence","category-lords-supper","category-murder","category-salvation","category-spiritual-maturity","category-spiritual-nourishment","category-study","category-theft","category-worship-2","wpcat-350-id","wpcat-73-id","wpcat-134-id","wpcat-137-id","wpcat-162-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-206-id","wpcat-17-id","wpcat-378-id","wpcat-77-id","wpcat-94-id","wpcat-149-id","wpcat-487-id","wpcat-72-id","wpcat-250-id","wpcat-279-id","wpcat-256-id","wpcat-366-id","wpcat-334-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8345"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24190,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8345\/revisions\/24190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}