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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 6, NUMBER 44, NOVEMBER 5, 2006 IS ATTENDANCE MANDATORY? This past week I had the occasion to talk to a young preacher who was just so discouraged by the shrinking attendance the congregation that he works with is experiencing on Wednesday evenings. I tried to explain to him that congregations all over this country are experiencing the same thing and attempted to give a number of reasons why. But after legitimate reasons for not attending are considered, in the vast majority of cases it boils down to we do what we really want to do. So often it is true that if a person had the same kind of attendance record at work as they do with Bible studies and other services of the Lord’s church, they would be fired, and even a union wouldn’t be able to save their job. Frankly, I believe the question itself indicates the primary cause of the problem. “Is attendance mandatory?” This question is more frequently asked as “Do I really have to come?” I have been doing this for over 30 years now, and for the life of me I still can’t figure out why a faithful child of God would ever ask such a question. Unless there is a compelling reason that prohibits attendance, where else and with whom else would or should a child of the King want to be? Allow me to state that I do believe we have a responsibility, as members of a local congregation, to attend every service that the elders of the church arrange for our spiritual edification. We have the obligation to submit ourselves to those men in such matters. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.” The elders are charged with the oversight of the local congregation. They have been given the responsibility to feed the flock – and that involves providing the necessary teaching to bring them to spiritual maturity. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, you can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. From the well known passage of Hebrews 10:23-25, we read, “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” We could spend all day trying to answer the question, “Does that passage mean I have to be at every service?” and believe me, I have spent countless hours with folks and have heard every possible interpretation of those verses that would enable them to say, “NO, I do not have to attend.” I am not even going to address those arguments in this article, because none of them, not even one, holds any water whatsoever and everyone of those arguments misses the point. My conversation with that young preacher clearly illustrates what willful absence from any assembly of the congregation of which I am a member accomplishes. It serves to discourage those who do attend. That is why the Hebrew writer said, “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works…” How does my personal, willful absence from any service that I could have attended indicate that I am thinking about anyone but myself? Having said that, even with my thoughts focused primarily on me, how does “staying home” help me get to heaven, which should be my primary goal? In what way does my staying home, when I honestly and truly could have been there, serve to “stimulate” my brothers and sisters in Christ “to love and good works”? Even as I write this I think of the tone of the voice of that young preacher as we talked on the phone. I tried to encourage him, but even as I tried to encourage, thinking back on it, I am afraid that there was a certain degree of cynicism in my response. I told him that that is the way it always is, and it pretty much doesn’t matter where you are. That is true, but I am sorry that I told him that. I even went on to tell him that people are going to do just what they want to do. That is true too, but wouldn’t it be great if what people most wanted to do was to serve the Lord with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their soul? Maybe the day will come when all members of the body of Christ will order their priorities as they should. Maybe the day will come when all members of the body of Christ will embrace the truth that being a Christian is not all about me, # 1. NO, it is about my Lord Jesus Christ and my fellow human beings. Maybe the day will come when we will all incorporate the teaching of the Lord’s example, as set forth by Paul, in our lives. Philippians 2:3-8 exhorts us to the following ordering of priorities. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory: but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” I just cannot imagine asking God, “Do I HAVE to be there?” Can you?
Greg Litmer
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