PK’s Corner
September
2013
Hebrews
10:24-25 And
let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
According to recent polls, regular
attendance at church consists of 1.8 times per month. Now, I don’t know about you, but I always understood regular attendance to mean being at church every time the doors were
open. Today we are seeing a mass exodus
from the church and in order to make it look less bad, we have adjusted
requirements for attendance. This is not
the way of God, nor the intention of the church.
The writer of Hebrews knew the human
condition all too well. It is too easy
to wake up on the Lord’s Day and say, “It’s too hot, I’ll go to church next
week” or “It’s too cold, maybe it will be warmer next week”. We can find excuses upon excuses for not
coming to church. But Hebrews tells us
to not accept excuses.
To stop the decline of the church in
this country, it seems that there is one thing we have not tried...
Encouragement. When was the last time
you encouraged someone to attend worship with you? When was the last time you overrode
objections so your friend could be at church?
When did your church last adjust a worship time, or prayer time so that
others could come?
The church has been called to change
lives, but unless we as the body of the church encourage people to attend and
be part of a faith community, the church is impotent and spiritual death
becomes the norm. We cannot allow this
to happen.
Here is my challenge to you for this
month; Think of 10 people who are not regular church attendees. (Regular being
at least once a week) Now take it upon
yourself to encourage those persons to come to church with you. Go out of your way to help them with rides,
or to over ride whatever their objections will be. By doing this you will be working for the
Kingdom and we can stop this exodus from the church.
God has given us a great gift that is
meant to be shared, please share it.
Amen
