Should We Attend Sunday Morning Services?

8/6/1998

A recent question from a family that knows that Jesus is a PERSON, and the church is an ORGANISM that must not be defined by Sunday morning ceremonies, as most are. (If the “services” didn’t exist, would the “church” flourish in Relationship and Life and Love, organically “from house to house,” family to family, neighborhood to neighborhood, workplace to workplace... or would the “church” flounder with no “services” or “programs” or “hierarchy” to hold it together? If it would be disjointed and weaken, and many folks would disappear—it is an organization, not an organism.) Yet the question arises, when we find special folks...

Isn’t there profit in me/us continuing to build relationships with saints at some particular especially good organized religious assembly, even to the extent of participating in their Sunday meetings, perhaps even with some regularity?

I have to ask these questions because we have had the feeling that it is wrong to participate in any organized group’s meetings. Almost as if it is in some way meritorious NOT to participate in an organized group. This can’t be true, can it? Even so, there is a question about how much to be involved.

Sure it can work to “attend” something like that at some juncture. I personally wouldn’t dream of NOT being involved on whatever level possible with folks that demonstrate Jesus to me in a way that is helpful. An operative word there, of course, is DEMONSTRATE. And this can’t be done at meetings to any meaningful extent. It will ALWAYS be something less than the pressures and reality of “mundane” life situations where REAL worship and the REAL cross can only take place. So, if you’re going to be involved with this Sunday morning thing, whether 20 miles or next door, you need to be involved with the REAL stuff. You need to be involved in 80% of living experiences with the “members” there (little league, piano lessons, sharing Christ together with co-workers and neighbors, Wal-Mart, gardening, visiting other assemblies, etc.), and 15% “meetings” (whether “prayer” meetings, with 200 or 2, or “worship/preaching/sharing” meetings—either). It doesn’t matter HOW informal or “edifying” they are, it is quite deceiving by definition to allow that to be the primary (or much beyond the 15%) place or means of interaction with these folks. Won’t work. Can’t work. You’ll get but 15% of the value that any relationship might have offered you, and vice versa. And WHY would we settle for that, unless it didn’t matter all that much to us that we never fulfill our potential for Jesus? We only give Him back what He has entrusted to us, with the banker’s interest? No WAY do I want to limit my gift to Him to THAT! Only in RELATIONSHIP can we find the Treasure. “Neither here nor there (a meeting or an appointment), but WITHIN” them!

But, you see, that is not to say that “going to the meetings” is inherently wrong at some stages of a relationship. It’s not ideal, but it might be a tool in some circumstances and in some seasons. It’s not a “Biblical” idea that an organism would “add” life experiences (“But we get together outside the meetings quite a lot!”) to a meeting that is central to, and mandatory to, the existence of this group—as opposed to the other way around. However, in some seasons there may be no other way to have enough trust built towards relationship than to intersect on their “ground”—where they feel comfortable. This is a temporary situation only, because, in time, a good-hearted person won’t want to hold on to things that are not pleasing to Jesus and you won’t need to do that any longer. If they linger or cling, they have another motive buried deep within (money, prestige, power, fear, laziness, independence, worldly priorities, something!). THOSE are the enemies of Jesus, not the symptoms themselves (the dreaded “ORGANIZED MEETINGS”!!). But do let me, with the help of “cut and paste” technology, reiterate what I said at first... I personally wouldn’t dream of NOT being involved on whatever level possible with folks that demonstrate Jesus to me in a way that is helpful. It’s just that HOW you do it will determine how much value that you, or they, will ultimately gain from the experience. It’s SO easy to fall into the ego traps and niceties of convenient forms, like the other pagan religions ALL do—shrines and religious ceremonies on the calendar—unknown to the practice of Jesus or the Christianity of the Bible. But, if they’re good folks as so many are, by all means don’t let go of the relationships! I don’t have to tell you guys, “GOOD FOLKS ARE HARD TO FIND!”

Love,