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I’d like to hear from some of the wise sages here about your thoughts on church attendance.Do you believe you should be in church every time the doors are open?Do you still hold to the “forsake not the assembling” mindset of yesteryear?Do you count someone who isn’t there for every service as not faithful?Thoughts “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

I'm just an attendee. I do not know how my pastor feels about that. But in my opinion MANY pastors think that someone who is not 'in church' every time the doors are opened is 'not fully faithful' and lacking in the spirit.I also feel there is a little truth to that. With lots of exceptions LOL Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

Well, I used to be one of those that believed in being there every time the doors were open. In hindsight,I think that was a terrible mistake on my part. Shoot, one time my brother came home on leave from the service and instead of seeing him, I went to church instead because my pastor would have thought of me as “less than faithful”. I missed one of my younger sisters weddings as well because it interfered with church. Looking back, that was sheer stupidity on my part.Now that I’m retired I’m still there every time the doors are open, but I’m questioning my motives. In my heart I do not feel obligated, instead I think I’m there more out of habit or tradition. Plus, there are places I want to go and things I want to see while I’m still able to do so, and not everything can be scheduled so as not to interfere with church “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

Yes...yes it was.I do believe in weekly attendance. Using Rick Warren's concentric circles model the weekly attenders are the core members of our church. The people that show up maybe 3 weeks/month are what I would consider the committed members. Then the congregation would be people that attend regularly, but that may be monthly...but it's regular. Then you've got the crowd which I would define as the Easter, Christmas, and crisis attenders. People that would tell their friends, I go to Life Pointe, but almost NEVER actual come to LPC. From there it is the community, and that would be your city that you are still called and commissioned to minister, but don't have any association with the church. We are also putting a continually greater emphasis on small groups so that people can meet in homes and off-campus.

Your last sentence sums it up nicely,I think “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”

Against my wishes, the majority of our congregation decided to bring back Sunday evening services. I'd rather have a unified church than divided over personal preferences. So here we are. The attendance on Sunday evening is less than half of what it is on Sunday morning. When I was a younger preacher, I probably would have viewed those who didn't attend on Sunday night as slackers. Honestly, I don't give it much thought anymore. People have lives outside of the church. Ron, hearing your stories reminded me of all the things I sacrificed when I was younger because it was drilled in my head that those who didn't attend every time the doors were opened were spiritually backslidden.

I believe (and have openly taught) that there is no set frequency of church attendance in Scripture. My sincere hope is that people actually

Have said it as it should be. Yes FLRon many of us have did the same, to our later regret.My sister, a wonderful preacher's wife and now in heaven told me she said to her husband when he told her he was called to preach: Honey I am with you, I will do every thing in my power to be a good pastor's wife, but only if you tell me our children will never 'suffer' because of church nights. If they need the time to study for school in emergencies, they get it. If they want to do sports in school they can, if something happens at school and I need to be there on a church night I will go. If you can agree with that I am aboard until death. But my children will have a normal child hood. He agreed, they did and both boys did will in life and for God. Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/

So let me give you the other side of that coin. My sister and I were in church CONSTANTLY. We never missed church for a school or sporting event - ever! I'll never forget, in my senior year I was invited to an indoor track meet for the 8 best athletes in each event. Colleges would be there, and it was a huge honor just to be invited, but it was on a Sunday. For that, my dad relented and allowed me to go. The day before the event the indoor coliseum that hosted the event had a sprinkler pipe burst and the entire building flooded...event cancelled Anyway...when my sister and I were born my parents both worked in the church and felt like it was exactly what God wanted from them. My mom recently told me that almost every day she prayed, God, I'm doing what you've told me to do, but you've got to take care of my kids. Neither my sister or I ever went through a strong rebellious stage, and today we both love Jesus AND love the local church. In fact, we both work for churches.

Great responses from everyone. For sure, I do NOT feel the same way about this subject as I did as a young Christian and then young preacher.It has taken me a long time to come to grips with the idea that I am to be the church, not just attend church. I guess I always knew it, but didn’t live it like I really believed it.As Da Shiek said, it is amazing what time and experience will do to a man’s perspective. Unfortunately,there’s no way to undo what’s done. As someone once said “you can’t fix stupid”. What I can do however is try to educate others who may have this same question “Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”