This is the second post in a series that I’m writing on “A Case for Corporate Worship.” If you missed the previous post, click here.

If you’re wondering why Sunday mornings should matter to you, you’re asking the wrong question. The proper question is: “Do they matter to God?” In other words, does the Lord command us to gather with His people weekly for worship? There are those today who would say you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian. While I agree with that statement, in principle, it misses the point of corporate worship. We don’t go to church to be saved, we gather with God’s people to worship Him because we are saved - and because the Lord who saves us has commanded us to.

Some may call me legalistic for my stance on this subject and for some of the things I am about to say, but I will not apologize for endorsing what God has commanded. Neither do I accept the premise that it’s “legalistic” to say we ought to obey the Lord. For more on that, check out this podcast episode I did.

The most commonly cited passage that supports the idea that God commands us to gather for worship is Hebrews 10:24-25 which reads: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

We also see clearly in the New Testament that the Church gathered weekly on the first day of the week and called it “The Lord’s Day” (Acts 20:7; Revelation 1:10). Not to mention that the Church, since the Day of Pentecost, has had a regular pattern of meeting together (Acts 2:42-47).

Can you worship God anywhere? Of course we can. And God has set aside one day every week on which we are to gather with His people for worship, prayer, the public reading and preaching of His Word, fellowship, and mutual edification.

Some will object and say, “I can worship God wherever and however I want! I don’t need the Church.” While you may worship God wherever, you may not worship Him however you want. God told the people of Israel at Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 12:32 - “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.” You and I don’t get to decide what obedience to God, or worship of God, looks like. We must worship and obey Him the way He has instructed us. I’ll deal with this point more in a future post in this series.

What’s more, when God saved you, He immediately made you part of His people. Your faith is not a private one. You have been adopted into the family of God and are to gather with other members of His family to worship Him regularly.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
2 Peter 2:9-10

This is not about a church building, this is about the God’s Redeemed people gathering to worship Him on the Lord’s Day. Corporate worship does matter to God because He has Redeemed His people that we might worship Him. Psalm 131 says “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” That’s a specific reference to God’s people united in worship to Him. It matters to God.

Not only does it matter to God, it’s all for and about God. “Going to church” as we commonly call it, is not about you getting what you need for the week ahead; it is about the Lord. He is the reason for and object of our worship and our public worship services. And that is the point we will discuss in the next post.

Will you gather with the Church this Sunday?

I know, I know: I’m a pastor and have an obvious bias for asking that question and telling people why it’s important to gather on Sunday mornings. I’m also not going to be the most articulate or convincing voice out there arguing for the importance of corporate worship.

But I have a fire inside of me for this issue that doesn’t seem to be going away and one of the things I love to do most is write. So, whether or not anyone reads this or is convinced by it, I’m going to be writing a series of blog posts on the importance of gathering on Sundays at your local church to worship with God’s people.

If nothing else, this series of blogs is going to help me as I am currently working on making Sunday morning worship services at MissionWay more biblical, intentional, and glorifying to the Lord. If you’re a member of MissionWay, and you’re reading this, consider this series a way for you to look behind the curtain on why we do what we do on Sunday mornings and what the biblical principles are behind some of the small changes you may be seeing over the coming months.

Don’t panic, nothing major will be changing, but I have been personally convicted to be more intentional with service planning each week because I believe the Lord is worthy of more than simply scheduling four songs and a sermon each week. I believe He is deserving of us choosing songs beyond just simply making sure they are biblically correct and we haven’t sung them too many weeks in a row. I know He is far too glorious for us to go through the motions in planning and participating in these services.

So it’s time for us to examine what corporate worship is, why we do it, how we should prepare for it (whether we’re on the platform or not), and what the biblical elements of it are. Those are the kinds of questions I’ll be exploring in a series of blog posts over the next few weeks, and even months.

Here’s an important question you may be asking: Why should you spend your time reading these posts? Why should this conversation matter to you?

Because Sunday mornings are not actually about you at all. They are about the Lord and His people gathering to worship Him. It is The Lord’s Day, after all.

If you’re wondering why Sunday mornings should matter to you, you’re asking the wrong question. The proper question is: “Do they matter to God?” That will be the first question I explore in the next blog post. Because if they matter to God, what other reason could we possibly need to prioritize them?! I hope you’ll join me on this journey. More than that, I pray these posts would reignite in all of us a passion to gather with God’s people week in and week out to glorify His Name and then be sent out on mission to make disciples until the next time we gather.

My social media feeds have been full of Easter family photos since yesterday. Pastors I know have been posting about all the Lord did in their church services and I have been rejoicing with them at the lives changed and Gospel seeds planted.

As a pastor, I can tell you that we look forward to Easter Sunday.
We look forward most of all to celebrating the empty tomb and worshipping the Risen Savior with God’s people.
We look forward to being a part of the worship service that we, our staff, and volunteers have spent so much time planning and preparing for and we pray it makes much of Jesus while making the Gospel crystal clear.
We look forward to seeing all the guests, family members, and friends that will visit.
We look forward to seeing faces we haven’t seen since last year.

What I have heard many pastors say is that we do not look forward to the day (or even the week) after Easter. For many of us, seeing a full church service makes our hearts full because we want as many people as possible to hear the message of Jesus. We rejoice not only in our local church being full, but in the countless churches across the country who experienced the same thing! Then we wake up Monday morning to the reality that more than likely, this coming Sunday we will see “normal” church attendance again.

In the past, I have internally (and maybe a little bit out loud as well) been frustrated with the many who only choose to attend church on Christmas and Easter (sometimes referred to as CEO Christians). However, this year I was personally convicted about that grumbling spirit. Not because I think it’s okay for a Christian to only gather with God’s people for worship twice per year, but because I found that I was more willing to complain about them than I was to pray for and continue seeking to minister to them beyond Easter Sunday.

What if we didn’t view Easter as simply a Sunday where we see a spike in attendance, but an opportunity to identify those we should be seeking to reach? If someone was willing to come to church on Easter, doesn’t that mean that there’s at least somewhat of an opening to share the Gospel? How many of us follow up with the people we invited to Easter? How many of us see Easter, not as our “one chance” to get them in church for them to hear the Gospel, but as a day where the Lord blesses us with a chance to “cast the net of the Gospel” wide? A day where we can be on the lookout for those we need to be more intentional with in the coming days? What if our focus was not on how far our attendance will drop this Sunday and was instead on how many people gave us an invitation to continue praying for them and sharing the Gospel with them?

I hope my ‘Monday morning after Easter’ ramblings are not only making sense, but challenging you as they have done to me. Who did you invite to Easter Sunday? How will you continue sharing Christ with them? Who did you see at church on Easter that you haven’t seen in a while? What if you bought them lunch to see how you can come alongside them and encourage them to come back to church? How can we see Easter, not as the final fruits of our labor, but the beginning of our ministry for the rest of the year?

This is a short blog excerpt from a longer podcast episode. Watch the full podcast episode here: https://youtu.be/2K1kRV1PCho

Busyness is one of the number one things people bring up when we talk about serving at church or personal spiritual disciplines. When you ask someone how they are doing, one of the most common answers is, “I’m busy.” I hear it all the time, and it’s often the answer I give myself. We almost view busyness as a measure of success. If I have a lot to do, it means I have responsibility, I’m productive, maybe even successful. It can feel like a badge of honor. But if we’re honest, most people don’t really want to be busy—they wish they were better at prioritizing their life.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had multiple conversations about this. Especially with Christian men, balancing a relationship with Christ, family, job, and church responsibilities can feel impossible. We know the order of priorities: first, a follower of Christ; second, husband; third, father; fourth, pastor. But knowing the priorities and living them out in your calendar are two very different things.

We’ve all had seasons of being overwhelmed. No matter your life situation, there are times when you feel, “There’s too much going on. I am too busy. I am overwhelmed.” And that’s okay. There’s no need to feel guilty. But here’s something I’ve heard years ago that has stuck with me: if you’ve been overwhelmingly busy for more than a few months, it’s probably not a season. It’s a lifestyle. If that’s the case, you need to address the structure of your life and make lifestyle changes, not temporary fixes.

Inevitably, when life gets busy, the most important things get pushed out. For most of us, and myself included, the first things to go are quiet time with the Lord, time in His Word, and prayer. That’s the very thing that should never be pushed aside. We must structure our lives so that the most important things come first, regardless of busyness.

There’s a popular illustration I like: imagine a glass container. If you put sand in first, then little rocks, and then try to fit big rocks, there won’t be room for the big rocks. But if you put the big rocks first—the most important things—then the sand and little rocks fill in the spaces. That’s how we need to approach our lives: big rocks first, then everything else fits around them.

This brings me to the key question I want you to ask: How do I be most faithful to what matters most right now? Not, how do I do it all, or manage this busy season, but how do I be faithful in the moment, to the priorities God has set? This question is a biblical principle, reflected in Ephesians 5:15-16: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” God’s call isn’t worldly success; it’s faithfulness.

Here’s a practical exercise I’ve learned from a mentor: write out your vocations—your callings, roles, and responsibilities—in order of priority. For me, it looks like this: Christ follower first, husband second, father third, pastor fourth. Under each vocation, write what an ideal, faithful week looks like. As a Christ follower, how much time will you spend in the Word? In prayer? In spiritual disciplines? As a husband, what does a faithful week look like? As a parent, what does it look like to be fully present with your children?

Seasons change, so these specifics may change too. But the principle stays the same: you plan intentionally. Look at your calendar before the week begins. Ask, am I setting myself up to be most faithful to what matters most? Sometimes that means saying no to things that are important or even urgent but take you away from your highest priorities. I recently had to cancel two pastor gatherings because if I attended, it would have cut into my family time. It was hard, but it was the faithful choice.

Even Jesus modeled this. Luke 5:15-16 tells us that crowds pressed in for healing, but Jesus withdrew to pray. Even the Son of God prioritized what mattered most. That’s a principle we can apply: sometimes we say no to good opportunities so we can say yes to what is best.

Our culture encourages busyness and comparison. Social media, extracurriculars, and a “do it all” mindset push us to exhaustion. But God calls us to faithfulness, not a full schedule. Measure your success by faithfulness, not tasks completed. Rest in Christ’s faithfulness, and seek to live in the overflow. Be intentional. Schedule your life. Plan with purpose. And always ask: How do I be most faithful to what matters most right now?

Far too often, church feels like a place where we pass by familiar faces on a regular basis and less like a family. I’ve talked to countless people who say they want to find meaningful relationships at church but find themselves often frustrated by the lack thereof. We tend to think the problem is a lack of programming and small groups and very seldom ask what we are doing that is preventing us from having authentic community at our church. If we are going to foster the kind of biblical fellowship and deep relationships we say we long for, it’s going to require some shifts in our mindset. Below, I will share a few of those and some steps we can take to make these changes.

Drop the Consumer Mindset

The Church is not a product to be consumed or an organization to join, it’s a people and a family to share your life with. You don’t go to church to consume a product, you go to gather and fellowship with God’s people because of the Gospel to worship Jesus Christ. You go to equip one another for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16). Don’t show up asking what your church can do for you, show up asking how God has gifted you to serve your church.

Show up early and stay late

If you’ve been around MissionWay lately you’ve likely heard me already talk about this and you’re tired of hearing me say it. But I really believe this is one of the best and yet most under utilized tools we have to foster community on Sunday mornings. At MissionWay, many people don’t arrive at the service until about 10 minutes into the service and some leave before the service is actually dismissed. Not to mention the message you’re communicating to the people who prayed and planned every aspect of the service to minister to those who would come, but you’re stifling any opportunity for meaningful connections and conversations. If you would come early and linger after the service is done with the purpose of talking with folks and having meaninful conversations, your chances at building authentic community go WAY up almost instantly. This is not the end-all-be-all, nor does it guarantee you’ll build relationships, but it’s a way too often neglected and simple tool.

Prioritize the Church gatherings and people

This seems like an obvious statement, I know, but consider an example I’ve used a couple of times recently: when my daughter joined the gymnastics team, and we were told she had practice 3 times per week, we did not sit down and assess whether we were going to make the time. We simply talked about how we were going to make the time - it wasn’t an option whether or not she would go, we just had to orchestrate our lives in a way that ensured she would go. How many of us actually do this with the church? We attend Sunday mornings as long as nothing else is happening, and when the church announces events aimed at fellowship, we check our calendars and if it’s clear, we consider signing up instead of prioritizing the church as a “big rock” in our schedules that we fit other things around.

Secondly, under this point, consider how we respond when someone from church asks us to hang out. We search our calendars high and low for a time when not much else is going on. When a family member or close friend reaches out, we cancel other things to make time. Why don’t we do this with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Of course, we can and should have friends outside of our church, but I think your local church family should be one of the primary sets of people that you prioritize time for. In a similar way that if I have the chance to hang out with you or my wife, I’ll choose my wife. If given the choice to hang out with a coworker or fellow church member, we need to choose to be with the church member.

Take initiative

This is a thread woven throughout this article, but I also want to make sure I explicitly state it: don’t wait for community to happen at your church, go out and make it happen. Don’t wait for your church to start a group or plan an event, meet people, and have them over for dinner. If you ask people why their church lacks community, you’ll typically hear something that they believe their church lacks programmatically, but seldom hear them share how they have not been as intentional as they should be. I’m not trying to lessen the church leadership’s responsibility to help foster genuine community; I’m saying that if church members are not intentional, it doesn’t matter how well programmed your church is, community will only be able to be surface-level.

Seek Biblical fellowship over superficial community

This one is really important. You can find a general sense of “community” in many places, but the idea of biblical fellowship that we find in the New Testament in places like Hebrews 10:19-25 only happens when we move past conversations about the kids and the weather. We have to strive to “stir one another to love and good works.” We have to be willing to share our struggles with trials and temptations. We have to ask how people are really doing and not settle for the simple “I’m good, just busy” response. Ask people what God is teaching them. Ask them what they need prayer for. Sit down for extended periods of time with people and really get to know them and talk about spiritual things. We have to work hard at going past superficial community because biblical fellowship doesn’t just happen, and it will require some “provoking” of one another at times.

This kind of authentic community is hard, but so worth it. It means altering your life and schedule in significant ways. But the consequence if we don’t is that we won’t move past superficial relationships in the church and will likely find ourselves jumping from church to church looking for something we’re not willing to put the work in to find.