Week 6 | Monday

Read: Hebrews 10:23-25

“I don’t need to go to church to worship God.” Have you heard that before? Have you said that before? Let’s get this out of the way: that’s a true statement. In fact, you should be worshiping God outside of a church building on a Sunday morning. However, becoming more complete requires more of us than just doing what needs to be done.

I often refer to March 13, 2020, as the day the world shut down. That was the day quarantine orders swept the nation. It was the day the church where I pastored decided to pause in-person gatherings and move to livestream-only Sunday worship services for a season. We learned a lot in the months that followed. If I had a dollar for every time I heard “pivot” and “the church has left the building,” I probably could have retired in 2021!

We learned how to stay connected when we couldn’t be together in person. We learned the power in a phone call. We learned that toilet paper is the first thing to sell out in a crisis. We learned to say “hello” and “I love you” without touching people, to be more sensitive about personal space, and how to read the top half of people’s faces. When a new normal finally started settling in, we learned the importance of understanding why we gathered in the first place.   

Few churches saw the same weekend attendance patterns in 2021 (or even 2022) that they saw in 2021. While some churchgoers didn’t return to in-person worship because of health concerns, many just stopped thinking about church. Some still thought about it, but after so many weeks of “excused absences” from church, they couldn’t remember why they went in the first place. Maybe they never really knew why, and this was the first time they realized it.

For those who returned, the tune quickly changed from “digital/physical hybrid church is the new way to worship” to “let’s get back to how it was.” Becoming more complete calls us to the middle of that pendulum swing. Digital is an excellent method, but it’s not the mission. The way things used to be is another method. It also isn’t the mission. Andy Stanley says we should “date the method and marry the mission.” Methods change. The mission is our lifelong commitment.

The mission is to make disciples. We go to church to be connected with other people on the same mission. We gather in local churches to pursue that mission with people who share our purpose, focus, and direction. If you can find that connection online, that’s awesome! If you can find it in person, that’s awesome, too!

This all begs an important question. Why do you go to church?