Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

PASTOR'S PENS 2008

Grace Church of Burlington May 18, 2008 “The great task of the church is to get sinners into heaven and saints out of bed.”             Recently, I read that when the Cleveland Browns announced that they were moving to Baltimore after 30 years in Cleveland, many of their fans were devastated. Among the many Browns fans interviewed, one man sat in his pickup truck and wept as he said, "Now me and my family will have no place to go on Sunday." That man was committed to his football team. I’m continually amazed at the high commitment of folk to things that really have little no significance, at least no eternal significance.             Many of you know that I am on our local Chocolate Festival Committee. I oversee all of the print media ads in local newspapers. I’ve been doing it enough years now so that it does not demand a lot of my time, but I am truly amazed at the high level of commitment of so many others on our committee. They voluntarily invest days and even weeks of their time to make sure that this yearly Festival is a success. The same is true with the local Rotary club of which I’m a member. There are some members who never miss a meeting. When there is a Rotary project, they always volunteer. Rotary is in charge of running the carnival at Chocolate Fest. To staff it, they didn’t ask members to volunteer...they simply signed them up. And if the time slot assigned caused a conflict, it was the member’s responsibility to make sure that it was filled. Nearly every day of the week I try to go to the Wellness Center. I am continually amazed at the many others who are there every single morning, rarely, if ever, missing. I’ve met individuals who are on some sports team and they would literally have to be gravely ill before they’d miss a game. Before we schedule our fall church activities, we check the Packer schedule because we know that there are folk who will not come to a church event if there is a Packer game on.             Okay, I’ll admit I’m green with envy. Yes, I’m jealous BUT I think that it’s a good jealousy (. Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t believe that there’s something wrong with any of these activities. They all have their place and are good in and of themselves. In fact the Apostle Paul had this to say about physical exercise, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).             What causes me great envy, amazes me and most of all, truly grieves me is how committed most people, even Christians, are to a hobby, a club or a sport – and how uncommitted they are to attending worship each week. The average Bible believing church can expect at least a third of the congregation to be missing each Sunday. Obviously, folk will sometimes miss because they are sick or have to work. What burdens me is the often haphazard attitude that is so prevalent toward worship. The writer of Hebrews addressed the same problem in his letter to Hebrew Christians. Apparently some of those Christians had gotten into a bad habit of missing the weekly public worship service. So the writer says not to forsake, abandon or leave behind the regular Sunday worship services. He then gives us a Biblical command to meet together each week (Hebrews 10:25). To miss worship services then is breaking God’s command.             When we skip out on the worship services, not only do we lose but the whole church family loses. If you want to be a good baseball player, then you have to go to practice. The same is true with worship. If you want to grow in your spiritual walk, you need to be at the “team” meeting. Let me suggest some reasons that you should be at church each week from the example of the early church.             Those 1st century believers devoted themselves to studying the teachings of Jesus. We’re to do the same today. They often shared the Lord’s supper together as a way of cementing their vertical (between individuals and God) and horizontal relationships (between one individual and another) together.             They were filled with awe and wonder in their joint worship of the Lord. Let’s never lose the wonder of His grace and the majestic splendor that is amazingly wonderful. They were together and shared things in common for one another’s benefits. Theirs was a socially inter-dependent fellowship in a holistic lifestyle. Their fellowships revolved around Bible teaching, prayer, witnessing and praise. And they continually gave thanks in fellowships that encouraged one another during times of great persecution from the local and regional governments. Thankful people are a joy to be around because they are connected closely to the source of every good thing. And public worship is a great witness to the non-Christian world, which longs for a similar sense of belonging, acceptance and tolerance for one another’s frailties.             Next week is the official start of summer. Throughout the summer many of us will be on vacation. Let’s determine to not take a vacation from worship but use this summer as an opportunity to grow more and more in His grace together.