“The Fine Print”: Showing Up

This article is part of a series written by the Rev. Barton Gingerich entitled “The Fine Print”: Common-sense Expectations for Church Membership.

Showing Up

One bugbear of bad stewardship is a failure to attend not only worship services but also various studies and ministry efforts. After all, much of catechesis (the lifelong instruction in the Christian faith) involves periods of study, and lively faith necessarily results in the fruit of good works (James 2:26). However, what does it say about a Christian if he never takes the time or energy to attend Bible studies and the like? Or that he neglects to help others in Christian service? 

Now, we need to be careful here. Some churches today can lay heavy burdens on members when it comes to participation. These congregations are often program-heavy and essentially fit into a sort of “lifestyle brand” approach to ministry that accommodates a consumerist mindset. The church provides many activities to participate in, even to the point of squeezing out other important life activities, like time spent as a family or enjoying the companionship of friends. This (frankly) dysfunctional approach is not what is had in mind here in this discussion. Instead, the problem in mind is members that don’t show up and participate at all in the life of their parish. 

While some church members have deeply demanding schedules due to family and work that are unavoidable, others simply do not make showing up to church a priority, and they can voluntarily over-schedule themselves with activities that squeeze out church attendance. Maybe the Bible isn’t important to them. Maybe they think they are sufficiently “spiritual” and wise, or maybe they think many other things can take a higher priority than church involvement. These “other things” might just be something fun like a sport or hobby, but oftentimes they go under the guise of practicality and usefulness. For example, skipping church for organized youth activities is excused because church attendance does not build up a resume for a college application. 

Pastors frequently complain and worry about member families that neglect church for the sake of travel sports, music, and the like. Why? Some laymen seem to think that the pastor’s ego has been wounded, or perhaps that priests are control freaks that want to tyrannize those under their authority. However, more often than not, neglecting church attendance and participation hints at deep spiritual problems that will yield spiritual crises, folly, worldliness, and even outright apostasy. Parents that neglect church life in favor of lesser things are worldly. They worry more about their children having fun, blending in with the habits and mores of the wider unbelieving society, and securing good college and career prospects. Christ is not their central priority, even though they will likely deny such an assessment or accusation. After all, we excel at deceiving ourselves. Nevertheless, what we invest in and sacrifice for is what matters most to us. Our conduct reveals who and what we truly worship. 

Children raised in a spotty-church-participation environment quickly learn that spiritual things aren’t that important. God really isn’t that big of a deal. Social standing, pleasant occupations, wealth, and other forms of worldly success are what really matter. Sometimes, children start to share the values and habits of their parents, chasing after the fleeting vanities of Mammon; others burn out and check out, sensing an emptiness in these worldly pursuits. Regardless, when faith takes a back seat to other matters for a family, the children rarely learn the Scriptures. God is not that important; He is not “the main thing.” Their attention and time have been directed elsewhere. As a result, they orient their lives around other things, often abandoning their Christian faith altogether. While their departure from religion may occur in high school years, the “hard break” often manifests once they head off to college or their first job. Their loves have been formed around what the world offers. Once they gain independence, they no longer have to worry about keeping up appearances to appease their parents or their religious community.

Therefore, how a family sets their religious priorities proves extremely important. The stakes are high. Christianity recognizes that there is no salvation outside of faith in Christ Jesus. Those that fall away put their souls in jeopardy of eternal damnation. Faithful pastors worry about worldly church members when they live in a way that is oblivious to this spiritual peril.

When lax members defend themselves, they default to many excuses that camouflage their spiritual problems. First, they underestimate the power of God’s Word “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16). And so they neglect not only daily Bible reading but also formal instruction at church at the pulpit and in various studies. At an extreme, this manifests in vain, laughable cliches like “I feel God’s presence and learn from Him more in the outdoors than in a church building.” Of course God reveals Himself in nature! But the salvation from sin, death, and eternal damnation is only revealed in His Holy Word, which is witnessed to and kept in His Church, the Bride and Temple of Christ, of which all believers are members and “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5). In short, worldly Christians do not comprehend their great need for God’s grace, and they despise or at least hold cheap the means by which He offers that grace. 

Second, lax Christians do not see the immense blessing of and existential need for knowing God. To know God is to love Him. It is for this that man was created. Neglect of this is sin, and it results in a deprivation of our very humanity. We come to know God by being baptized into Him, attending to Him, listening to Him, spending time with Him, and feeding on Him in faith. He comes to us in prayer, in His Holy Word, in fellowship with and service to His people, in assembled corporate worship that calls upon His holy name, and in the sacraments He established for us. When union and knowledge of God take a back seat to other things, we can be assured we suffer under the bondage of an idol, and we can also be assured that the fruit of such a life will be bad. The sinner needs to know that God will uproot such a baleful root. We can heed His warning and speedily repent, we can endure painful chastening to bring us to a better mind, or we can persevere in our stiff-necked rebellion to the point of destruction. 

That kind of ultimacy and urgency may be off-putting to the world. And yet that ultimacy and urgency is precisely what one finds in the Holy Scriptures. Those that wish to live biblically will therefore order their lives accordingly. That includes church participation.