Before going any further however, I want to clarify that gathering as the people of God is important in the corporate setting that happens on Sunday mornings. Also if you’re reading this and a Sunday gathering is physically the only gathering you can make due to other circumstances (illness, disability, long work shifts) then please know that this post is not to beat you down or seem legalistic.
“I’ll be there Sunday morning, possibly Sunday night, and then Wednesday night for sure. Maybe if I have time I’ll drop in on the Bible study that meets during the week.”
This is the spiritual calendar for a majority of students both high school and college. Worse yet, some adopt the mindset of their parents and only “do church” on Sunday mornings. The problem is, neither of them are right. This is because over the course of history the way church has been proceived have vastly changed, some things are for the better, some less so.
So how should believers handle their “off days” of gathering?
Simply put there shouldn’t be an off day. The importance of the church is to be a community that daily walks together in a pursuit to know God more, and enjoy Him deeper. It is the opportunity to be sancifitied. It is also the opportunity to be encouraged and have people to pray with when the difficult days come (and they will come).
The early church of Acts was the example of this. In Acts 2 this way of life is laid out in the text. The Church at that time gathered day by day to both worship in the temple and breaking bread in their homes together.
Worship:
Worship has been made out to be a lot more complex than it needs to be. Worship is simply bringing glory to God, and in its simplicity is that worship can take the form of multiple different ways. The most common form of worship thought of today is the corporate gathering on a Sunday morning, with a band or choir leading God’s people in song, yet this is not the only way believers can worship. Unless you work at a church, you probably will not have constant access to a worship center, so worship must occur in other locations and ways. This can be from jamming in your car to the latest Passion CD, to getting with other believers during the week and breaking out a few guitars to treasure Christ in song. This is because worship is not about your physical location, but the location of your mind and soul.
Breaking Bread:
In this modern day world society lives in a continuous mindset of next. The next meeting, next class, next time you need to go visit your significant other’s family. It is because of this mindset of next that a great majority of people have forgotten how to enjoy the here and now. In the time of the early church, a breaking bread, or sharing a meal together was no small occasion. These meals could last for hours, instead of some mere thirty minutes or an hour. What is important for the day to day life for a believer is to be around the people of God on a daily basis. Today this is inviting friends over for game nights, this is sitting around the fire pit exchanging s’mores and stories, most importantly this is doing all things while remembering the Creator who gives these gifts to be enjoyed by His people.
Final Thought:
Despite the mindset that gathering with other believers has to always be some detailed planned out event, gathering together is meant to be a natural and enjoyable occasion to be with other people that treasure the person of Jesus Christ. Now the only question left for you to answer becomes: Do you enjoy gathering as a people of God?
Sloan Stephenson 