Church Family,
One of the enjoyable, “Get to Know You” kind-of-questions that we ask the New Members during table introductions at the New Membership Class is this:
“If you had a day completely free of any commitments or responsibilities, what would you do with the day?”
It’s a fun exercise to think about how we would make use of a carefree day. Sleep in, take a walk, grab a cup of coffee with a friend, head out golfing or fishing, read a book, get in a work out, and so on, and so on.
The reality is, of course, most of us encounter very few days like that. We have to work hard to carve out time for the things that are important to us and balance our desires with all of the demands from work, family, and the things that fill up our calendars each week.
On Sunday morning we talked about the way that the Sunday morning gathering of Christ-followers figures into our calendar gymnastics. We launched a new Sermon Series entitled “More Than Sunday” by first examining the Sunday morning gathering of Christians and the importance of the worship gathering to New Testament Christians. If you missed the sermon on Sunday, I really hope you will listen to it here as it is specifically designed for folks like you who love Jesus and who are not always able to physically participate in Sunday morning worship.
Over the coming weeks we will discover in this sermon series what the New Testament has to say about living as people of the resurrection 7 days a week. We know that the life of Christian discipleship is about so much more than attending a worship service on Sunday morning. And yet, we cannot lean into the other six days until we have come to believe some things about the importance of Sunday to our lives of discipleship.
I hope that you (or you and your family) will take me up on the invitation to have a conversation this week about your priorities in 2018 and how worship participation figures into the mix. Because most of us don’t enter a week with a blank calendar and most of us don’t finish Saturday night feeling completely refreshed and rested, we are going to have to make some decisions and commitments regarding Sunday morning. Just as you have made a decision about honoring your marriage vows, have made a decision about being a follower of Jesus, and have made a decision about the importance of prayer in your life, you will need to make a decision about Sunday mornings.
My prayer is that you (or you and your family) will set a number that is both ambitious and reasonable for you to participate in the weekly gathering of the Christian community and then chase that number hard as you protect the time in your calendars, choose worship over other options, and embed yourselves in the community of resurrection people.
Grateful to have the opportunity to a part of a Christian Community alongside you,
Chris Griggs
