​Part 1 of “The Gathering People of God” series.

Do you ever look around and ask, “Where has everyone gone?”

I have. Many times.

I've been in ministry for over 30 years. I have seen firsthand how attendance and participation have diminished over those years. I remember feeling frustrated by church people who placed too many things at a higher priority than attending church. I remember too many conversations with parents who were concerned that their kids were getting worse rather than better. I remember having to find tactful ways to tell them, “Because your students are never here. You keep pulling them away for <insert extracurricular activity here> and <insert another extracurricular activity here>.”

I will never forget one Sunday after a worship service when a mom new to the church approached me with her teenage daughter in tow. She asked if I was the youth pastor. She said, “This is my daughter. She’s having sex and I need you to get her to stop.” I somehow managed to maintain the appearance of being unfazed by what the mom had just said. So, the daughter became a part of my student ministry, and I enjoyed having her participate.

Well… sometimes.

You see, the daughter was rarely there. The same mom that tasked me with fixing her was the same mom that took her camping every weekend… at least those weekends when they weren’t traveling for whatever sport was in season at the time. The mom had certain expectations, but she kept setting up barriers that hindered those expectations from being met. The bottom line is this: The mom had a list of priorities, and church participation was low on her list.

So, what are some of the factors that keep church people away from church?

The list of reasons is quite lengthy. Here are just a few:

• People have gotten way too busy. Oversaturated lifestyles have lead to deprioritized church participation. These take on the form of weekend travels, professional sporting events, kids sporting events, going into the office, working from home, and fatigue due to an overly busy week.
• There are many online options. Some have found that they like being able to treat church like take-home buffets. An assortment of easily available online church options allows Christians to choose their own worship time and sample many different worship options – all from the comfort of their favorite chair or bed.
• Church doesn’t cut it anymore. There are those who claim they no longer need the church. Disenfranchisement and diminished perception no longer offer any value to a person’s life.
• Burnout. I was reminded in a comment below that most of the work in a church seems to be done by a minimum of people. It becomes really easy for someone to be so busy doing church work that they get to the point where they can't do any more. So they just stop.
• But wait… there’s more! As if we needed yet another reason to not be at church, we can now add “pandemic,” “social distancing,” and “forced shutdowns” to the list of reasons. All of the listed reasons above (and many more that were not) have one thing in common: People that once regularly attended church have gotten out of the habit of attending church.

Once church people get out of the habit of going to church, they rarely feel much compulsion to go back to church. This is not a new problem.

You might be surprised to know that the church in its earliest days also had to deal with people finding reasons not to “go to church.” At one point, the writer of Hebrews admonished some for “skipping church.” Now, it should be pointed out that “skipping church” wasn’t his exact words. Specifically, one English translation of his exact words have him saying:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25, ESV).

Even as the writer was encouraging his readers, he warned them not to be like some who had gotten into the habit of not meeting with the body of believers. Interestingly enough, the New Testament word that we translate as “church” is a Greek word that seems to be better translated as “the gathering.” I would even suggest that it would be better to understand the idea of the “the church” as not so much being the “people of God” but rather the “gathered people of God.”

There is a distinction.

The people of God can still be the people of God even if they are scattered and dispersed. However, the gathered people of God carries with it the idea of the people of God being together.

So what?

I’m glad you asked. It should stand to reason that if a group of people was to be known as “the gathering,” then those people would make it a practice to actually gather. To the Hebrews writer, it seems that “neglecting to meet” carried with it the same weight as if he were referring to a soldier who deserted or abandoned his military duties. Essentially, the writer is directing his readers not to be like those who abandoned their brothers and sisters. Instead, they should make it a priority to meet regularly with one another, encouraging and exhorting each other as they looked forward to “the Day.”

But, what if…?

What if we could convince the people of God to stop looking at “going to church” as “going to church?” What if we could get the people of God to look at “going to church” as “gathering with others to accomplish the purposes of God?”

I am about to begin a series of articles with the hopes of doing just that. The articles will focus on “The Gathering People of God.” In this series, I hope to compel church people to see that they are participants in a much bigger story – a story that is still being written. Moreover, we are all actors in that story. As actors, we have the responsibility of acting, and acting requires participation.

Join the Discussion
With all of the above in mind, I am interested to know:

• Have you seen a decline in church attendance?
• What are the factors that you see contributing to those declines?
• What can the church do to get its people more engaged?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section, and be sure to check in next week for the second part of “The Gathering People of God” series, where we will see that “God is the Focus.”