Telling Members They are Sinning in Deliberately Missing Church<\/a>.<\/p>\nBob does a good job listing some of the excuses some brethren use to justify missing church assemblies. He shows that those who rely on these excuses reveal carnality and not spirituality.<\/p>\n
However, as the writer of the article, Bob has the burden of proof for showing that missing out on a church assembly is a sin. Respectfully, he seems to gloss over Hebrews 10:25-27 without really digging into the context of the passage or its original application.<\/p>\n
The Hebrews writer wasn’t just telling people something they should avoid doing but prescribing something they should be doing: it is good and helpful to assemble with the saints in weekly church assemblies, in our homes in fellowship, etc. because we should seek times to influence, exhort, and encourage one another. Not wanting to be around other saints is surely a symptom of carnality but the root problem is not resolved by hearing a command to assemble.<\/p>\n
A spiritual dedication to doing love and good works being stirred up is the solution the Hebrews writer prescribes (Hebrews 10:24). Spiritual people keep God’s commands by faith. Without constant influence, exhortation, and encouragement from my fellow saints, I’m more likely to sin and sinning deliberately brings judgment (Hebrews 10:26). I should daily seek the faces of the saints for this encouragement. If I truly focus on this, missing church services shouldn’t become a problem because I want to be around God’s people as much as I can.<\/p>\n
Again, I’m sympathetic to Bob’s point — the churches can and should certainly benefit from improving fellowship, especially when it comes to assembling for worship.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
I’m inclined to agree. I’ve always seen attendance problems as symptoms of deeper problems. A lack of attendance or spotty attendance is typically the first sign that a member is moving back into the world. Thus, realizing that sin is involved somewhere in a Christian’s life who is not attending faithfully, it behooves the church to do something to rescue that member from the world.<\/p>\n
I know Bob’s article does mention this lightly. You or I might have put more emphasis on the underlying sin if we wrote a similar article. However, I think the points Bob makes are still worth considering. After all, it is likely that the reason the Corinthian church tolerated the fornicator in their midst was a desire not to drive someone away (I Corinthians 5:1-2). Many churches see members slip into spotty attendance but do nothing to find out why they are losing a member to the world, and thus sin is left unrebuked often in fear of driving the person further away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Brother, I was edified by what I read in this article:\u00a0Telling Members They are Sinning in Deliberately Missing Church. Bob does a good job listing some of the excuses some brethren use to justify missing church assemblies. He shows that those who rely on these excuses reveal carnality and not spirituality. However, as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[356],"class_list":["post-18352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-attendance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/telling-members-they-are-sinning-in-deliberately-missing-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":0},"title":"Telling Members They Are Sinning in Deliberately Missing Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"By Bob W. Lovelace Question: If you gathered together a list of excuses as to why members of a local church will \"neglect\" their collective duty to attend and participate in both the worship and works of the local church what would it include? From all over members who strive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/goneFishing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1403,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-command-to-forsake-not-the-assembling-of-ourselves-together-apply-only-to-sunday-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":1},"title":"Does the command to “forsake not the assembling of ourselves together” apply only to Sunday worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In our Bible study at church, the statement was made that if elders schedule a meeting, then it would be a sin for one to 'forsake the assembly\" if one could have attended. I feel that a person should attend, for it is a benefit to study and learn\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24594,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/parallel-worship-childrens-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":2},"title":"Parallel Worship (Children’s Church)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Berard Some elderships with announced good intentions have introduced the practice of excusing children and a few members from their congregation's Sunday evening worship services for a special program called \"children's church.\" While the remainder of the church engages in a worship assembly wherein are conducted the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Childrens-Church-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2071,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-handle-problems-with-attending-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":3},"title":"How do you handle problems with attending services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'd like to know what your thoughts are regarding a problem we are having here that seems to be increasing.\u00a0We have\u00a0some brethren that have an\u00a0attendance problem.\u00a0 One of our lady members has been attending less and less.\u00a0 It troubles me that the\u00a0brethren\u00a0here don't seem to want to take action.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24592,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-doesnt-seem-that-hebrews-1025-is-the-right-verse-to-explain-why-childrens-church-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":4},"title":"It doesn’t seem that Hebrews 10:25 is the right verse to explain why children’s church is wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello.\u00a0 I'm responding to the article \"Parallel Worship\" by Bob Berard.\u00a0 I have my own misgivings about children's church and junior church, which is why I began searching for articles.\u00a0 However, Berard immediately puts himself on the wrong footing by claiming that such groupings for kids \"violate the injunction\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84967,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-better-understanding-of-hebrews-1025\/","url_meta":{"origin":18352,"position":5},"title":"A Better Understanding of Hebrews 10:25","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson For a Bible passage to have the maximum impact, we must see how it connects with the Big Picture. The Scriptures speak of \"not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some\" (Hebrews 10:25). How does this relate to God's Grand Plan? Two verses before,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}