Church Attendance and the Heart

 [The following is excerpted from the book, Gather: Getting to the Heart of Going to Church, Copyright © 2021 by M. Hopson Boutot.]  

The truth is, I want to do more than convince you. I hope in these pages to engage your heart. After all, mere church attendance is not enough. It’s possible to show up every Sunday and still be far from the Lord. As Jesus said, quoting Isaiah, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). Church attendance is, first and foremost, a heart issue. As the hymnwriter Isaac Watts once wrote,

The great God values not the service of men, if the heart be not in it: The Lord sees and judges the heart; he has no regard to outward forms of worship, if there be no inward adoration, if no devout affection be employed therein. It is therefore a matter of infinite importance, to have the whole heart engaged steadfastly for God.[1]

But what does it mean to engage the heart? In his book The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life, biblical counselor Jeremy Pierre says its more than merely engaging the emotions. He writes:

Human experience is three-dimensional. The human heart responds cognitively, through rational processes based on knowledge and beliefs. It also responds affectively, through a framework of desires and emotions. It also responds volitionally, through a series of choices reflecting the willful commitments of the heart. These three aspects of the heart’s response are all a part of how people were designed to worship God.[2]

Engaging the heart is three-dimensional work. It is more than engaging the feelings. A heart engaged by Biblical truth about church attendance will think rightly about gathering, feel rightly about gathering, and choose rightly about gathering. And with this three-fold goal in mind I’ve outlined this book.

In part 1 we’ll learn to think rightly about gathering with God’s people. In chapter 1, we’ll study what the Bible teaches about sin and examine Hebrews 10:23-25 in greater detail. From that passage we’ll learn that non-attendance is (sometimes) a sin of commission. In chapter 2, we’ll respond to an initial objection: Is it right to make such a big deal about something only explicitly mentioned in one verse? Then we’ll examine a more damning aspect of the sin of non-attendance: when we neglect God’s people we may be guilty of many sins of omission. In chapter 3, we’ll consider a working definition of the sin of non-attendance.

In part 2, we’ll learn how to feel rightly about gathering with God’s people. It’s not enough to merely know the importance of church attendance. We should delight in assembling with God’s people because when we do amazing things happen. In chapter 4 we’ll learn how God shows up in the gathering of His people. In chapter 5 we’ll learn how God works in and through our attendance. In these chapters our goal is to tune our hearts to delight and treasure the goodness of gathering.

In part 3, we’ll learn to choose rightly about gathering with God’s people. In chapter 6 we’ll examine the occasions when it is appropriate to miss the gathering. Here we’ll consider a host of objections. What about when I’m sick? What about people in nursing homes? What about vacations, pandemics, and overtime? Are there any justifiable reasons to miss church? Then in chapter 7 we’ll examine church attendance against the modern phenomenon of online attendance. In chapter 8 we’ll conclude by considering when showing up is a sin. Mere attendance isn’t enough. Part of choosing rightly is choosing to attend for the right reasons and in the right way.

Most who read this book will be people who understand the good news of the Gospel, that God in Christ is reconciling to Himself all who repent and believe in the finished work of Jesus on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:19). But merely understanding that good news is not enough. We must live like it’s true. And that includes thinking, feeling, and choosing rightly about how and when we gather with God’s people. I pray this book will help us to do that better.

[1] Isaac Watts, Discourses of the Love of God and the Use and Abuse of the Passions in Religion, With a Devout Meditation Suited to Each Discourse (London: Clark & Hett, 1729), 108.

[2] Jeremy Pierre, The Dynamic Heart in Daily Life: Connecting Christ to Human Experience (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2016), 12.