On Bodies & Believers: Who Church Attendance is for & Why We Must Physically Gather

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

On Monday, I offered a definition for the sin of non-attendance. The sin of non-attendance is a believer’s willful and continual absence from regular corporate gatherings in a local church. Let’s unpack and explain this definition one line at a time.

A Believer’s Sin

The sin of non-attendance is a believer’s willful and continual absence from regular corporate gatherings in a local church. We begin with who. It is not the unbeliever that God requires to faithfully gather with the saints, but the Christian. Consider our primary text again: 

Hebrews 10:23-25—Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 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.”

Those commanded to not neglect the gathering are the same individuals commanded to hold fast to their confession of hope. This “confession of hope” is nothing less than our faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only believers (or professing believers) would claim this confession.

If you’re reading this and you claim to be a follower of Jesus, this passage is talking to you. It is you whom God requires to faithfully gather with His people. Not your agnostic neighbor or your Muslim co-worker. Of course, they’re welcome to attend if they so desire. And if they do, let’s pray they hear the Gospel and believe it. But the fact is, church attendance is primarily for the saved, not the lost. We shouldn’t be surprised when unbelievers don’t want to come to church. It’s not designed for them. What they need is not church attendance, but Christ. You need church attendance because you claim to be a Christian. And one of the ways God helps you cling to that claim is your faithful attendance. Forsaking the assembly is the sin of the Christian. 

A Physical Absence

The sin of non-attendance is a believer’s willful and continual absence from regular corporate gatherings in a local church. By absence we’re referring to your physical absence from the church. Yes, it’s 2021 and the Covid-19 pandemic has led churches large and small to incorporate some form of online worship service into their regular programming. We’ll consider the question of online church attendance in detail in chapter 7, but for now understand we’re talking strictly about physical attendance here. You’re absent if your body is not in the vicinity when God’s people gather.

If you or your church considers online attendance as equal to physical attendance, you may take issue with this narrow definition. I hope you’ll keep reading and at least consider why I believe online attendance is categorically different from physical attendance. If you still disagree when we’re done, I hope you’ll still find value in this definition, even if we disagree on this aspect of what it means to gather with God’s people.