When is it Okay to Miss? The Primacy of the Primary Gathering

[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.]  

Last week, 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 continue unpacking and explaining this definition.

Of Regular Corporate Gatherings

What church events must I attend? Am I in sin if I’m not present every time the doors are open? Again, not necessarily. Our definition states: The sin of non-attendance is a believer’s willful and continual absence from regular corporate gatherings in a local church.

I believe there are some churches that place attendance burdens on their people that are simply not realistic. For example, some independent fundamentalist churches require perfect attendance for weeklong “revival” services. That’s not what I have in mind here. 

There are certain gatherings at which a local church should expect regular attendance. In most churches this would be the main weekly worship gathering, often on a Sunday morning. This meeting should be prioritized because it’s the main gathering of the church (1). It’s where we use our spiritual gifts, flesh out the one another commands, celebrate the Lord’s Supper, and hear God speak to us in His Word. But the same cannot be said for the Wednesday night Bible study or the Sunday School class. I do not mean to say that these other meetings are unimportant (a church shouldn’t have them if they are), but they are not important to the same degree. 

That said, some churches may have additional meetings that do rise to a higher level of importance. For example, our church has a quarterly Members Meeting that we strongly encourage every member to attend. I would go as far to say that a member at our church should not miss these meetings unless necessity or mercy requires it. Why? Because at our church this is one of the main avenues for fulfilling the responsibilities of a church member (see chapter 2). That’s why I’ll sometimes tell our members it’s the second most important gathering at our church. 

Or consider the example of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. The elders there will often discourage prospective members from joining the church if they cannot regularly attend their weekly Sunday night prayer meetings. In their context, these meetings are crucial to the relationship-building one another ministry of the church.

But your responsibility is to be faithful to the regular corporate gatherings at your church. And if your church expects attendance at gatherings beyond the main weekly gathering you should either strive to be faithful or find a church where you can be. 

1. If your church has multiple main weekly gatherings (e.g., multiple services, multiple campuses, etc.) you may consider choosing one service time in one campus and faithfully attend that gathering as often as possible, rather than bouncing around from one meeting time/location and another. You may also find it helpful to consider a biblical critique of the multiple service model. See Jonathan Leeman, One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite and Multiservice Church Models (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020).