While on our somewhat delayed honeymoon, my husband and I attended a Friday evening service at Faith Life Church in Branson, MO. They have acquired the concert hall built by Johnny Cash, in which he never sang. It sat empty for about 10 years before it became their sanctuary. One of the many friendly people there chatted with us for quite a while, and Karl asked how Covid had affected the attendance. I forget the numbers, but it was a difference of hundreds and hundreds of people.
We all found out when churches were shut down how comfortable it is to stay in our pyjamas and watch an online service. Many people have decided to stick with that pattern, believing that they can be fed at home without the bother of getting dressed and going out to be physically in a church service.
But what about all the "one another" instructions in the epistles: love one another, bear one another's burdens, be devoted to one another in brotherly love, bear with one another, forgive one another, be kind and tender-hearted to one another, encourage and build one another up, etc.? Those are hard to follow if we are not in contact with "one another".
And there is this clear instruction in Hebrew 10:24-25: "...let's consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds, not abandoning our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near."
My father was a pastor in the Morden Bergthaler Mennonite Church all the years I was growing up. He told this story: A minister went to visit a church member who had been absent from church for some time. The man explained that he was fine, he didn't need the church, he and the Lord were doing okay. There was a fire burning in the man's fireplace. The minister got up from his chair and used a poker to move one burning ember away from all the others. The two of them sat in silence and watched as that lone ember stopped glowing, cooled off and turned black while the rest of the fire kept burning brightly and cheerfully. Neither of them said anything, but the man was back in church the next Sunday. We do need our fellow believers to love us, encourage us, exhort us...to help us keep on burning.
However, we also need to meet in order to be the givers of a prayer, of encouragement, of love and comfort and exhortation. Go with the intention of being a blessing to as many people as you can. Even a warm smile and a "So glad to see you!" can lift the spirit of some flagging, struggling soul.
There are many reasons people no longer show up in church; laziness, unforgiveness, dissatisfaction with all kinds of things, fear of viruses, even for a while government restrictions. Let's not let anything keep us from gathering to give and receive the blessing of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
