TO ASSEMBLE OR NOT TO ASSEMBLE
Recently, there has been a Facebook discussion on whether it is a command to assemble as a church. The discussion began with an article that said, “Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to assemble.” The article was brief, but I sent back the following “Here is what I understood your article to say, whether we assemble as a church or do not assemble as a church, it does not matter to God one way or another.” The writer responded by saying, “That is correct.” So, based on this person’s article, it does not matter to God if we do or do not assemble for worship. It appeared to me that this persons’ reasoning about the church assembly, was something propagated by preachers to enhance their value and require people to come and hear them preach. In other words, church attendance is a command of preachers and not God.
When this guy responded and said, “That is correct” you could almost envision this huge “Cloud of guilt lifted from those who are weak in attendance. Finally, someone has expressed what I believe; it isn’t necessary to attend the worship on Sunday. That is what I thought all along, but these preachers keep hounding us about attendance.” You may be thinking, “What is wrong with this guy, everybody knows we should attend worship.” Hold on Johnny, fifty to sixty percent of members of the church do not believe the Bible teaches that a Christian should assemble for all the services of the church. Look at the attendance figures in your church bulletin. Here is the evidence of such:
Sunday night and Wednesday night attendance is generally 50%-60% less than Sunday morning. On any given Sunday there will be a percentage of the members who are doing other things rather than assembling with the saints. So what does the Bible say about assembling? Can any passage be more clear than, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). Or what about this passage, “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7). How would this brother deal with this passage? “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come” (1 Cor. 16:-12). Would you assume that, without an assembly, the elders would go from house to house on the Lord’s Day and let people contribute?
From the comments this brother made I have assume a couple of things. One, he has too much time on his hands to think; or two he just doesn’t want to assemble.
Larry