I do not know where the quote originated, but I have often heard brethren say that the church is just twenty years behind the world. In other words, when certain behaviors or attitudes are embraced by the world around us (whether it is regarding divorce, the use of alcohol, gender roles, etc.), they often make their way into the church after twenty years or so.
For those of us in churches of Christ, another variation to this statement relates to the practices, doctrines, and attitudes that become popular in the denominational world. In twenty years or so, we can expect the things we see in the religious world around us to start appearing among our brethren.
If that is the case, we need to be aware of a trend in the religious world regarding attendance at the assemblies of a local church.
In a blog post on the Church Answers website, Thom S. Rainer made the following statement:
We have also noted that in most churches, a person who attends church at least twice a month is considered an active member. In fact, many leaders in a church will attend only twice a month. In other words, they are absent half the time, but they still qualify as leaders.
In my experience, if a church member was in attendance just twice a month (unless they had regular health problems or had an extensive travel schedule), that was a major warning sign of spiritual “lukewarmness” (cf. Revelation 3:15-16). However, it has now become so common, at least among denominational churches, that members will regularly miss, so that they have lowered the standard of what is considered an “active member” to those who attend just twice a month. And according to the quote above, this is not just a tolerance of “lukewarm” members. Many times, the “leaders in a church” (however these churches would define that) only attend twice a month. In other words, this sporadic attendance is not just tolerated, it is accepted. (And to be fair to Mr. Rainer, he was critical of this shift in the blog post quoted above.)
Could churches of Christ follow this trend? Is it already happening? If so, is that a problem?
When we think about how often we should assemble, we need to consider the principle of church membership. The New Testament emphasizes the importance of each Christian being a part of a local church so we can work together, encourage one another, strengthen each other, and be held accountable.* Paul described this as being a member of a body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 4:16). In order for a body to function properly, each part has to be present and working together with every other part. When members are absent, the body is hindered from functioning as it should (or as well as it could).
The Hebrew writer issued this warning regarding our assembling together:
“And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:25).
Notice he said that some were in the habit of forsaking the assembling being done by the congregation of which they were a part. This habit of forsaking is developed as they get out of the habit of assembling regularly.**
So how often should Christians assemble with the church? As often as the church assembles.
When we “place membership” with a local church, we are making a commitment to join in the work that the church is doing in that place. This includes the assemblies of the church. If the church assembles twice on Sunday, that means we will assemble both times. If the church meets on Wednesday evenings for a midweek Bible study, we will be in attendance. If the church conducts a week-long gospel meeting, we will make plans to attend each service.
Obviously, if we are sick or traveling, we will not be able to assemble. This is not about earning a “perfect attendance” award. Instead, this is about making the local church and its assemblies a priority. This will involve arranging our schedule so that we can be in attendance and not allow worldly things – even things that are not inherently wrong (like family events and kids’ sports) – to interfere with our commitment as a member of a local church.
So how often should we assemble? When we are a member of a congregation, we should plan to assemble every time the congregation meets because of the commitment we made as a part of that local body.
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* For more on this point, see the article, Church Membership.
** For more on this point, see the article, Not Forsaking the Assembly.
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This article first appeared on Plain Bible Teaching for Today on Substack.
