To Be Content (on Sunday) in Whatever

With all the variety in worship styles and different levels of teaching quality in modern American churches, believers are often put in situations where they wonder if they should look for another place to go to church on Sunday. Worship style and/or music choice is probably one of the biggest differences between churches that are covering the biblical bases of what church should be. Larger churches have been able to schedule two different styles of worship music by having two worship times. Smaller churches have to compromise or settle on one type. In either case, a believer may feel unfulfilled on Sunday morning.

I am going to say something that may sound contradictory to what I have said in the past. I believe attendance at a local gathering of believers is very important. Admonitions like Hebrews 10:25 and the general nature of being a "body" necessitate corporate interaction of some kind. However, the "where" is not as important as the "what." By that I mean "what" does church mean in the believer's life? If church attendance is the only thing in a person’s life to indicate she is a Christian, I think she should heed Paul’s suggestion to “examine [herself] to see if [she] is in the faith.” You have doubtless heard someone say that going to church doesn’t make one a Christian any more than going into a garage makes one a car.

What a person does Monday through Saturday is the real measure of faith. If the Bible doesn’t get opened devotionally; and the knees don’t get bent in prayer; and the mind doesn’t travel to thoughts of grace, provision, protection, etc. almost every day, doubt arises as to the authenticity of one’s faith. True Christianity is a mindset, a world-view that colors everything the believer thinks, says and does. Sunday services are a time to celebrate with like-minded others and to join in corporate events of worship, prayer and teaching (Acts 2:42) But in reality, church attendance is not the sine qua non of Christianity; lifestyle is.

Most sincere believers know those things. When a believer is not feeling fulfilled by the corporate Christian part of her life (aka church), it is wise to consider her options. Because the perfect church doesn’t exist, it is fruitless to go off on a quest to find it. The church, universal and local, is made of humans – fallible beings who will fall short of perfection in everything they do, including doing church. The biggest question to ask in an unsatisfactory church situation is whether the local body in question is doing something the Bible prohibits or not doing something the Bible commands. If the former is the case, it may be time to look elsewhere for body life. If the latter is true, the sincere believer must decide if the lack is critical or not. The follow-up question is whether the dissatisfied attender can do anything to correct the issue.

The  question can become complicated if one parent/spouse is happy in a local body, and the other is not. If the husband is the satisfied one, as he is the head of the household, acquiescing to his preference is something a submissive wife might do. If he wanted to go Unitarian Universalist or Mormon, I think a wife would have grounds for discussion if not disobedience. Otherwise, if they are dealing with the “something missing” category with most of the other boxes of church being checked adequately, I don't know that a wife should protest too much. I know this is a thorny issue in the twenty-first century, but Paul’s direction in 1 Corinthians 7 still applies. Even though the situation may not involve an unbelieving spouse, the concept of being who she is in spite of who he is may be drawn from Paul’s comments. If it's the husband who is dissatisfied, he may be justified in moving, but he must consider what a move would mean to his wife. Deference sometimes means we get less that we might if we had complete independence. 

This raises the question of whether a dissatisfied believer can do anything to introduce the worship and teaching she craves into her life. Christian radio (Internet) is a wonderful twenty-first century ministry that can fill in what’s lacking in a local situation that is otherwise biblically sound. I have it on almost constantly when I am in the car and often in my ear buds around the house. At my church, we had what they called a “prayer furnace” every Wednesday morning. We gathered around a smart phone tuned to a worship channel on the Internet (YouTube mostly), and we sat silently or sang along and frequently spoke prayers aloud when so led. I was amazed (shouldn’t have been) to see how often the “random” songs that played wove their way into the nature of the prayers we were praying.

As an aside, I want to mention that this was not the typical prayer meeting where you pray for your neighbor’s cousin’s mother-in-law’s upcoming surgery for a bunion. Genuine needs regarding material things did come up, but we mostly prayed for wisdom and guidance for the church, effectiveness in ministry to the city, and other topics like improving the quality of worship in the Sunday service. Sometimes the silence was more edifying and satisfying than any spoken prayer. I even had visions a time or two. My point is that we had times of deep worship when the Holy Spirit was evidently in the room. It was a high-point of the week.

It is sad that sometimes people are not being fulfilled in the corporate part of their Christian life. The most important thing is knowing that your life before your spouse, the kids, your co-workers, your grocer, your neighbor – you get the idea – demonstrates that you belong to Christ and want to make His life yours. “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” as Paul put it. Focus on that with all your heart and Sunday mornings may not be so much of a problem.