4 Ways Missing Church Can Affect Your Spiritual Growth

Photo culled from aframnews.com

1. You will miss out on God’s primary design for your spiritual growth and well-being.

The central aspect of corporate worship is the preaching of God’s Word. The proclamation of Scriptures is God’s primary means for a disciple of Jesus to grow in spiritual maturity. When a professing Christian misses church they are missing God’s prescribed process for spiritual growth.

2. You disobey God.
Corporate worship is not optional for the Christian, according to the Bible. Hebrews 10:24-25 makes this clear:

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some…”

Author and pastor, Greg Gilbert comments on this passage , “At the very least, therefore, we have to say that, for every Christian, attendance at church gatherings is not optional. The author of Hebrews—and therefore the Holy Spirit himself—commands Christians to be present when the believers to whom he or she belongs gather.”

At my church , we reflect this biblical command in our church covenant, which states:

“We commit, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit to…continue meeting together regularly [and] work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry in this church, as we sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline and doctrines.”

God’s people ought to strive to keep God’s commands. One of his commands is meeting together regularly for corporate worship.

3. You make a statement to the world that God is not worthy of worship.

What we spend our time on shows what we truly value. If you miss church in order to sleep in or to attend a sporting activity, what does this say about the worth you ascribe to God? Replacing your church’s regularly scheduled worship time with some other activity demonstrates that God is not actually worthy of our worship; something else is. Unfortunately, this is the attitude and conduct of unbelievers, not God’s people.

4. You can’t minister to anyone.
Too often people think that corporate worship is only about getting their own spiritual needs met. And therefore if they don’t have any spiritual needs at that time then there is no reason for them to attend. The problem with this view of worship is that it’s too individualistic and self-centered. As Christians, our lives are to be spent serving, helping and encouraging others.

Missing church robs you of an opportunity to serve someone other than yourself. If you are gone on Sunday morning you can’t offer a word of encouragement to someone who needs it; you can’t welcome an unbeliever who doesn’t usually come to church; you can’t pray with a fellow member who is suffering; you can’t encourage the other members with your voice during times of corporate singing; you can’t encourage your pastor with your presence while he preaches the sermon he has labored over all week. These are just a few ways you can’t serve if you are absent on Sunday morning.