September is upon us, and that means the school year begins again. I was thinking about my elementary school days which included music lessons. I used to play clarinet. Some of you might remember a children’s sermon where I brought in my instrument and struggled through Amazing Grace. I was preaching on the Parable of the Talents and how we are gifted reminding the children that if we fail to use our gifts, we lose them. Since I stopped playing my clarinet in 5th grade, I lost the ability. Ask any musician or athlete or artist what is the most important aspect of getting better and they will respond “practice”. Our lives of faith are the same way. If we get out of the habit of weekly worship, we lose aspects of our faith. Yes God still loves us, yes Jesus is still our savior, but we lose living the life God calls us to live. Jesus came that we might have life abundant, but when we do not practice the spiritual disciplines; we do not have that life. By skipping church, we weaken one of the disciplines, and that only leads to weakening of the rest of our spiritual lives. Other than shut-ins, I rarely meet people who do not attend worship on a regular basis but continue to pray with others, read the word with others, sing praises to God with others, give part of their time, talent and treasure to God’s church, and go forth making disciples. The truth is church attendance is important for a well-rounded Christian life. Missing weekly worship means we miss the opportunity to stand together as a covenant community of faith. You are a part of the covenant and you are both wanted and needed. It’s not about money; it’s not about worship attendance numbers. It is about building up the body of Christ. You cannot build your muscles without some form of exercise and you cannot build your faith muscles without the church.
Worship attendance is an important step to firm up our faith. And September is a great time to return to church. Sunday’s will be busier as Sunday school begins for all ages. The choir and bell choir will return to the sanctuary and I am looking at some other ways to enhance our worship service. The healing service will begin in October, bringing us another outreach to the community. If you have fallen away recently, if you are trying to figure out your own faith, if you are seeking a greater relationship with God, then I urge you to start this Sunday and commit yourselves to weekly worship.