“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” – Luke 9:23–24
Faithful church-goers often get frustrated with Christians who only attend services a couple of times a year, usually Christmas and Easter. I get it. When someone claims to love Jesus but neglects the very thing He died for, the church, you wonder what kind of game he or she is playing. You want to look at them sideways, you want to complain about them, you want to shake some sense into them — don’t, at least, not at first. Instead, take a long, hard look at yourself. Examine your life through the lens of the gospel of Christ and ask yourself how serious you are about living out His mission.
Of course it is not ok to only act like the church twice a year, but it’s also not ok to only act like the church once a week. Jesus was clear, painfully clear, when He said living for Him is a daily act. Being a faithful Christian means waking up every day with one question on your mind, “How do I best honor and enjoy Christ today?”
It is ok to be frustrated with Christmas and Easter only Christians, but turn that frustration first upon yourself and ask how your life points them to the glory of God. Are you strengthening your relationships with those people? Are you finding ways to pour the truth of Christ into them during the week? Are you encouraging them with Scripture and prayer? Are you modeling a life of joy that treats your church involvement as a privilege rather than an obligation? If not, let me encourage you to rethink your idea of being a faithful church-goer. Church growth has always been a grass-roots endeavor. It is driven by you, the individual Christian. If you will focus less on obligation and more on your joy in Christ and His church, people around you will see what they are missing, and maybe, just maybe they will see church attendance as something that fuels their life rather than something that drains it.
Pastor Josh