Resolution: On Sundays, We Gather
By: Pastor Aaron Syvertsen
You could say I have a lifelong resolution to not treat New Year’s Resolutions the same way every year. You’ve been there, I know you have, on both the receiving end and the giving end of the question, “do you have any New Year’s resolutions this year”?
On one end of the spectrum, there are those who say resolutions mean nothing to them, January 1st is just another day, 2023 just another year. On the other end, there are those who are excited to list out their resolutions along with a five-step plan to accomplish them all, complete with goalposts and metrics for each month along the way.
Then, I imagine, there are most of us somewhere in the middle, and where I land between those two spectrum poles varies from year to year. Call them resolutions, call it a season of reflection, call it instating new rhythms, call if whatever other word that starts with the letter “r”. In general, I think resolutions can be healthy as long as they aren’t rooted in all the things we hate about ourselves, thinking if we just “get better, look better, or think better in the area of ______”, that we’ll be more lovable or likeable.
Beyond the individualistic approach, I’ve found that I’m far more interested in resolutions that are done in community with others. What are the things your family wants to instate, or your friend group, your marriage, or your church? There is more accountability and encouragement within a team, when you surround yourself with those who won’t let you think more highly of yourself than you ought to, nor let you get down on yourself more than you ought to.
That brings me to a resolution I’d like to propose for followers of Jesus Christ in 2023, to live out the conviction that On Sundays, We Gather. This isn’t about an idolization of the day Sunday, but about a commitment to the essence of the local church: a people who regularly gather to exalt God, edify one another, and evangelize the world.[1]
Of all the things we can do in 2023 to make an impact in this world, it is often not the new flashy things that make it happen, but a resolved commitment to be steadfast in the most important things. Charles Spurgeon, a pastor in 19th century England who saw his congregation grow to over 5,000 in downtown London during the rise and peak of the Enlightenment, often said that the most basic ministry of every member was the “ministry of attendance”.[2]
Ask yourselves this question, if every member of the church committed to the Sunday gathering the way you did, how healthy would that church be? We often say at Grace that the gathering on Sunday morning is not the only aspect of the Christian life, but it is the most important aspect of the Christian life. The gathering is instated by God as the primary instrument for the strengthening and awakening of faith in his people, and it is the rudder that steers the ship that is the local church. The “church” is not just a place or a building, nor is it just a people, but it is a “people gathered in a place”.
Not every member can serve the church or give to the church in the same way, but each member can commit to the ministry of attendance. Showing up doesn’t just put you in position to receive what you need through the people of God, but it puts you in position to give what you have to the people of God, most notably your physical, embodied presence to worship alongside for His Glory.
This past fall at Grace, we did a vision series entitled Future Grace which included this hopeful picture for our faith community in the next 10 years:
We are a passionate faith community on a journey together to disrupt the suburban pursuit of comfort and complacency. Rather than leading lives that are overwhelmingly busy and underwhelmingly impactful, we will raise up and deploy hundreds of people transformed by the gospel and spiritually formed in Christ for ministries of mercy and multiplication. Together we know Christ and are equipped to make Him Known in the ways we commit to Gather, Grow, Give and Go.
As seen there, our commitment to gather is not all that we do, but it is the sparkplug for all that we do. The commitment to gather is more noticeably different in the Northeast than it is in other areas of the country, where Sunday has become a second Saturday on the weekend.
Justo Gonzalez, in his book A Brief History of Sunday, writes:
Christians find themselves once again in the midst of a society that is indifferent and sometimes even hostile to their values and beliefs, and have to find ways to live those values, proclaim those beliefs, and worship their God with diminishing social support. For all but them, Sunday is just another day—a day of leisure, and football, and trips to the beach.”
Don’t get me wrong, I love leisure, and football, and trips to the beach. But when leisure, sports, or day trips replace our commitment to gather with the church, those things become our functional gods even if we would never admit it.
If the Lord grants us a long life in this world, I am fully certain that none of will lie on our deathbeds, looking back over the numerous decades of life we’ve been granted and regret committing to the corporate worship gatherings. We will, in fact, see that the commitment of that 1-2 hours a week is what God used to strengthen, empower, and inspire us to live the other 167 hours of the week in a way that created a legacy that we leave behind to be proud of and thankful for.
So as we stand at the beginning of 2023, and as we look out for what God has for us 10 years from now as a church that seeks to thrive in Bergen County where the idols of comfort and consumerism reign and where people are living overwhelmingly busy lives that are underwhelmingly impactful, we will be a people that sees the weekly gathering as protest amid a world that increasingly wants to see Sunday as just another day. Sunday will not be just another day for us.
Resolution: On Sundays, We Gather. See you there.
[1] Matt Merker, Corporate Worship
[2] Geoffrey Chang, Spurgeon as Pastor
[1] Matt Merker, Corporate Worship