The Ministry of Attendance
By Pastor Aaron Syvertsen
“Showing up is half the battle.”
If you google this quote or countless variations like it you’ll find it attributed to all kinds of people. So while I don’t know where it originated, the very fact that several people claim to have said it says something in itself.
Comedian John Mulaney began one of his stand-up routines by thanking his audience for, well, showing up:
Thank you for coming to this show, by the way. I really do appreciate you coming to a thing, because, you didn’t have to. And it’s really easy not to go to things. It is so much easier not to do things than to do them, that you would do anything is totally remarkable.
Perhaps this is why the great 19th century pastor Charles Spurgeon told his 5,000-member church in London that the most basic ministry every member has is the “Ministry of Attendance.”
As we think about membership at Grace Church, we affirm that God has uniquely designed and gifted us with diversity in the body of Christ so that we all will be built up in love and into spiritual maturity (Eph 4:15-16), but I think Spurgeon is right that before we carry out whichever ministry God uniquely calls us to, we first share the same ministry of attendance.
To put it more plainly, the pastor(s) of a local church and the newest member who just joined last week may have different levels of responsibility in the church, but at the foundation, those two individuals are called to show up to “a thing,” that thing being the regular weekly worship gathering.
The ministry of attendance is often overlooked, particularly when looking through the increasingly individualistic lens of the world that defines our cultural moment. So below are three reasons why the ministry of attendance is the most important ministry of the local church:
1. Attendance Glorifies God
The primary reason to attend the weekly worship gathering is to exalt the name of God, and this is an invitation rather than an obligation.
We can glorify God in all we do, even in our daily eating and drinking (1 Cor 10:31), but it is perfectly fitting to intentionally gather with the church to exalt his name together.
Just as there is no law that says close-knit families need to gather together for special occasions and holidays, but it is fitting for them to do so, so too it is gloriously fitting for the church to regularly gather to read the Word, sing the Word, pray the Word, preach the Word, and partake of the Word in the Lord’s Supper each week.
God sees us not only as individual sons and daughters, but as members of his family, and the family attends the ordinary, regular gathering as a means of grace where extraordinary transformation takes place as the gospel is proclaimed and reapplied once again.
When put in the context of the gospel of grace, which says Jesus died in our place so we don’t have to pay anything and he has risen to be our living Savior that lives within us and guides us in all truth, the mindset shifts from asking, “Do I have to attend?” to declaring, “I get to attend!”
Pastor Mike McKinley, in his book Church in Hard Places, writes this:
Christians don’t have to join a church in order to be saved, in order to be loved by God and forgiven of our sins. But it’s kind of a strange question to ask if they have to. It’s kind of like asking, “Do husbands have to live with their wives if married?” The status implies a relationship, and being a Christian implies there’s going to be a certain relationship between that Christian and a group of other Christians in the church.
2. Attendance Strengthens Others
A common phrase in churches is “every member ministry,” meaning that no one should feel under-utilized within our faith community, because carrying out the mission of God requires all hands on deck whether it’s a church of 50 or 500.
When the ministry of attendance is affirmed and practiced in each of the members, from the leadership staff to the newest man or woman who joins the church, they display that God works through our presence before our giftings.
Let’s face it: in our individualized world, the first question we ask about going to church is often, “Do I need to be there?” We do a cost-benefit analysis of attending the worship gathering on Sunday, or a small group or class during the week, and we compare it to the benefit of being present somewhere else – the beach, my couch, the golf course, a youth soccer tournament, or elsewhere. Then we decide accordingly. If I feel like I need church or group, I go, but if I don’t feel like I need it, I am free to go elsewhere.
The problem is that we often fail to ask, “Does the church need me there?” If we only feel motivated to be there on the weeks we’re scheduled to be serving in the nursery, greeting on the hospitality team, or running the sound board, we miss the fact that our presence is the foundational ministry in building up the body of Christ.
I don’t say this to feed into people’s pride or ego, but to affirm that your attendance is the most basic blessing to others. It’s simply yet powerfully encouraging to attend the gathering and see that others are attending as well. Your presence is the tangible reminder to others that we are not alone, and that after spending a week scattered apart, we collectively choose to gather once again to exalt Jesus Christ and strengthen one another in the faith.
You cannot be a consistent encouragement to someone you seldom see, and likewise you cannot be very encouraged by someone you seldom witness being there. Before we strengthen one another by using our gifting, we strengthen others by showing up (Heb 10:24-25).
3. Attendance Fuels You
When God saves you, he includes you in the Story that has been unfolding since he created the world. History is heading somewhere, and everyday we have the opportunity to locate ourselves in the story of what God is doing in the world.
Contrary to popular opinion, as believers our lives are not our own, but rather vessels that can be filled with God’s calling for our lives. And when we see our lives as a calling, the ministry of attendance is the fuel God uses to keep the engine running.
You won’t always be able to attend. There will be times when you will be sick and it’s better to stay home, and there could be times when showing up is not possible because of persecution or something comes out of nowhere, like a global pandemic.
But the posture of our hearts is always geared towards attendance. When we are truly living out our callings, pouring ourselves out for the glory of the gospel and to shine the light of Christ in the places and to the people God calls us to each and every day, the gathering of the church becomes an oasis of fresh water in the middle of a desert each week that we thirst for.
Yes, believers will have weeks and even months where they’ll wake up and not want to attend for a variety of reasons. We don’t need to feel shame when we have to fend off the feelings of not wanting to be present with the church, but we also understand that our surface-level feelings don’t always dictate what we do or don’t do. When our heart-level desire is to glorify God in all we do, we choose to attend despite not feeling like it at the surface-level because our daily and weekly rhythms shape and train our hearts toward seeking out the greater good of the kingdom of God and our place in it.
With much of life, I tend to agree with John Mulaney’s comments upon greeting the crowd at his comedy show, it often is easier to not do things than it is to do them in the world.
But when citizens of heaven look at things through the lens of God’s kingdom, we see that Jesus “showed up.”
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-7
Through the lens of the gospel, and with the same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave and dwells within us, it is better and dare I say even easier in the long run for us to carry out our Ministry of Attendance for God’s glory, the good of others, and our joy. See you there.