Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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How Bad Is It to Miss Church?
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It's happened to just about everyone. You set your alarm, went to bed at a decent hour, but for whatever reason you slept in and missed church. Or you've told your boss a thousand times to give you Sundays off, but for whatever reason, he or she can't seem to remember. We all know we're called to keep the sabbath day holy, but sometimes things get in the way and prevent us from getting to our church service.
How bad is it to miss church?
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Comments (30)
Well, technically the sabbath is on Saturday and secondly... Who cares. Each person is their own church. You don't need to go to a building to be close to God and learn. If you miss church, pull out your bible, read it... And pray. It's better than being read the same passages year after year by a pastor.
At my Catholic church we have Mass every day of the week. Then there is the 5pm Saturday Mass and Sunday Mass at 7:30am, 9:30am and 11:30am.
Those dog gone Catholics make it nearly impossible to come up with a good excuse to miss church!
If it can be helped, it's bad, but not going to kill you. If you can't help missing like if sleeping in was an honest accident or you can't get out of work, I assume you have a righteous excuse.
You'll go to Hell if you miss church even once.
@devour_my_broken_soul@xanga - Agreed.
i like to think that God understands when we need to sleep. He even rested on the seventh day.
The thirty-first chapter of Exodus states that anyone found working on the sabbath is to be put to death. I'm not sure if that punishment extends to missing church, but if it's so harsh for something so small, who knows?
@Rob_of_the_Sky@xanga - Uhh------Huhhhhhh!!!!!!! LAW--
I don't know if it's bad to miss church or not. I'm at church almost every week either way. I don't think I've missed since November 29, 2009 and that was due to being in a car accident.
I'm not Christian, but I don't see why missing church should be such a bad thing. What if Sunday is your only day off (like it is for me) and you want a day when you don't want to have to be anywhere or do anything?
i love going to mass to be honest. once i truly realized what i was gaining out of it when i understood the doctrine of the Real Presence of Christ in Holy Communion, i started going everyday so that i could be united with Him! so, it's not about just going to Church/Mass/service whatever to pray to God... it's going to be connected with Him in a very real way. at the very least, "church" is designed to connect us to God in 3 different ways: through His Word (as we know the protestants believe that's the only way anyone can know anything about Him), through community, and through prayer/praise/worship etc. yes, you can pray to God alone, but we are people created not to be alone. it wasn't until God created Eve, to be in communion with Himself and Adam, that it was complete and good. so really, it's not a matter of good or bad or an issue of Heaven or Hell, on a shallow understood level... it's a matter of what you're missing out on spiritually when you miss being connected with other 'believers' and, as i believe with God Himself, physically. that idea is much deeper and more significant...
and to those who "can pray to God alone", do you? we also learn how to pray, how to do anything, really, from other people. it's simple psychology. there are definitely social aspects of faith that need to be done as/with/for/in a community.
the Bible speaks of "not forkasing the assembling of ourselves together" which of course means church. But it doesn't say that we have to be there every time the doors open. These days we mostly get to church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights with the occasional sunday night thrown in and with sometimes missing wednesday nights (like tonight). But I don't consider that forsaking. If we stopped going all together, that would be forsaking the assembling of ourselves. But as long as we make the effort and go as often as we can, then I think we're in the clear in God's eyes.
if u really like somebody, for instance, ur gf/bf, u would take all the opportunities available to meet them. so if u really love God, wont u do the same? you wont be skipping church then, would u?
Whenever I skipped a mass, I don't know but I feel down and felt that I'm obliged to apologize to God through prayer for that.
I believe church attendance is important. But I am a night person (I am writing this at 2:20 AM), so Sunday morning church doesn't work well with me. Often I try to go on Saturday night to one of two churches in town that I know of that have services on Saturday night, but I don't like those churches so well. Sometimes I don't go to those, thinking I'm going to get up and go to my church on Sunday morning, but I only succeed about half the time. The nice thing is, our church has the sermon (from previous weeks) on TV at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon, so if I miss, I can still get the sermon. But that's still not the same as BEING THERE, and experiencing it all surrounded by the people of God, and worshiping God with others through song.
My church used to have Saturday night worship, so I didn't have this problem, but in September 2007 they dropped the Saturday night service and I've struggled with all of this since then. Oh how I wish they'd bring it back!
Church is a community, not an event to attend. Going to church should be more like going to a family dinner/get-together. Together, you all partake in the same activities: praying, studying, encouraging one another in the faith, etc. Living faithfully is hard enough by ourselves; we need others to learn from. If we think this whole thing about God and Jesus is simply about "God and me" then we've been misled. It is much bigger than that.
The Sabbath is on Saturday (Friday night to Saturday night if you want to be fussy). The church changed it a few hundred years ago, not God XD
i have already heard from learning in my sunday school classes.. you should keep the sabbath day,
but i understand if you can't make it for other reasons! i rarely ever miss church. catholics are pretty
strict about mass
Not.
@soy_esteban@xanga - I totally agree. I not only miss the worship, but I miss the community, my church family, if I'm not able to attend church for some reason. It's a stopping point in my week that I need.
My study Bible has a note on Luke 4:16. The verse reads, "He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read."
Here's what the study note said:
Jesus went to the synagogue "as was his custom." Even though he was the perfect Son of God, and his local synagogue undoubtedly left much to be desired, Jesus attended services every week. His example makes our excuses for not attending church sound weak and self-serving. Make regular worship a part of your life.
I'd say that if you are wanting to sleep in on Sunday mornings, find a Saturday service to go to. That's what my family does. Priorities, man, priorities.
I used too be very sad when I missed church, but I got over it, cause I realized that Jesus loves you even if you miss church. And you can still love Jesus if you miss church.
Now, if you don't go to church then...Jesus still loves you. Ha ha ha ha
This is actually an issue I've been struggling with for about the last six weeks because my job keeps scheduling me for Sunday mornings. Complicating the matter is that I have a hearing loss, and so, there's only ONE service a week where there's an interpreter available for me. If I miss that one, there's just no point in going because I'm going to end up sitting there for an hour and a half, confused, aggravated, and getting nothing out of it.
Anyway, since subtlety didn't work, now I've put in a formal request to NEVER be scheduled for a Sunday morning again. The office manager told me that she got the request, and that it'll stay active in my file for six months, so...hopefully, the issue will be resolved for a while. If I go to work today and find myself on the schedule for this coming Sunday, though? I may have to just refuse to show up and tell my employer to find a replacement for me for that shift. Because while I don't believe God is going to smite me for missing church on Sundays when the reason is because I have to be at work, I also believe it's my responsibility to do whatever I can to make sure I'm available for church (even if that ultimately means looking for a new job). Wish me luck!
I love going to Church on Sunday morning, but the 11:00 hour is kind of a sacred cow. When I'm at college, if I tell my mom that I had to study or sleep in and missed church (even if it's just once a month) she flips out like I've commited murder. :)