Sunday morning is for worship only

I was talking with a friend of mine who asked me to hold him accountable for a number of things in his life, among them being church attendance.  He gave me permission to call him out when he missed on Sunday morning.

He missed this past Sunday morning.

I called him up.  "Hey man, I missed you on Sunday.  Everything okay?"

"Yeah," he said.  "I had a ton of laundry to do.  I worked all day Saturday and didn't have any time to get all my stuff done."

Hmmm.  This conversation was not moving in a good direction, because I could feel the hardcore coach in me rising up.  I've always hated excuses and justifications, in both sports AND faith.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty rough," I said.  "Sunday morning is a great time for doing stuff you could do any other time of the day.  Or week.  Or month."

"I know, I know, I was being bad," he said dismissively.

"Really?"  I said.  "Don't give me that crap.  You told me to hold you accountable on this, so I'm going to.  Let me ask you a question- how many hours are there in one week?"

He thought for a minute.  "168."

"Yep.  You get to worship God with your church family for just one of those per week.  1/168th of your week to unplug from the rat race, get alone with your church family, and worship the God who gave everything for you."

"You only have 52 of those per year, " I continued, "so this is what I need you to do."

"What?"  he said.

"I need you to adopt a 'Sunday is for worship only' mentality.  It's not a day where you wake up and decide if worship is one of many things you could possibly do that day.  I need you to start thinking of it as a sacred time- a time that is off-limits to everything else.  I need you to start thinking of it like you would a UK basketball game."

"A UK basketball game?" he asked.

"Yep.  I see you on Twitter a few days before each game posting your expectations, opinions, thoughts, etc about the Big Blue Nation.  You're bought in.  You're committed.  I would imagine that if you work the entire day before a UK basketball game and had laundry to do, you wouldn't do laundry instead of watch the game.  Why?  Because several days, maybe weeks, in advance, you decided.  You spent the days before the game preparing to watch it."

"You need to do the same thing with Sunday morning worship.  Decide in advance that Sunday morning is for worship only.  Nothing, and I mean nothing, gets in the way.  Worship is not one option among many for Sunday morning.  It is THE option.  If you are a Christian, worship with your church family should be one of the top two or three priorities in your life.  Nothing- laundry, sports, laziness, family gatherings, work around the home- gets your Sunday morning."

I realize this is revolutionary.  I mean, totally revolutionary.  I have never been challenged in my life to prioritize Sunday morning as for worship only.  I have never been challenged to prepare myself in upcoming days for Sunday morning worship.  I've never even given it a thought.

However, I'm challenging the Body of Christ to give Sunday morning over to God.  And never take it back.

I'm calling the Body of Christ, people who call themselves Christians, to unapologetically and ruthlessly guard Sunday morning.  But I'm also going to challenge you to step it up even further.

1)  Consecrate Saturday evening/night for preparation.  Pray for your pastor.  He needs it. 

2)  Also, pray for non-Christian people who are struggling.  Pray that they would find their way to your church.  Then invite them.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to be powerful at your church the next day.

3)  Confess your sins and ask for forgiveness before you leave for church.  Enter the church body as a pure and forgiven person- don't bring unconfessed sin into the church gathering.

4)  Get to church early.  Don't fly into the church parking lot on two wheels twenty minutes late.  Get to the church twenty minutes EARLY.  Spend time before the service praying over each seat- pray for the person who will be sitting there.  Pray for the words of Scripture to comfort and challenge.  Pray that the worship time would move them.  Pray for your pastors, for the volunteers, for the children that will be there.

5)  Parents, pray for your children.  Pray that they would encounter God in a real and relevant way during their time at the church gathering.

6)  Use the bathroom before church.  You have one hour of worship- don't miss any of it by having to leave in the middle.

7)  Expect the miraculous to happen.  Have we so belittled the power of God that we no longer expect miracles when we are together?  Expect that a drug-addicted person will experience freedom during that hour.  Expect that a struggling marriage will be healed during that hour.  Expect a nonbeliever to submit his or her life to Christ during that hour.  Is anything too hard for God to accomplish?

Seen through this lens, Sunday morning takes on an entirely new shape and form.  Definitely not something that you would miss so you could do a load of laundry.