NEXT STEPS: AttendSample

WHY DOES THIS MATTER? [Illustrations included in this devotional are not visible in this view. Illustrations are only supported in the Bible App for iOS, Android, and at Bible.com] "I don't need to be at church every week to have a relationship with Jesus." "Not being in church every week negatively affects my church? That's a really religious thing to say - what matters is my heart." "I would be at church every week, but my kid has soccer/archery/astronaut lessons." These are the phrases we tend to use when talking about attending church. In fact, there's a good chance that if you grew up in church or have been in church for years that you got offended reading those sentences above being used in the way they were. The truth of the matter is, when you first come to Jesus broken, humbled, and struggling, church is everything to you. Being in God's Presence and being with others who recognize their need just as much as you do was your rock and foundation. Maybe you even felt like you couldn't be in church enough. And at some point, we either got affluent enough or we got our life together enough that we forgot those days. Maybe we forgot who we used to be. But above all, we forgot just what God saved us from - ourselves and our sin. So in this Bible plan, our goal is to bring us back and remind us that the early church was in the daily (not weekly) habit of getting together. We want to present a reminder that there's power in a group of people getting together every week to build God's Kingdom. We want to stress the importance of attending church in your walk with Christ: not to be dogmatic and religious about it, but to be honest and look at what the writers of the Bible had to say about meeting together and telling others about Christ. So take a moment and commit to finishing this short plan, even though you might at first be tempted to be offended or defend yourself and your once-a-month attendance record. You never know, God could show you something that completely changes your life.