Writer Jessica Lea with CHURCH LEADERS penned an article asking if churches should add services during the workweek to accommodate busy weekend schedules. A clip posted on social media Monday (8/19/2024) from a sermon given by Pastor James Griffin, Crosspoint City Church (Georgia), generated substantial online discussion in response to that question.
During a 2021 sermon presented by Griffin, he said there were many factors that contributed to persons missing church, such as traveling or their children’s sports commitments, so Crosspoint City Church leaders decided to add a Thursday night service for those who were unable to make it to church on the weekends.
Interestingly, Griffin said the elders and other church leaders took into account a culture that no longer sees Sunday as a ‘sacred day’ but rather as ‘just another day.’
The CHURCH LEADERS article may be read in full HERE.
This presents a series of questions which are not so easy to answer, but one thing is certain, the more often one attends church (assuming the church is a bible-believing church), the better!
We no longer celebrate as the Jewish people with Saturday being the Sabbath. Under the New Covenant, once we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, we become the temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and we should live every day in worship to God, even as we go about our daily lives!
The other issue is whether the church tradition of meeting on Sundays is actually a ‘requirement’ of modern-day faith. I think not, but rather than even engage in that sort of discussion, let’s be thankful that many of our churches are presenting (once again) midweek services.
I’m not convinced that routinely-scheduled sporting events are good reasons to miss the gathering of the saints in worship on Sundays (see Hebrews 10:24-25), but I’m not going to attempt to invoke a personal doctrine about this either. Scripture says that we are to gather more and more as the Day of the Lord approaches – it does not specify that Sunday must be that day!
Here are the above-referenced scriptures:
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NKJV)
Your Body Is the Temple of the Holy Spirit
“…[d]o you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 (NKJV)
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”