Peter Witkowski Ecclesiology

How Skipping Church Helped My Soul

My favorite Sunday during my blog’s summer break was ironically enough the Sunday I skipped church.

In making this statement, I am not offering cover to those who have intentionally and sinfully neglected the gathering of their local church to play golf, to take in a baseball game, or to sleep in a little more. As I have written elsewhere, God’s plan for our spiritual growth, life, and vitality flows through and is facilitated by the local church. One can no more expect to grow in their faith apart from church than a tree can grow apart from its roots. Our goal should be forever and always to be in church.

But in the hours leading up to this particular Sunday, my body had gone down with a fever and its accompanying aches and pains. Despite my best efforts to kick the illness and to think positive thoughts, the illness remained entrenched and I had to surrender the pulpit and the management of the church to my fellow elders.

Such a surrender proved difficult for me because I too am tempted to find my value and worth in what I do at church. After my family left for church that Sunday, I spent the next hour or so taking an unscientific poll of my body’s abilities, trying to discern whether I had wimped out. Was I really that sick? Eventually, the thermometer would leave little doubt about that fact. But at that moment I did not conclusively know, though both my dear wife and my fellow elders had told me to “Stay home.” Still, I wanted to be at church, supposing myself to be essential to my congregation’s well-being. You can’t have church without the senior pastor who spent all week on sermon prep!

But as I watched my church’s worship service unfold via the church’s livestream, I knew my fellow elders and bride had been right. Turns out, you can have church without the senior pastor. In my absence, my fellow church members faithfully praised the Lord through song, lifted up their hearts to the Lord through prayer, and preached the good news of the gospel.

That Sunday proved to be my favorite because it reminded me afresh that the Lord (and not Peter) builds, sustains, and grows his church. I saw firsthand that the Lord cares far more for the saints of my church than I ever will and that while my church loves me it can exist without me. Though I will have moments of weakness, the Lord will never grow sick or old or dotty. As long as the Lord is at work in my church, I will have every reason to rejoice even when I am not there. To God be the glory!  

Peter Witkowski Discipleship, Ecclesiology

Praise the Lord for the Small Work of Small Days

The Lord often expands his kingdom through the ministry of small things though many western Christians tend to assume the opposite. They believe that God is best seen in megachurches and massive conferences that pull together thousands of people. And while God does work through large evangelical churches and parachurch ministries, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is just as much at work in the church of 10 as he is in the church of 10,000, as Ezra and his fellow Jewish exiles discovered thousands of years ago, when they began building the second temple.

Ezra and Small Days

Following the leadership of Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and others, the Jews of Ezra 3 set the foundation of the second temple in 536 BC bring 70 plus years of worship futility to an end. They rightfully long to celebrate and set aside a day to worship the Lord for his good gifts.

But as the worship unfolds with loud hymns and joyful praises, another dissonant sound begins to invade the service…the sound of weeping. Ezra describes the scene as follows: “But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy (Ezra 3:12).” Instead of rejoicing in the laying of the temple foundation, these old men derided this day as a day of small works…a day that could not measure up to, much less rival, the glory of Solomon’s temple, whose every corner sparkled with ornate gold designs (Zech. 4:9; Hag. 2:4). As the quirky baseball coach Yogi Berra once noted, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Though cultures have changed a lot since then, the temptation to compare—and then complain about—God’s ongoing work remains in full force. Western evangelical denominations seemingly mourn their declining numbers without end and spend countless hours coming up with baptism strategies, giving campaigns, and church-growth proposals in an effort to recapture the glory of the 1950s. Similarly, local congregations can remain fixated on past glories, complaining about the smallness of their children’s ministry, the lack of people at worship, or their trickle of baptisms. They remember when the children’s ministry was busting at the seams, when the church had to hold two services to accommodate all its members, and when the church was spitting out baptismal candidates faster than Ford made cars. That was when God worked. But this?

The Glory of Small Days

But what evangelicals miss today—and what the Jews of Ezra’s day missed—is that the work of small things advances the kingdom of God just as much as the work of large things. What the old men mourning the temple foundation did not know was that this temple would one day house the glory of the Son of God. As the Lord told Zerubbabel: “Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts… The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts.” Jesus would come to worship and teach in this temple, guiding men and women to eternal life. Though this work seemed small, it would be used by God to advance his glory in ways those men could never imagine. In other words, the small works were not to be lamented but praised for they were even more glorious than the fomer.

What was true of the temple is true of every denomination and local church today. God is still advancing his glory through the ministry of small things. As Reuben Bredenhof notes in his book, The Ministry of Small Things,” The most glorious and everlasting foundation has been laid, and that is Christ (1 Cor 3:11). If we are building on him, then we need never despair, nor discourage these small beginnings.” God can and does use the woman teaching five children in Sunday school to regenerate the hearts of lost children. God can and does use the pastor faithfully counseling two to three members a year to sanctify and grow his people. God can and does use the finances of small church budgets to sponsor missionaries around the world. The hours spent advancing the gospel in small places, in small ways, are not wasted but are being used by God to expand his kingdom. One day soon, countless men and women will be gathered around the throne of God, praising Jesus because men and women were faithful in the day of small things. Praise the Lord for the small days of ministry.

Spurgeon and the Day of Small Things

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon, who preached to thousands and shaped much of nineteenth-century evangelism through his prolific ministry output, came to saving faith through the ministry of small things. On the snowy morning of January 6, 1850, teenage Spurgeon slipped into a small Methodist church that was even smaller than usual that morning. Because the church’s pastor could not even make the service, a senior deacon had to ascend to the pulpit in the pastor’s place. The faithful old saint preached a simple and yet direct message of salvation that God used to awaken and redeem Spurgeon’s heart. The Prince of Preachers was brought into the people of God because a man was faithful on the day of small things.

Small Things Are Essential

What was true of the second-temple era and of the nineteenth century is still true of the church today. The gospel goes forward because men and women like Zerubbabel, that deacon, and countless others keep up the ministry of small things. For example, my church exists today because our finance team faithfully collects and deposits the church’s offerings and pays bills. My church can gather for worship because the deacons faithfully show up early to unlock the church, because my church’s worship team faithfully practices during the week; because the nursery team faithfully watches the children; and because men set aside time to prepare prayers, Scripture readings, and sermons that guide the worship of the church. Worship occurs in my church and in millions of other churches across the world because men and women are doing small things. The next generation of Christians will be in heaven because this generation of Christians, like every other generation of Christians before it, delighted in the ministry of small things in small days. As Bredenhof notes, “we should remind ourselves that oftentimes the little things are the big things.”

Dear saint, do not grow weary in doing good. God is advancing his kingdom through the service of small days.

Final Thoughts

While all Christians should aspire to see the universe praising the Lord and should praise the Lord for grand displays of worship, they should also recognize that God is working in the small days as much as the great days. Brothers and sisters, when you see the smallness of your denomination or church, do not complain about what you lack and lament what you once were. Rather, rejoice in the knowledge that hearts are still being changed and that lives are still being sanctified. Rejoice in the small works of the Lord that are advancing his kingdom and filling up the reservations for the marriage supper of the Lamb. And then… do the next small thing.

Peter Witkowski Ecclesiology

Church Membership and its Powerful Connection to Eternal Security

The American church’s slide towards individualism and its corresponding neglect of local church attendance hurts not only the local church; it undermines the health of the individual Christian, depriving him of the blessed gift of eternal security. In other words, the church maintains the believer’s well-being just as much as the believer maintains the church’s well-being.

The Love Connection to Assurance

In 1 John 3:14, the apostle John tells his readers that assurance of salvation—the knowledge that a Christian can joyfully embrace the return of Christ because the Christian knows that he or she has been redeemed by the blood of Christ—flows through his or her love of the saints. John writes, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.” In other words, Christians can have assurance of salvation through loving interactions with other Christians. Assurance flows through knowledge that is applied or lived out within the context of a Christian community.

The Church Connection to Assurance

Admittedly, such a conclusion is not stated explicitly as a command. John did not write, “Thou must attend church.” But the link between his command to love and local church membership proves inescapable. Those who do not attend or who do not regularly interact with their local church will lack the opportunities needed to live out their faith and to secure the assurance of salvation. Stated positively to love Christians, a Christian must spend time with others Christians. And the one place ordained by Christ in which Christians can consistently meet one another, fellowship with one another, and care for one another is the local church.

John’s argument does not imply that relationships cannot form outside the walls of the church. To love the brethren faithfully, Christians must push beyond the limits of Sunday morning services. But loving the brothers can never be anything less than worship. After all, the author of Hebrews tells Christians not to forsake meeting together because their meetings provide them with the fuel and the motivation for ministry. Worship stirs up Christians “to love and good works” (Heb 10:25). Christians come to church to glorify God through communing with God and helping others to commune with God through their congregation’s corporate prayers, preaching, singing, reading, and celebrations of the sacraments. The nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon once noted that if everyone believed that they could honor God while skipping church, then “there would be no visible Church, there would be no ordinances. That would be a very bad thing.” Moreover such togetherness – loving worship that exceeds the bounds of ethnic demographics, politics, sports, and hobbies – beautiful demonstrates the glorious of Christ to the unsaved visitor among them. To love the saints, Christians must attend church.

But loving the brothers must also be more than Sunday morning worship. John argues in 1 John 3:17–18 that love concerns itself with practical needs: “17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Christians who love one another will do more than talk, pray, and sing with each other at church. They will care for each other during the week. They will follow up with those who are sick and bring them a meal. They will watch the single mother’s kids for a night so that she can rest. And they will pay the widow’s electric bill. They will love in deed and action.

Where do Christians learn of those needs? They come across them through the normal rhythms of the local church. A single man who faithfully attends worship notices that an elderly brother has not attended for a few weeks and gives him a call—and then a ride to the next service. The couple sitting next to the single mother in Sunday school learns of her exhaustion as they talk in the minutes leading up to the start of their classes. Others pay the widow’s electric bill because they learn of the need while interacting with her during the church’s visitation program. By being part of a church, the members gain awareness of needs that provide them with opportunities to live out their faith—the very opportunities that will give them an assurance of their salvation.

Final Thoughts

Though the local church needs believers, believers need the local church to have vibrant Christian lives. In addition to stewarding and preaching the gospel, which saves, the church also facilitates the believer’s sanctification and his or her awareness of salvation. The local church provides Christians with the community that they need to live out their faith through loving their neighbors, which produces assurance. Dear Christian, if you long to have a vibrant Christian life, if you long to have assurance of salvation and no fear of death, then root your life in a local church.