This Sunday at Church I want to encourage you to do the following: Pray for those who attend church would have the right motivation with going to church.
My church is a small church. Over the years people have left saying its too small. I think there’s times when people might leave a church for legitimate reasons; but there can be at times the infatuation of size and numbers that can be carnal. I personally don’t know if I can ever be a pastor of a big church; there can be people with reasons for going to church that is harder for me to detect (for the purpose of shepherding and guiding members).
I think its important to teach what’s important about church. I also think sometimes its important to pray for others and also for all at church to have the right reasons to go to church. Since God changes people’s hearts that should motivate us to pray.
Pray for our motivation to be purified. Pray also for those who are no longer interested in church to be spiritually awakened; sometimes some might even need to be saved, with the lack of spiritual interests revealing they have not yet understood how precious Christ dying to save sinners is!
The Domain for Truth 
[…] This Sunday at Church: Pray for those who attend church would have the right motivation with going t… […]
[…] This Sunday at Church: Pray for those who attend church would have the right motivation with going t… […]
I pray on my way to church, that my motivation would be to serve rather than to be served. I ask God to guide my meetings that morning, to make me a listener and that my words would be few and wise…serving Him. I have seen some lovely guidance in these, not because of me but by His Grace.
Wow that’s a very helpful and humble and Spiritfilled prayer! How did your Lord’s day turned out?
Having said that, I didn’t get to church today with being unwell with extreme fatique. Tonight is going to be an early bed Ithink.
By the way God is good…it has just started raining with a thunderstorm!
Amen! We all need to examine our hearts and make sure we have the right motivations.
May those who are no longer interested in church be spiritually awakened and may those already attending do so for the right motives.
Amen this I pray. We have a couple say they plan to visit and they are nonbelievers and I pray they be saved and the Gospel be clear today
In prayer.
Thanks for your prayers once again Maw Maw
You are welcome, My Grand.
[…] This Sunday at Church: Pray for those who attend church would have the right motivation with going t… […]
Praying for everyone at your church today. There were more than a few times I attended church for the wrong reason, mostly as a perfunctory check on the weekly list. Forgot the sermon after I walked out the door. Sheesh!
Thanks for your prayers for my church that means a lot to me. How is your shift going today so far???
RE: shift
Thanks! It was a good day. Finished my regular work at noon. Then solved some difficult problems and did some audits. I actually left two hours early because I ran out of work.
How did your Sunday go?
Seems strange someone leaving a Church because it’s too small. My wife and I like the closeness of a small Church.
You know I do like the closeness of a small church; I can’t imagine being in a mega church and not knowing most of the people; but I might also be too quirky for big church lol; how was your Lord’s Day?
It was good, Jim. Hope yours was as well!
I saw this right before my church service and I added that attendees focus on the hearts of people rather than on what they are wearing.
Amen the focus is on heart rather than what one wears for status. I agree amen. How did your school work go sister???
Making progress. I have a whole lot more to do. What did you preach on today?!
Amen.
Right motives are so important. It’s difficult to compete with large churches with all the bells and whistles, but I think there is much to be gained through faithful service in a small church.
I agree there’s much to be gained in a small church; amen and amen
[…] This Sunday at Church: Pray for those who attend church would have the right motivation with going t… […]
Your excellent post gave me an idea….☺️I will ask people why they go to church and see what responses I receive. I will also ask myself !!
Hope your Lord’s Day is going well pastor Jim.
My Lord’s Day went well! God bless you Crissy
I’ve used to attend a megachurch. Smaller home groups were discouraged so in the midst of all those people, it was a lonely place; a mile wide and an inch deep. Also it became more of the pastor’s personality cult than focused on Christ.
In my opinion, megachurches are not what was intended. I’ve also been part of smaller churches that were very strong in small homes groups. This was always where I grew as a believer. There was a depth of faith and trust in each other as well as a love for the Lord and his word. So, God bless your smaller church.
As for motivation to go to church, people are hungry for truth. They want to know what the scriptures teach, not a 501c3 compliant message or the pastor’s personal perspective. People often leave because there is no truth. This is especially true with young people.
Wow so smaller home groups were discouraged? Wow did they do that to encourage focus on service and the pastor’s personality or something else? Thanks for sharing
I think it was a control issue. A common approach in these large churches is to use data links across multiple campuses so that none except the main pastor or his designee is teaching. They focus on task based outreach rather than equipping the saints. The small group approach is not in line with this philosophy. Some large churches may have small groups but even those are often tightly controlled. There is rarely any autonomy and teaching is pre-packaged from the pastoral staff. I am fine with elder oversight but groups work better with some autonomy.
Equipping people and giving them some freedom to step into their calling can be a little messy, but that’s the way people learn to trust God and mature as a believer. People really want to serve God but often don’t know how. The small groups can really help.
I personally prefer small churches but as you said we must have the right motivation to go to church. We can serve God anywhere but we must not forsake to assemble ourselves with the brethren. In these times we need to encourage each other.
Truth, 100%!
Pastor Jim, thanks for your message. May we continue to pray for other believers, whether they are in our church or not. Personally, I have experienced a smaller church years ago when I was teaching in Montana.
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Thank you for this post SlimJim ☺️. Our motivation for going to church should be to please the Lord. Thank you for this reminder that we need to encourage others in this regard!