How to Be Faithful to Your Church: Moving Beyond Attendance

For the last several posts, we’ve talked about why Christians need church, what Jesus designed the church to do, what our role is, how to respond when the church hurts us, and how to recognize a healthy church.

Now it’s time to turn the question around: What are you doing for your church?

That’s where this entire section of the Start at Home series has been headed. If we’re serious about changing our families, communities, and eventually our country, we can’t treat church like a place we visit for an hour on Sunday morning. We have to become functioning members of the body Christ created.

That’s what I mean by how to be faithful to your church. Faithfulness is more than attendance. It means participating, serving, encouraging, giving, praying, growing, and helping the church carry out the mission Jesus gave it.

Attendance Matters, but It’s the Beginning

Scripture tells Christians to gather together, and I don’t believe watching a sermon online from the couch is a substitute for participating in a local church. But attendance is the starting point, not the finish line.

Imagine a father who comes home every evening, sits in his chair, eats dinner, watches television, and goes to bed. Technically, he’s present, but is he really participating in the family?

The same thing can happen at church. We arrive, sit in our usual seat, sing, listen to the sermon, shake a few hands, and go home. We were there, but we can do that every Sunday for years without becoming deeply involved in the life and mission of the church.

Hebrews 10:24–25 tells us:

“And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching.”
— Hebrews 10:24–25, CSB

Gathering isn’t the entire point. We’re gathering to encourage one another and provoke one another toward love and good works. You can’t do much of that if your entire church experience consists of looking at the back of somebody’s head for an hour.

Stop Thinking Like a Consumer

We live in a consumer culture, and it’s easy to bring that mindset into church. We evaluate restaurants by their food and service and stores by their selection and price. Then we begin evaluating churches the same way: Did I like the music? Did I enjoy the sermon? Do they have programs for my children? Did somebody speak to me?

Some of those questions matter when you’re looking for a healthy church. We talked about that in the last post. But once you’ve become part of a biblical church, your primary question can’t continue to be, “What am I getting out of this?”

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul describes the church as a body. The hand doesn’t attend the body, and the eye doesn’t watch the body from across the room. Every part belongs and contributes something the rest of the body needs.

You’re not simply a customer of your church. You are part of it.

Find Something to Do

One of the simplest ways to move from attendance to faithfulness is to serve, and that doesn’t mean you have to preach, teach, sing, or become a deacon. Some of the most important ministry happens without anybody standing on a platform.

You might work with children, maintain the building, prepare food, visit someone who is sick, operate the sound system, mow grass, greet people, or simply notice the person sitting alone and go talk to them.

Peter writes:

“Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.”
— 1 Peter 4:10, CSB

God didn’t give you abilities, experiences, resources, and spiritual gifts solely for your benefit. Some of what He’s given you was intended to bless the rest of the body.

If you’re attending but aren’t serving anywhere, your next step may be as simple as asking, “Where can I help?”

Learn to Notice People

Serving isn’t always a ministry position. Sometimes faithfulness is simply paying attention to the people God puts in front of you.

I learned something about Wendy after she died that I didn’t fully appreciate while she was here. At least ten people have told me that when they first came to Hilltop, Wendy was the first person they met. They remembered her beautiful smile and how genuinely grateful she seemed that they had come to our church. Years later, they still remembered how she made them feel welcome.

That’s a pretty great testimony about my wife.

Wendy was deeply involved in our church. She led the women’s ministry, taught, helped cook for funeral dinners, and was usually willing to do whatever needed to be done. But for this group of people, one of her greatest contributions didn’t come with a title. She smiled, introduced herself, talked to them, and made sure they knew she was glad they were there.

And anyone can do that.

Wendy was almost always one of the last people out of church. It became a running joke between me, Khloe, and Maizon as we waited for her: “I wonder who she’s talking to this week.”

Looking back, I see it differently. She wasn’t just talking. She was building relationships and noticing people.

There may be someone at your church this Sunday who doesn’t know anybody, a widow who hasn’t had a meaningful conversation all week, a teenager wondering whether the adults know his name, or somebody quietly going through something difficult. You don’t need permission from a committee or an official ministry position to care about them.

Paul wrote:

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.”
— 1 Thessalonians 5:11, CSB

Sometimes the most meaningful thing you do at church won’t happen during the service. It may happen before it begins or twenty minutes after everyone else has left because you noticed someone and took the time to talk.

Years from now, they may not remember the sermon preached that morning. But they may remember that you were glad they came.

Pray for Your Church Instead of Just Criticizing It

If you’ve been part of a church very long, you can probably make a list of things you think should change. I know I can. Having an opinion isn’t necessarily wrong. Sometimes churches need to change, and faithful members should be willing to raise legitimate concerns.

But there’s a difference between wanting your church to become healthier and developing the habit of criticizing everything it does.

• Before complaining about your pastor, ask when you last prayed for him.
• Before complaining that nobody is doing something, consider whether God may be showing you the need because He wants you to help meet it.
• Before saying the church isn’t friendly enough, ask how many visitors you introduced yourself to last Sunday.

It’s much easier to identify what’s wrong than to become part of making it better. Faithful Christians recognize problems honestly while also asking God how they can be part of the solution.

Give Faithfully

We can’t talk honestly about faithfulness to the local church without talking about money. Churches have bills, pastors and ministry staff need support, buildings require maintenance, missionaries need support, ministries cost money, and people sometimes need financial assistance.

Paul wrote:

“Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.”
— 2 Corinthians 9:7, CSB

I’m not going to turn this into an argument about percentages or whether Christians are required to give exactly ten percent. The simpler question is whether we’re willing to use the financial resources God has entrusted to us to support His work.

Giving is one more way we move from consuming ministry to participating in it.

Stay Long Enough to Build Relationships

If you move from church to church every time something disappoints you, you’ll never stay anywhere long enough for people to really know you.

Sometimes leaving is appropriate. As we discussed in the post about church hurt, there are unhealthy churches, abusive situations, false teaching, and leadership problems that shouldn’t be ignored. But sometimes we leave simply because relationships became difficult.

Real Christian community requires patience. Eventually somebody will annoy, disappoint, or misunderstand you, and eventually you’ll probably do the same thing to somebody else.

That’s why Colossians 3:13 tells us to bear with and forgive one another. Faithfulness means we don’t treat Christian relationships as disposable. When possible, we work through problems, extend grace, apologize when we’re wrong, forgive when we’ve been hurt, and keep walking together.

Help Your Church Carry Out Its Mission

The church doesn’t ultimately exist for us. Jesus gave His church a mission:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…”
— Matthew 28:19, CSB

Every local church should be reaching people with the gospel and helping believers become mature disciples of Jesus. But here’s the part we sometimes miss: “the church” isn’t somebody else.

When we say our church needs to evangelize more, disciple people better, help more people in need, or reach the next generation, we’re talking about us.

It’s easy to speak of the church as though it’s the pastor, deacons, staff, or a committee somewhere. But if you’re part of the body, the church’s mission is your mission too.

What Would Happen If You Stopped Coming?

Here’s a question worth thinking about:

If you stopped attending your church tomorrow, what would be missing?

I’m not asking whether somebody would notice your empty seat.

• Would someone miss your encouragement?
• Would a ministry lose a volunteer?
• Would someone you disciple lose a mentor?
• Would a visitor lose the person who always makes them feel welcome?

If the honest answer is, “Nothing would really change,” that’s not meant to make you feel guilty. It may simply mean God has something more for you than attending.

Remember Wendy. People remember her years later because she made sure they knew she was glad they were there. Your contribution doesn’t have to be announced from the pulpit to matter.

Faithfulness Starts With the Person in the Mirror

Throughout Start at Home, we’ve been working our way outward. We started with ourselves because before we can change anything else, we have to allow God to change us. Then we moved to our families, where much of daily discipleship happens. From there, we’ve looked at the church because God never intended Christians to follow Jesus alone.

Now we’re getting ready to turn toward government and our responsibility as Christian citizens.

It’s easy to look toward Washington, Harrisburg, or our local government and complain about everything that’s wrong. Some of those criticisms may be legitimate. But before we demand that everybody else change, we should ask whether we’re being faithful with what God has already placed directly in front of us.

• Are we following Jesus?
• Are we discipling our families?
• Are we strengthening our churches?

Because changing the world doesn’t begin in Washington. It begins much closer to home.

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines at church, maybe your next step isn’t complicated. Ask:

Where can I serve? Who can I encourage? Who can I disciple? What can I do to make my church stronger?

That’s how to be faithful to your church. Not simply by attending it, but by becoming a functioning part of it.

And now that we’ve talked about our responsibility to ourselves, our families, and our churches, we’re ready to turn toward the institution Christians often expect to fix everything else:

Government.

Continue the Start at Home Journey

This post is part of Start at Home: Why Your Kitchen Table Matters More Than Washington Ever Will, a series about becoming the kind of disciple who can make a difference where God has already placed you. If you missed any of the earlier posts, you can find the entire series at:

https://www.discipleblueprint.com/startathome

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