A gracEmail subscriber asks whether his family does wrong by not attending church every Sunday night and Wednesday night, although they never miss Sunday morning worship. Both parents work full time, they are sometimes traveling, and they believe their family time together at home is as important as going to church meetings on Sunday and Wednesday evenings.
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There is no command in the Bible for Christians to assemble any given number of times weekly, or even on any particular day. From the first century onward, however, most Gentile believers in Jesus have met each Sunday in honor of Christ’s resurrection on that day and I believe that has the approval of God. Motivated by inward fervor or external circumstances, the earliest Christians sometimes met every day (Acts 2:46). When people share a common commitment to Christ and a mutual love, they want to be together!
The author of Hebrews urged Jewish believers in Jesus not to stop their practice of assembling with their fellow-Messianists (Heb. 10:25). The admonition here is literally not to be “leaving down and out” (“abandoning”) the “extra synagogue” (“assembling”). Probably these Jewish believers were meeting on the Sabbath at the synagogue with other Jews as usual, then remaining for a special time together (“extra synagogue”) with those Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah. From this passage, we learn the importance of our encouraging each other regarding our common faith and life also, in view of the atonement Jesus has accomplished and the access it has opened for us to God (Heb. 10:1-24).
If our assemblies on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights have that purpose and result, we cheat ourselves by not participating in them, and rob others of encouragement we might give them. If the assemblies do not accomplish any of that, perhaps we can be instrumental in improving them so that they do. I encourage you to sincerely ask God to give you wisdom and direction, then to search your own heart and spiritual priorities. If you see that they are set on godly goals and still conclude on particular occasions that family time is more important than time with “church family,” I cannot judge you for that and do not believe anyone else should do so either.