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5 Spiritual Dangers of Skipping Church

4. You can’t minister to anyone.

Too often people think that corporate worship is only about getting their own spiritual needs met. And therefore if they don’t have any spiritual needs at that time then there is no reason for them to attend. The problem with this view of worship is that it’s too individualistic and self-centered. As Christians, our lives are to be spent serving, helping and encouraging others.

Skipping church robs you of an opportunity to serve someone other than yourself. If you are gone on Sunday morning you can’t offer a word of encouragement to someone who needs it; you can’t welcome an unbeliever who doesn’t usually come to church; you can’t pray with a fellow member who is suffering; you can’t encourage the other members with your voice during times of corporate singing; you can’t encourage your pastor with your presence while he preaches the sermon he has labored over all week. These are just a few ways you can’t serve if you are absent on Sunday morning.

5. You skip out on a foretaste of heaven.

God created us to worship him. That’s the primary reason you exist. This is why the church was redeemed and this is what God’s people will do when Jesus returns and restores our fallen world. Revelation 22:3 gives a picture of this:

“No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”

In 1988, three whales became trapped under a sheet of ice near the city of Point Barrow, Alaska. In an attempt to save the whales, rescuers dug a series of breathing holes in the ice leading back to the ocean. Two of the three whales were rescued because they were able to get the oxygen they needed and were guided in the correct direction. Similarly, Sunday morning worship is a like string of breathing holes the Lord provides for his people guiding and sustaining them until they make it to their true home in heaven.

[1] These reasons do not pertain to people who are providentially hindered. I believe there are circumstances in which it is appropriate and even necessary to miss corporate worship with your church family. Sickness, physical disablement, being out of town to take care of one’s elderly parents are just a few examples.

This article about missing church originally appeared on FTC.co.