The writer of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament had this admonition to the folks of his day: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the day approaching.”(Hebrews 10:24-25).

When I read this passage, I am forced to think of the phrase, “assembling of ourselves together,” as a reference to corporate worship. That means to me the very act of attending church. The author of this book in the Bible seems to think that getting together for worship, exhortation and provoking one another to love one another is an important part of what God considers the good life.

I think many people agree that attending church is a good idea. Some of these folks attend regularly, but some don’t even though they may think they should. Many of these folks when asked will say something like this: “I guess I should go to church, and I used to go, but I guess I’m just out of the habit.”

Well, if you’re one of these people I want to issue an invitation to you to participate in a national event. Sunday, Sept. 21 is National Back to Church Sunday.

More than 30,000 churches across the nation, and several right here in our neck of the woods, will be observing this special day, and inviting everyone to come back to church for this day of worship.

A lot of people also may never have been much for church going, but I think just about everyone would agree that our city, county, state and nation would be better off if more people did attend church. To those folks I want to offer this special day as an opportunity to see what you may have been missing as regards friendship, fellowship, purpose in life, and the chance to belong to something bigger and more important than yourself.

The church also offers the most important opportunity you can receive for this life and the next, a chance to receive the love of God and His gift of salvation. Also there are many people in our community who attend church regularly but seem to want to keep a good thing to themselves. This Back to Church

Sunday is an ideal time to reach out to others and invite them to come back to church as your guest. Studies show that many people would be willing to at least consider attending church if someone would just ask them. Many of these folks say that no one has ever asked. What an opportunity,

I am pastor at Ironton’s First United Methodist Church and we have decided to get involved with this special Sunday with invitations, posters and banners.

You might think we’re just talking about your coming to our church, (that would be great), but really we want you to consider attending whichever church you have been associated with or whichever church you’d like to try.

The important thing is that you give it a chance. So, on Sept. 21, please accept our blanket invitation to participate and let’s all celebrate Back to Church Sunday.

 

Rev. Wayne E. Young

First United Methodist Church