The pandemic has made it difficult for Christians to gather with their church families on Sundays like they were used to doing before. Our church stopped meeting for five months and then started meeting outdoors for another nine months before returning indoors with some protocols. Many members missed gatherings and some have still not returned to the gathering since the original shutdown.
What has always been true, and has more recently been felt, is how important it is to be in the presence of fellow believers. In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer insightfully wrote:
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. … The believer feels no shame, as though he were still living too much in the flesh, when he yearns for the physical presence of other Christians. …The prisoner, the sick person, the Christian in exile sees in the companionship of a fellow Christian a physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. Visitor and visited in loneliness recognize in each other the Christ who is present in the body; they receive and meet each other as one meets the Lord, in reverence, humility, and joy. … But if there is so much blessing and joy even in a single encounter of brother with brother, how inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who by God’s will are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians!
God has called and commanded us to gather with our church family for the purpose of face-to-face encouragement. We need this.
The world lacks encouragement. Sadly, we’re often frustrated by the lack of encouragement in our relationships at church as well. So while we’re unsurprised by our discouraging world, discouraging churches weigh more heavily on our souls.
It’s easy to throw our hands in the air and just settle in with our current church culture. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Actually, God commands that we not settle for this.
Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24–25)
Three Ways to Serve and Encourage
Many people miss the main exhortation in these familiar verses. Yes, we are to stir up one another to love and good works. Yes, we are to meet together. Yes, we are to encourage one another. But none of those is the main charge.
The main command is to “consider” or “contemplate.” “Let us consider” one another and think about each other, specifically about “how to stir up one another.” The exhortation is to take focused, intentional time to think about one another—how we will stir up love, how we will encourage, and how we will meet together.
God wants us to be thoughtful and purposeful in our gatherings, not lazy and aimless. It has been said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And if you aim at nothing, you hit it every time. Sure, God’s grace compels and guides us to stir and encourage in ways we did not intend. But God’s grace also makes us intentional. He gives us grace not only despite our effort but in our effort. Hebrews 10:24–25 compel us to actively consider how we might encourage and strengthen the particular saints we meet with each Sunday.
So how shall we consider one another in order to encourage and bless one another? Sunday is coming. How shall we prepare?
Pray
Pray for the members of your church family throughout the week. Use your church directory (or any list of members) to pray for people by name. Systematically pray for all of the members, even the ones you don’t know. You may meet them this Sunday, and you’ll be able to let them know you prayed for them.
If you don’t know what to pray for, pray for things that are prayed for in the Bible. Pray for the preaching of God’s word to be accurate, insightful, expository, and exulting.
Pause on Saturday night or early Sunday morning and ask God to lead you in stirring up others to love and good works. Ask him to move other members to do the same.
Plan
Plan on attending this Sunday. Settle in your mind that you’ll gather with your church family every Sunday, barring emergencies or extreme circumstances. Half the battle really is showing up. God wisely designed your presence to be a critical present to the rest of the body. Again, Bonheoffer writes:
The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer. … It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift for the lonely individual is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift every day. … Communal life is again being recognized by Christians today as the grace that it is, as the extraordinary, the “roses and lilies” of the Christian life.
Commit to being there this Sunday, for your sake and for the sake of others. Plan to get to sleep early and then arrive with plenty of time to spare. Plan on having your soul happy in God as you head out to meet on Sunday. Consider two or three specific people you think God might have you seek out to encourage.
Plan to bless others by serving and by what you say. You can serve others by smiling and giving them a warm, heart-felt greeting (1 Corinthians 16:20). Be prepared to give money, or to help someone with a tangible need. One tangible need everyone has is to be listened to, so plan on asking a provocative question or two that would draw someone out and reveal how God is working in his life. Relish the opportunity to do more listening than talking.
But be prepared to say something as well. Be ready to share what God’s been teaching you lately through his word and through trials. Bring up a thought God pressed on your soul from the sermon you just heard. Have a blessing, burden, or prayer request ready to share.
Not all of us are happy in God on Sundays, so we need to be willing to let others encourage us. If we would consistently encourage others, then we also must be honest and vulnerable about our need to receive encouragement from others too.
Provoke
Once you arrive on Sunday, it’s time for you to stir up (“provoke” in the King James Version) others to love and good works. Be an instigator. Remember that before you were born, God prepared good works for you to walk in (Ephesians 2:10)—including good works of stirring up others. Enjoy the adventure of walking in those works with God when you gather with his people.
As you seek God with all your focus, and look for ways to serve, others will be encouraged to do the same. Concentrating on the sermon affects the preacher, and inspires those around you to listen. It’s provocative in healthy ways. It’s contagious. That’s one reason (among many) we typically get more out of sitting in a church gathering or conference than just hearing a recording.
Come hungry for God in all his glory and goodness. As you seek his face and provoke others to love and good works, be encouraged that your desires and your actions happen because God is actively working in you (Philippians 2:12–13). As you pursue your gladness in God, you’ll experience the joy of helping others trust and follow Jesus.
Be Prepared
Imagine how our churches will increasingly grow as we intentionally build up and encourage one another each Sunday. Imagine the doubters and the discouraged flocking to the local church to have God’s hope instilled in them through believers.
When the majority of those gathered on Sunday are prepared through prayer and planning to provoke others to love and good works, then the broken and the brimming, the hurting and the happy, the encouraged and the discouraged will all experience more of God.
A note on encouraging those who haven’t been coming on Sundays: You can encourage them by checking in on them. You might ask them how they’re doing, how their trust in the Lord has been lately, and what are the challenges they currently face in assembling with the church on Sundays. I’d encourage you to pray with them and for them to grow and to be able to gather with the church. Conversely, it would be helpful for you to share how you are doing and how they can pray for you and the church family. Even if they can’t make it back quite yet, a regular call to see how they are doing, how you can serve them, and a regular reminder and prayer for them to be able to gather with the saints may go a long way.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Desiring God. It has been republished here with the author’s permission.