Everyone Gathering Series

EVERYONE Gathering

Hebrews 10:19-25

Rev. Brian Bill

April 15-16, 2023

I get a kick out of church signs. Here are some of my favorites…

• Be the kind of person your pet thinks you are.

• You think it’s hot here? Revelation 20:15.

• Honk if you love Jesus. Text while driving if you want to meet Him.

• Having trouble sleeping? Try one of our sermons.

• CH CH. What’s missing? UR.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people missing from churches today. Two decades ago, it was common for Christians to meet together three times a week – Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights. Prior to the pandemic, church members were considered active if they gathered twice a month. Now, according to researcher Thom Rainer, the once-a-month churchgoer is the fastest growing segment of church life.

A recent Gallup survey found that only 20% of Americans attend church once a week, down from 32% in 2000. The “nones,” or those who are religiously unaffiliated, now make up 30% of Americans. On top of this dire data, the most troubling finding is the number of evangelicals who never attend church has increased from 25% pre-COVID to 33% today. One pastor lamented, “The great task of the church is not only to get sinners into heaven, but to get saints out of bed.”

One of the saddest things I hear when I’m out in the community is when someone says, “I’m a Christian, but I don’t really go to church.” Eric Davis writes, “Churchless Christians. Flockless sheep. Bodyless body-parts. First century Christians would not have had a category for such a thing. It would have been one of the most bizarre phenomena imaginable.”

Another pastor laments, “Many have untethered themselves from the ministry and mission of the visible church. Instead, they prefer to cobble together a highly personalized spirituality from websites, books, podcasts…many have grown partial to online worship instead of in-person, for reasons of convenience and autonomy. They envision Christianity on their own terms without accountability, discipline, or shepherding care. The glaring problem with this approach is nowhere in Scripture do we see this kind of privatized faith. It’s utterly foreign to biblical Christianity…a Christian without a church is like a lone sheep in the wilderness, exposed to countless dangers.”

Before going much further, I believe Edgewood is an outlier in this regard. I have never been around so many committed Christ-followers in my life! You guys are countercultural in your commitment to gathering with God’s people. Having said that, in a church our size, there are some who have not yet made this commitment to gather with God’s people on a weekly basis.

I was so moved by how Pastor Kyle and our Mainspring Ministry led our three-hour Good Friday Reflection time. And I’m still replaying elements of our Resurrecting Hope Easter services. Special thanks to Pastor Chad and Dave Bennett, along with our worship and tech teams, to Pastor Ed and our Guest Services team, and to Sheila Kuriscak and Liesl Parks for the incredibly creative and gospel-grounded EdgeKids Ministry. Over 1500 adults and children attended our four services.

As a way to celebrate the incredible depth of our members, and to spur others on, I’m going to share some quotes from the Edgewood Facebook page throughout this message. These insights came in response to a question I posted: “We’re conducting a survey about the blessings and benefits of gathering with God’s people for worship. Would you take a minute or two and share why you gather for worship?”

During 2023, we’re encouraging everyone at Edgewood to be all in. The word everyone is used at least 200 times in the Bible, and it means:

1. All.

2. Every.

3. Whole.

Our assignment from the Almighty is for everyone be on mission by gathering, growing, giving, and going with the gospel, all for the glory of God.

Today, our focus is on EVERYONE gathering. We want to see everyone connected every week. Here are our four action steps:

• Prioritize in-person worship.

• Maximize Guest Services.

• Develop an assimilation process.

• Add a Good Friday prayer and reflection time.

To set up our passage, I want you to think of a group of Christ-followers who were living in a culture which ostracized and persecuted Christians. Some of these Jewish-background believers were ready to bail on their faith because it was becoming too difficult to identify with Christ in a society which was headed south. On top of that, some were compromising their convictions while others had simply allowed other pursuits to crowd out the primacy of Christ and the priority of gathering with other Christians.

Let’s give our attention to Hebrews 10:19-25: “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And 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.”