Better health in just 52 hours!!

“Want to be healthier this year? Invest a little more than 50 hours.”

This ain’t preacher stuff – study after study finds that attending church is good for you, and not just spiritually but physically as well.

  T. M. Luhrmann, a professor of anthropology at Stanford, wrote in The New York Times. “One of the most striking scientific discoveries about religion in recent years is that going to church weekly is good for you. Religious attendance — at least, religiosity — boosts the immune system and decreases blood pressure. It may add as much as two to three years to your life…Social support is no doubt part of the story. At the evangelical churches I’ve studied as an anthropologist, people really did seem to look out for one another…A study conducted in North Carolina found that frequent churchgoers had larger social networks, with more contact with, more affection for, and more kinds of social support from those people than their unchurched counterparts. And we know that social support is directly tied to better health. Healthy behavior is no doubt another part. Certainly many churchgoers struggle with behaviors they would like to change, but on average, regular church attendees drink less, smoke less, use fewer recreational drugs and are less sexually promiscuous than others.”

  Can you spare 50+ hours this coming year? With 52 weeks and a little over an hour a week, it’s not very much. Of course, it’s even better if you commit to being part of a small group, too. Wow! A grand total of about 100 hours a year. The average American spends 50 hours a week looking at a screen. A years worth of worship then is about a week of what many of us spend technologically. 

  Can I speak pastorally? First, I trust that you know that I love you. Yet, I’m very concerned for some of you. I’m very concerned about your spiritual health. That’s because it’s very difficult, if not impossible to grow spiritually and yet fail to consistently worship with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of you miss a lot and I truly don’t believe you have any idea how often you’re absent. I’m not talking about a Sunday here or there. I’m talking about weeks and weeks of Sundays.

  Attending church is like anything else, if you don’t make it a priority, it’s less likely to happen. If you get up on Sunday morning and decide then whether you’re going to church or not, it’s too easy to hit the snooze button and sleep right through.

  A foundational part of a healthy Christian and a healthy church is consistent church attendance. Be warned though. This is a spiritual battle! Satan would much rather you skip. And most don’t skip for bad things. They’re not out partying all night. It’s usually good things, even very worthy things that will keep you from church.

  Often, it’s family events. It may be time with relatives or out of town guests. It could be babysitting the grands or little Matilda’s (your 4^th cousin’s niece) first birthday party. It could be a hectic week and you convince yourself that you need the extra rest. Or, someone is sick so the whole family stays home to feed them chicken soup. Maybe you’re not feeling 100%. A good question before deciding to stay home is: “Would I go to work if I felt this way?” If you’d go to work, then you probably should attend worship.

  Frequently, it’s a sporting event. A tragedy of our culture is that sports programs have no respect for families who attend church. I’d encourage you to talk to the coach and be willing to make some tough choices. If you’ll speak up if your kid doesn’t get enough playing time, surely you should speak up if that event is going to cause you to miss worship. At the very minimal, when there’s a scheduling conflict, determine that the whole family is attending the early service that Sunday. You’re going to have to make it a priority though or it won’t happen. And when that happens, you lose, we lose and God’s Kingdom loses.

  The Bible compares the local church family to a body. What kind of day would you have if one of your ears decided to stay home while the rest of your body went to work? It would be very frustrating at the very least.

  But please don’t just attend – engage! Some attend church out of habit. They serve their hour and they’re out the door.

  This afternoon the Packers are playing the Cowboys. Can you imagine that someone has tickets, they arrive late and try to sit as far away from the field as they possibly can? From the first kick-off until the last second of the last quarter, they’re watching the clock, daydreaming, playing on their phone, catching a nap, doodling on their program, people watching – anything to endure until it’s all finally over! Can you picture that? Probably not. What does it say about our hearts and love for Jesus when we’re fully engaged in a temporal event like a football game that makes zero eternal difference BUT when it comes to worship, when it comes to learning and growing in grace, when it comes to praise and adoration of the One who died for us – we’re bored and counting the minutes?

  Part of the reason for that is we often fail to prepare before coming to a worship service. Back to that Packer game. Prior to going, you make sure you’ve dressed warm, have your tickets, taken along some snacks and used the facilities before you take your seat. So shouldn’t we prepare our hearts for worship? Shouldn’t we plan what we’re going to wear the night before, plan out breakfast, know where our Bible is, go to bed at a decent time, even make sure the car is gassed? Shouldn’t we leave with plenty of time so that we can relax driving in? Wouldn’t we be wise to take a few moments that morning or the night before to ask God to work in our hearts during the worship service? Shouldn’t we take a moment to quiet our hearts so we can hear the voice of God?

  52 hours is really very minimal. It benefits you and when you’re heart is engaged, it’s a small way to say “Thank you” to the One who died for you! May we all say with the Psalmist, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Psalm 122:1).