“Recognition of Need for Christ Must Prompt Church Attendance”: A Christian Standard Article From March 24, 1928

By P. H. Welshimer

P. H. Welshimer, the minister of First Church, Canton, O., has pointed out the folly of working for a large attendance at meetings or membership in an organization as an end in itself. There is no vital meaning to either, unless behind all the drives for attendance and membership there is a recognition of actual need for Christ, a thirst and hungering for righteousness, and a desire for fellowship with the Master and those of the household of faith. If such an overpowering conviction grips men, there will be no need for special attendance drives. Bro. Welshimer, in his forceful manner, also pointed out the fact that members of the church represent or misrepresent the church in their local communities by their manner of living and by their interest in the work of the church. It would be well for every Christian to ponder carefully the points to which he has called attention in the following essay.

The churches of all religious bodies are making a drive on church attendance. Jesus said: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” But it is difficult to fill a man who does not hunger and thirst after righteousness, just as it is difficult to get a man to eat who is not hungry, or to drink who is not thirsty. Drives on church attendance, special attractions and spectacular stunts may bring a few folks for a little while, but the real need is the creating of the desire in the individual for righteousness, which means right thinking, right living—right doing.

The trouble today is that too many people are satisfied with the light, frivolous things of the passing moment. Self-centered people who live only for self, who are happy in the things that can bring to them a moment of pleasure, who enjoy being served rather than rendering service, hardly feel the need of that which the church offers. The church has never come to occupy the place which it merits. Many there are indeed who are fully consecrated and give of their time and substance in a marvelous manner, but too many play fast and loose with the church. It’s a good thing to have in the community, they think. They support it occasionally, when they come; and they come occasionally, when they feel like it; it’s a good place from which to bury the dead; it gives some respectability to people to say they are members of it; but be it remembered, the church is the body of Christ, a divine institution, and constitutes the divinely appointed agent to be used in the saving of the world.

It is an honor to be a member of the church. Church membership brings a great privilege, and it also adds responsibilities. Church membership of the right kind fits one for the life that now is, and gives promise of that which is to come.

Every member either helps or hurts his church. To be absent hurts the church. To simply endorse its program doesn’t add great strength to one’s own life nor to the church as a body. The church needs what the army needs—active, militant soldiers. Its call is for service. Sometimes one must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, but in all of this remember Jesus said: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give unto thee the crown of everlasting life.” And looking to that crown, Paul said, as the sun was going down, “I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my course.” Absence from the worship of the church, in the majority of cases, is due to a lack of interest. Too many feel that the church does not particularly need them in the worship, nor do they need the worship. Both conclusions are wrong. The church needs every one of its members in the worship, and every member needs to be in the worship.

The interest one manifests in his church is a fine advertisement for the church. The community in which the church stands and which it serves will always form its opinion of and pass judgment on the church as it sees the loyalty or disloyalty of members of that body.

Paul says: “Your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” One may absent himself from the worship a long time, and by so doing think he is hurting someone or spiting someone. Probably it will do that, but the one who will suffer greater injury will be he who absents himself. Who ever heard of a man staying away from the table three meals in succession because he didn’t like someone who was to eat at the table, or just to get even, or because he was mad at some member of the family?

A revival of church attendance among all church people everywhere will be the finest way in which to begin an evangelistic campaign for the saving of souls. The faithful in attendance will never know how they are appreciated. Their presence in the house of God each Lord’s Day and other times when worship is held is always a benediction. They give heart to the preacher, and their influence is most beneficial among all in attendance. They preach a sermon along the entire street they pass on their way to and from church.

P.H. Welshimer (1873-1957) served as minister of the First Christian Church of Canton, Ohio, from 1902 until his death in 1957. He was a prominent leader in the Restoration Movement.