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 [The following is excerpted from the book, Gather: Getting to the Heart of Going to Church, Copyright © 2021 by M. Hopson Boutot. Click here to download the entire book for free.]   

 In 1647, a synod of English and Scottish Presbyterian pastors composed the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), a magisterial summary of Christian doctrine in thirty-three chapters. Like any statement of faith, the WCF must be tested by Scripture. Nevertheless, it is a crucial piece of Christian history and one of the most influential statements of faith written in the last one thousand years.[1]

In chapter 21, the WCF addresses the issue of Lord’s Day worship:

This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

Notice first that the confession assumes followers of Jesus will gather with God’s people for public worship. The truth is there is little discussion in church history about when it is permissible to miss public worship. For nearly two thousand years the general assumption has been that followers of Jesus will attend worship.[2] It is only in recent decades that professing believers have begun to substantially downplay the importance of church attendance.

That said, the WCF can still be indirectly helpful determining when it is acceptable to miss gathering with the church. Where the statement does help is by explaining what sort of works are permissible on the Lord’s Day: works of necessity and mercy. While many Christians today may not share the Sabbath views of the WCF, I believe these two categories may help us think clearly and carefully about when it’s permissible to miss the gathering.

[1] For my Baptist readers, remember that many of the historic Baptist confessions of faith were heavily influenced by the WCF, apart from major disagreements on issues like infant baptism. In fact, the above quotation from the WCF on Lord’s Day worship is almost identical to a similar article in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.

[2] A first century Christian document called The Didache provides one example of the assumption that Christians will gather weekly: “But every Lord’s day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.” Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries: Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, Homily, vol. 7 (Buffalo: The Christian Literature Company, 1886), 381.