Why People Will Worship with Us on Sundays: Faith in Jesus Christ

I think our focus is often misdirected.

If a person is seated at a table and is brought a variety of good foods, we would expect them to eat heartily, wouldn't we?  We would expect that the person would not merely pick at one or two items, but would make full use of the feast provided.  So, given that the Church of Jesus Christ is a wonderful thing, why do we sometimes hold ourselves back from the many blessings God has to offer us?

There are plenty of baptized disciples of Christ in His restored Church that more obviously hold back.  It's visible to leaders when they don't accept callings and assignments.  It's visible to everyone when they refrain from worshipping together with their congregations on Sundays.  But seeing this obvious sign can lead us to ignore what is actually more important; when we have an opportunity to speak with someone who is less active in the Church, it's easy to simply encourage them to come to Church meetings on Sunday without thinking about why they are choosing not to come.

So why don't people make full use of the Church of Jesus Christ?  It is crucial for us to remember that when any adult (and many children) come to a public worship service on a Sunday it is by their own choice.  Why do people choose to stay home?  Apart from a variety of influencing factors, it ultimately is a matter of faith.

While I was serving as a high councilor in the Newburgh, New York Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ, I began to feel very strongly about faith in Jesus Christ.  I realize that I run the risk of being misunderstood when I use the word "faith".  In fact, during one meeting of the high council--I think it was when the stake president was asking for suggestions about topics for us to speak about in the wards we were to visit throughout the year--I spoke fairly passionately about faith as an important topic, and based on the response I felt that the meaning of what I was saying wasn't appreciated by the rest of the high council.  Perhaps with time I'm able to better express the concern that I feel.

Faith is not mere belief.  Belief is a component of faith, but faith also motivates us to action.  When we have true faith in Jesus Christ, we not only understand on an intellectual level that He served, serves, and will serve in crucial ways to fulfill God's Plan of Happiness for us, but we also make choices to follow Him.  We go out and serve other people in His name, both when asked in a calling or assignment from Church leaders, and also of our own initiative and free will (see Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-28).

While we as regular people have very limited insight, it's safe to say that, generally, when members of the Church of Jesus Christ stop (or never really start) attending sacrament meetings and the rest of our Sunday worship services, such lack of attendance is a sign of weak faith.  Either a new member simply hasn't grown in faith sufficiently, or people who have been members of the Church for many years and who have previously acted with great faith have let that faith dwindle.  It may dwindle to a point where they decide to change their beliefs.  But either way, it's a case where someone should have strong faith so that they can be blessed by following God's counsel but they lack that strong faith.

For several years, I've felt that when we're speaking with other members of the Church, our focus should not be trying to convince them to "come back to Church".  People will come to worship with us when their faith in Christ is strong.  We also shouldn't be waiting until they have stopped showing up on Sundays.  So what should we be asking about and encouraging, and when should we do it?  There will be many opportunities, but perhaps the most important are when we are assigned to minister to others in our ward.  When we visit them in their homes, we should ask them about the basic things that everyone should do to build faith.  We should ask them about their experiences with daily scripture study, both individually and as families.  We should ask them about daily prayer, both individually and as families.  If someone is studying God's word and speaking to Him in prayer, their faith cannot dwindle too much; it must grow.  When it does, a natural consequence will be that they want to participate in the Church more.  They will want to make more use of the feast available to them.

Last thoughts for now:
Of course, it's not off-limits to encourage people to "come to Church", but we really ought to be concerned much more about their overall spiritual welfare than whether or not we see them on Sundays.  The most important things for us to do are those things that help us develop our relationship with God and to build faith in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and those things are the most basic actions that many of us have been exhorted to do since we were children.  We need to study scripture daily--especially in the Book of Mormon, given its power in our time and the special purpose God had in preserving it for us--and we need to pray daily.  Even a little bit each day is good; even a single verse of scripture and just a few minutes in prayer are good (though of course we should allow ourselves more of each).  When we want to care for others, we should make use of the power of God's Spirit to encourage them to study scripture daily and to pray daily so that their faith will grow.  When people grow in personal faith it will have a real and meaningful impact in their lives, and in their own time they will return to public worship.