Three Ways to Prepare for Church
By Pastor Josh Wamble
I wonder if you have ever heard the saying, “Sunday morning church is a Saturday night decision.” That is a good saying. It is catchy and memorable. It also expresses an insightful truth in a pithy kind of way. Waiting until you wake up on Sunday morning to decide about church is a recipe for casual and sporadic involvement in the life of the church.
But, I wonder if you ever do more than just decide to attend church. What are you doing to prepare yourself for worship each week? Maybe you have never even thought about this question. Maybe it’s all you can do to get yourself and your family here by 9:30 or even 10:45 each Sunday morning. I want to suggest three things that you can be doing during the week to prepare yourself for worship and participation in the life of the church.
1. Read the Bible. Hopefully you are reading the Bible devotionally throughout the week, but I mean something even more than that. At FBCF, we normally preach expository sermons. One thing that this means is that we preach straight through books of the Bible covering each verse of each chapter as we get to it. We don’t skip anything. One of the benefits that this provides is that you can already know passage from the Bible will be preached each week. For example, if we finished Revelation 10 last week, you know that we will be starting Revelation 11 this week. The same is true for most of our Sunday School classes.
Let me encourage you to take a few minutes on Saturday evening before going to bed to read through the verses to be covered in the upcoming Sunday School lesson and sermon. Put a bookmark in your Bible or send a text message to yourself each Sunday noting where the next Sunday’s sermon will start so that you can do this. Already being familiar with the text to be studied and preached will help you to understand and follow the sermon better each week.
2. Spend Some Time in Focused Prayer. You can pray in a few different ways to prepare yourself for worship each week. Take some time to speak to the Lord about preparing your own heart for worship. Confess your sins to Him and ask Him to remove any distractions from your mind and heart. Pray that you would be attuned to the Holy Spirit’s conviction and encouraging and application to your life as you hear the word preached.
Also, take a few minutes to pray for your pastors and those who will be leading the services. Ask the Lord to prepare them and that they would be free from distractions and worries. Ask the Lord to protect them from sin and temptation, and ask Him to use them and their preaching, teaching, and leading.
Finally, take a few minutes to pray for other church members. Pray the same things for them—that their hearts would be prepared for worship and that they would be free from distractions. Pray that the Holy Spirit would use the preaching of the word to strengthen them and cause them to trust in Christ even more fully. Use the Wednesday night prayer sheets to pray for specific concerns and requests that other church members may have made known to us.
3. Make the Necessary Practical Preparations. Finally, think about the practical things that could get in the way of you worshipping God and being a blessing to other church members. Many times, when we arrive at church on Sunday morning upset or frustrated, the causes of those frustrations can be avoided with a little forethought. I am thinking about very practical things here. Make sure there is enough gas in the car to get to church. Even something as small as a surprise empty gas tank can make us late or feel rushed and irritated. Before you go to bed, make sure the clothes you plan to wear are clean and ready to go. Get to bed early enough on Saturday so that you are well rested and refreshed on Sunday morning. Make sure that your alarm is set so that you have enough time on Sunday morning to have breakfast and get dressed and get your family ready and the other things that you need to have done before leaving for church.
Sunday morning church attendance really is a Saturday night decision, and attending is something—but it’s not the most or the best. Let’s commit ourselves not only to attending church but attending and participating in a prepared way—prepared to worship the Lord, prepared to really hear and respond to the word preached and taught, and prepared to be a blessing and encouragement to other church members. This preparation is also a Saturday night decision—and a Monday decision, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday.
