Many years ago, at another church I was serving in, there was a couple who always arrived 15 minutes after the service started. Every single week. Like clockwork.
They’d time their walk through the door just as the kids were heading out to their programmes.
One week, I finally plucked up the courage to ask them why. I’ll never forget their response—or what it revealed.
They said, “We’re here for what we can get out of it. The kids’ talk and kids’ song don’t do anything for us, so we wait until that part’s over before we come in.”
That answer has stuck with me ever since, because in essence, they were saying: “We come to church for ourselves—not for others.”
Now, don’t get me wrong. There’s plenty we each get out of coming to church. We catch up with people we like, we hear the Bible read and a sermon preached, we sing great songs, and we enjoy a cuppa and something to eat at the end. All good gifts to enjoy and be thankful for.
But to show up with only an eye on what we might get—rather than what we might give—runs completely counter to Jesus’ vision for his people.
As Paul writes to the Philippians:
“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”
— Philippians 2:1–5
Church gives us a weekly opportunity to live this out—to value others above ourselves, to look to their interests before our own.
So here’s the cheeky little challenge (with the full backing of the Apostle Paul):
This Sunday (and every other week too!), come not just for what you might get, but for what you can give.
Let that mindset shape who you talk to, where you sit, how you participate, how you prepare and pray for church—and yes, even what time you choose to arrive.
As we seek to be a church that is boldly reaching out and rich in community, our attitude to church each week will go along way in shaping us to be the church God wants us to be.
Grace & peace,
Andrew