"IS IT OKAY TO MISS THE ASSEMBLY FOR WORK?"
"IS IT OKAY TO MISS THE ASSEMBLY FOR WORK?"
That question seems simple, but it reveals how far we have drifted from the original call of Christ. The question itself only makes sense in a world where the assembly has been reduced to an event, discipleship reduced to attendance, and the Great Commission reduced to a slogan. The problem is not that someone might miss a meeting. The problem is that we have lost the meaning of devotion.
The early believers did not “go to church.” They were the ekklesia (church), a people fused together in heart, mind, mission, and life. Acts 2 and 4 describe devotion, shared life, shared burdens, and shared mission. Hebrews 10:24 and 25 warns not against missing a time slot but against abandoning one another. You can attend every Sunday and never assemble, and you can miss a Sunday and still be deeply assembled if your life is interwoven with the people of God.
We ask, “Is it okay to miss?” because modern religion has replaced mission with meetings. Attendance has become the measure of faithfulness because devotion has become thin. The question exists because we no longer understand the assembly the way Scripture presents it, not as an hour in a building, but as a people united in purpose, sacrifice, and daily life.
Yet we must also acknowledge a biblical truth: there WERE appointed gatherings. The first day of the week in Acts 20:7, times set by the leaders in Acts 14:27 and Acts 15:6, the reading of letters, the breaking of bread, teaching, correction, prayer, and encouragement. The elders could call the ekklesia together, and the believers gladly met. These gatherings mattered. They were good. They were right.
But here is the key: appointed gatherings were the fruit of devotion, not the substitute for it. The people gathered because they were already one. Today we try to make people one by getting them to gather. That is reverse of the biblical pattern. Devotion produces gathering, gathering does not produce devotion.
The early disciples organized their work, their possessions, their time, and their goals around the kingdom. Today believers organize the kingdom around their work. Jesus did not call us to fit Him into our schedule. He called us to forsake all and follow Him. He called us to lose our lives for His sake. This is not hobby language. This is surrender.
The true crisis is not missing a meeting. It is living a life detached from the mission of Christ. A disciple can miss a particular day of gathering without forsaking the assembly. But a disciple can attend every gathering and still forsake the assembly if he is not united in mission, purpose, love, sacrifice, and evangelism. The ekklesia cannot be “missed” like a scheduled event; it must be lived. If you are laboring shoulder to shoulder with the people of God toward the Great Commission, you are assembling in the biblical sense. If you are not united in mission, even if physically present, you are forsaking the assembly.
The first day of the week gatherings were the convergence point of a devoted people. They broke bread, encouraged one another, received instruction, and strengthened their unity. These gatherings still matter. They should be honored. They should be valued. But appointed gatherings cannot replace the shared life and shared mission of the ekklesia. They cannot manufacture devotion. They cannot substitute for surrender. They cannot stand in place of daily faithfulness, sacrificial unity, and kingdom purpose.
The real issue behind the modern question is simple: “Have I given up all for Christ?” If the answer is yes, you will value the gatherings, honor the times when the body comes together, and shape your life around the kingdom. And if circumstances arise, work, illness, travel, that pull you from a specific meeting, your devotion and unity do not evaporate. But if you have not surrendered all, the kingdom will always be something you occasionally visit rather than the life you faithfully live.
Christ did not call us to attend. He called us to follow. To deny ourselves. To surrender everything. To join a people who live in unity, mission, sacrifice, and daily devotion. The assembly is not a weekly event to protect but a shared life to embrace. Only when we recover that will we stop asking the wrong questions, because we will finally begin living the right lives.