mgpcpastor's blog

Murray Campbell from Menton Baptist offers his personal preparations for Sunday worship in the hope they’ll be helpful.

Here’s the key points:

1. Read through the Bible passage that will be preached on that coming Sunday.
2. Look to encourage someone to make the effort to be at Church that week through email, phone call, facebook, etc
3. Pray (during the week & on the Sunday morning) that God would encourage the hearts & minds of believers, and open the eyes of unbelievers
4. Susan and I rarely go out and stay up late on Saturday nights, not because we don’t enjoy a night on the town or spending time with friends but because we believe that Church is of such importance that we want to have the energy to give of ourselves on Sundays. If we want to arrange a party or late night movie we prefer to choose another time; as it happens there are other nights in the week!
5. Aim to arrive early (ok, I’m a Pastor of a church and so I have things to do, however don’t we all have an opportunity to love others? The Pastor’s role is in some ways no different to everyone else’s in the Church. For example, visitors often arrive early and the only people there to greet them is the music team who are practicing. There is also the opportunity to pray with others, and things to be set up, etc). As a parent with 3 young children I appreciate how difficult it can be to get the family prepared on time, but I also know that I need to have the same 3 children ready one hour earlier for school Monday-Friday! Having said that, we want to avoid judgementalism, for we don’t know people’s hearts and struggles and the reasons why they find it difficult to arrive on time.
6. Go to Church with the expectation that there will be someone for you to love and encourage.
7. Aim to meet someone new or talk to someone whom you have spoken for sometime.
8. Avoid the temptation of assessing the value of Church by how we might evaluate a movie or concert, i.e. was the service slick, professional, and entertaining? We should even refrain from asking the question, ‘how much am I getting out of Church’? Change our expectations and ask ourselves more helpful questions such as was Christ honour? Was the Gospel preached? Were people loving one another? Am I loving and serving others?

Read the whole post here.