Martin Wickens

Sunday mornings might be the worst time to get ready for church. Not just for preachers who need to have prepared a sermon, but for anyone.

Now, if someone gets up Sunday morning and decides out of the blue to go to church then wonderful, get up and go.

But if you have the opportunity to plan and prepare, then that is best.

I don’t want to lay out a series of binding and chafing requirements, just some ideas to help you get the most from and offer the most to meeting with the church.

Four Dangers of Waiting Until Sunday Morning to Prepare for Church

1. You plan a busy weekend and you attend church exhausted or it just gets nudged out completely. Church gets relegated, even unintentionally, into the “if we have time” category.
2. You get to church avoidably late, frazzled, and you spend your time at church uncomfortable and only calm down after lunch that afternoon. Please note that I said “avoidably late”. All kinds of things can cause us to be unavoidably late for church, a child’s dirty diaper at the last minute, traffic, or whatever. Late is not my concern, avoidably late is.
3. We communicate a lack of importance about something by not planning for it.
4. We do not prepare by confession and praise as individuals to engage in worship corporately. We get to church, but our heart and mind is somewhere else.

Five Benefits of Getting Ready for Church on Friday

Okay, so it doesn’t have to be Friday, but it should be in advance of Sunday.

1. You get to church to continue your walk with God, not pick up where you left off last Sunday or some other day of the week. Fellowship and worship have a deeper impact because you’re ready to give and receive a blessing.
2. As much as possible you plan to wake up rested and refreshed Sunday morning. There will always be exceptions to the rule, but don’t let Sunday become the time you recover from everything else. Sundays are meant to be a day of rest, but not of rest from God. The Biblical concept of the day of rest is that we rest from the regular activities of life to worship AND serve God.
3. It communicates the importance of congregational worship, preaching, and fellowship to those around us. When we schedule to do things, or not do things, in a way that allows us to arrive at Sundays rested and ready to meet with God and His people, it reflects the importance we place upon them.
4. You have everything you need to make Sunday morning’s as easy as possible. In the past, sometimes for good reason and others times not, Sunday mornings have been torture. When visiting a supporting church I’ve started to get the kids ready only to find someone has forgotten their shoes. So, a last-minute trip to Walmart happens. Or there’s no bread or milk for breakfast, or anything for lunch. Someone has lost their Bible. The car has no gas. You get the picture.
5. You’re able to get to church not just on time, but even a little early so that you can spend time with other believers.

There will be other dangers and benefits, but the key principle is to not wait until Sunday morning to get ready for church.

So, what can you do today to be ready for church on Sunday?