When the church gathers, our purpose is not to sit and consume spiritual content. We gather to worship together, to be challenged through teaching of the Word, to encourage one another, and be strengthened to go back into the world as witnesses of Christ Jesus and makers of disciples. Then, we come back weary from the world to be refreshed by the body so we can be sent back out and do it all again. Hebrews gives us this same pattern: “Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together…but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24–25). We gather because we need encouragement, and because Christ is coming.
