The One Percent

Last week I heard a sermon where it was stated that going to church on Sunday mornings equals about 1 percent of our total week. The math is kind of simple:

24 hours a day * 7 days a week = 168 hours

Assume 2 hours for a Sunday morning and you get: (2 hours / 168 hours) * 100% = 1% of a given week is in church. 

I am of the opinion that in this particular instance, God is more concerned with the other 99….

Doing a brief search on the web, one can find some not so nice things about the title, “Sunday Christians”. In short, it’s a derogatory term for those that consistently show up to church on Sundays, but their life during the week is not very Christian at all. In fact, their intentionality during the week is for themselves. What they do on Sunday is merely show. Jesus didn’t have a lot of nice things to say about these types in the New Testament. He used words such as hypocrites, brood of vipers, and others to describe them.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be put into the same category of people that Jesus picked fights with.

Passage after passage, teaching after teaching, God seems to be rather clear that what is important to Him is our intent behind our decisions. In other words, the other 99% is more important than that 1%. It’s not that going to church once a week is NOT important, because it is. But what is MORE important than going to church once a week, is how we live our life through the rest of the week. When we see Christianity as primarily going to church, we run the risk of being called hypocrites. 

So how do we focus on Jesus in the 99%? I think some very simple applications can be done here. 

1. Read the bible each day. A real simple thing to do is download a bible app to your phone and start a daily bible reader plan. We are currently using Eat this Book with the You Version App for portable devices. It doesn’t have to be this particular plan. It just needs to be a plan. But the key to a regular bible reader app, is to not get hung up on HAVING to read each day. It sounds counterproductive, I know, but the intent is to not JUST read: it’s to establish a habit of communicating with God through His word. I think when you look at daily reading from that perspective, it becomes easier to do.
2. Seek out time with other disciples. This can be done through prayer breakfasts, mid-week bible studies, accountability groups, or even formal programs such as MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) or Men’s Fraternity. The point is to be intentional about finding others Christians to spend time with. Christianity NEVER teaches “doing it” alone. The idea of a “personal relationship with Jesus” has taken on an inaccurate meaning recently, with the idea that one does not have to actually associate with others to be a Christian. This is simply not true. Find a group. Get involved. 
3.  Pray. Prayer is the ultimate way we communicate with God. The key to prayer is to remember it is a two way street. It’s not just a grocery list of what you want. Prayer is a discipline. It requires energy and time. Be intentional about setting aside time each day to pray. If you are married, pray consistently with your spouse. If you have kids, pray consistently with them.
4. Understand what true success is. For most Americans, the definition of success is defined by being happy or accumulating as much as you can. Success is mentioned in context with phrases like “The American Dream”, etc. But true success can be defined by doing one’s best for the glory of God and the benefit of others. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here, but think about it for a minute: how do you define success? What makes you TRULY happy? When are you the happiest, REALLY? I think when we peel away the onion, we will see that using our gifts to glorify God makes us genuinely happy. Helping other people makes us genuinely happy. Like I said: think about it.

So, how does the rest of your week look? Do you live the whole week for yourself, and then show up at church to punch an attendance card? Or do you worship God throughout the whole week? Can you share your stuff with others? Is there a bible app on your phone? Do you regularly put cash in your pocket anticipating to see that guy on the side of the road? Is there a bible in one of your desk drawers at work? Do those around you at work know that you are Christian? When you get extra cash do you ask, “what can I do with it?” or do you ask, “who can benefit from it?” 

In other words, are you a 1%-er or a 99%-er?