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2nd September 2025
TuesdayReflection
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'John Piper'
Founder & Teacher, Desiring God.org
"How Much Church Can I Miss to Serve?"
Good Monday morning.
Yesterday, most of us were at church.
But not all of us at church were in church, because some were busy serving yesterday and not able to be in the main gathering.
That's one of the realities of church.
Let me start with making a case for how beautiful it can be to serve some real need in the church, like caring for the infants in the nursery, at the cost of missing some worship services.
One of the key passages about all of our lives being worship:
"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship"
.... Romans 12:1
Making sacrifices for the good of others in the name of Jesus really does manifest his worth, and that's why we call it worship.
That's true. But we must be careful not to equate the worship of daily life with the gathering of God's people in corporate worship.
They're not the same. One cannot simply take the place of the other.
So, I'm not justifying the absence from corporate worship by saying that practical service is the same in God's eyes.
That's not my argument. It's not the same.
Both are beautiful. Both are worthy. God is pleased with both.
And doing one does not accomplish all that the other does.
Let's take nursery work, for example: caring for the infants.
It's hard to exaggerate the value God puts upon receiving children in his name.
Here's the breathtaking thing that Jesus said about working in the nursery
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me"
.... Mark 9:37
That is simply staggering
Receiving a child in the nursery in the name of Jesus is to receive God Almighty into the nursery.
That's what it says. This is not rocket science; that's what it says.
So, I have zero doubt that God is smiling upon Trevor if he works in the nursery during corporate worship and receives children in the name of Jesus.
Few things, it seems, made Jesus angrier than the gnat-straining, camel-swallowing Pharisees who pulled their sheep out of the ditch on the Sabbath and yet got mad at Jesus for healing a disabled man on the Sabbath.
Oh, did he get angry!
Indeed, when Luke tells this story about the healing of the crippled man on the Sabbath in chapter 6, Jesus asks,
"Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?"
.... Luke 6:9
Now, why in the world would he say that?
Is it lawful to harm? Is it lawful to destroy life?
What's he saying that for?
Nobody was suggesting that anybody destroy life.
Or, were they?
I think Jesus was saying, "If you really do have a heart that opposes my healing this man right now on the Sabbath, you have a heart that destroys - destroys life.
That's what your heart is: It's a destroyer, whether you know it or not."
The upshot is that Jesus loves to see his people doing good.
And he loves to see them gathered and, with all their hearts, singing and praying and preaching and listening to preaching in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God.
In fact, he commands us in Hebrews 10:25,
Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.
And Ephesians 5:18-19:
"Do not get drunk with wine . . . but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart."
This is corporate worship.
They are singing to each other, and they are singing to the Lord, and it's coming from the heart.
Something happens to us in the midst of corporate affection.
So, I hope you can see that I think working in the nursery during corporate worship is a glorious and God-pleasing thing.
Now, I know that all the nursery overseers listening to this are saying (as they roll their eyes), "Piper, if it were only that easy."
I understand.
I've done this for forty years; I understand how difficult that is.
But with this understanding of how utterly wonderful both of these ministries are, it just may be that more and more people would be willing to share the load.
Un-edited version avaiable, on request
John Piper
is founder and teacher of Desiring God and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary.
For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist
and most recently Foundations for Lifelong Learning: Education in Serious Joy.
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