It is my view that every member who can should always be there when the doors are open.  That has nothing to do with Hebrews 10:25.  It has more to do with the idea that the shepherds are charged with feeding the flock (Acts 20:28), that each service we assemble helps accomplish that, and none of us should feel free to miss feeding time.  It also has something to do with an easy, logical way we can encourage and build up one another (1 Th. 5:11) and stir up each other to love and good works (Heb. 10:24).  It further has to do with how since kingdom matters have first place in my heart and life (Matt. 6:33) the meeting times of His saints should be at the top of my priorities.

But, my sentiments at the moment have less to do with that and more to do with selfish reasons.  As I look back on the life God has blessed me with to this point, I have collected so many wonderful memories.  A significant number of them have occurred on Wednesday nights.  As I survey my Wednesday nights, in the recent and long distant pasts, I call to mind:

•    An 11 year old Christian brother lighting my fire with his motivational devotional talk.
•    A father and husband putting Christ on in baptism.
•    Bible class lessons that built my faith and flared my passion for further study.
•    Seeing and hearing my own sons speak, lead singing, and pray.
•    Seeing and hearing our teens do those same things.
•    Being met at just the right time by a brother or sister who lifted my spirits with a timely word “fitly spoken.”
•    Seeing a man confined to a wheel chair who will let nearly nothing keep him from being here, despite personal pain, discomfort, and sacrifice (and seeing others like him through the years).
•    Many other public responses made by Christians confessing sins or asking for prayers or others who chose on Wednesday night to become Christians.
•    Enjoying a weekly family reunion with my spiritual siblings, a lift above the mundane matters of life.
•    Seeing brethren from other congregations, whether I had never met them or have known them well in the past, who “popped in” on Wednesday nights.
•    Spiritual uplifts from congregational singing or heartfelt prayers on Wednesday nights.
•    New Christians, taking their first spiritual steps which include coming to Wednesday night Bible study.
•    Week after week that helped build a closeness and relationship with the Lord that is built not just on my personal feelings and estimation but on study and worship.

Though those may be mostly or entirely selfish reasons, I am thankful for the good Wednesday nights have done and are doing my family and me.  The church is my spiritual family.  How else would I want to spend my Wednesday nights?

–Neal Pollard