Acts 20:7, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight." (emphasis mine)
Other Christians say we should be getting together every day. Their evidence for this comes from this section of scripture:
Acts 2:46-47, "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."
So which is it? Must we gather on Sundays? Every day? Other days? Has scripture set a schedule for us to meet as followers of Christ? Is this even important?
I'm glad that we have these two passages from Acts mentioned above. The reason is that we see some Christians gathering daily, but others gathering on Sunday (it's possible that those in Troas also gathered daily; we have no evidence either way). The point is this: Luke makes no judgment about one being right and one being wrong. He doesn't even indicate that one choice is better than the other. What can we take from this? My conclusion is that what day or days is not important. The specific frequency doesn't matter either.
Related to this, scripture tells us that two things do matter.
First, we should be gathering with other believers. Scripture assumes we do:
I Corinthians 14:26, "What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."
Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
We are given some freedom in what this looks like, but we should at least occasionally be gathering with other followers of Christ (assuming we live near any of them). This might be a meeting of numerous followers, or simply a coffee shop sit down with a friend. It could be getting together with a few others to serve the community on various ways. It might be a dinner with a handful of other disciples in your home.
Second, when we come together the goal should be mutual edification. We see this here:
I Corinthians 14:26, "What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."
And here:
Hebrews 10:24-25, "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."
What do we do with all this?
The reality is that we live in a culture that tends to give Sundays off from work. Because of this, Sunday is the day that makes the most sense for larger church gatherings. Churches could schedule larger gatherings, for example, on Tuesday mornings but I doubt many people could attend. Sunday, therefore, becomes the day for larger meetings not because of spiritual significance but because of pragmatics. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with this.
That said, we benefit a great deal when we find the time to meet in smaller groups during the week. While frequency doesn't matter, I think we all like to get together often (when we have the energy to do so).
In the end, there is no set pattern for frequency of gathering. There is no law to this. As for our family (the Carpenters), we are taking tomorrow as a day of relaxation and aren't meeting with anybody else.
Finally, whenever the church meets (in whatever form), no matter what day or how often, the goal is the building up in Christ. What a joy this is.
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