Every Sunday dead people attend worship in churches all over our country. Many do this for years—even decades. Attendance at church is easy. Anyone can check that box off.

What’s not easy is passionately participating in Sunday worship.

As I discussed earlier this week, worship with the whole church is a gracious gift of God in our lives. He values it so much that Hebrews 10:24-25 urges us not to neglect meeting together and passionately participating in each other’s lives.

But so many things get in the way of that. Our plans for Saturday night keep us out too late to even be halfway awake for worship the next morning, or our Sunday afternoon plans have us distracted during and immediately after the service. Other times we find ourselves in a really tough season of life: those times when suffering and despair seem to consume us, and nothing about our spiritual lives is easy especially trying to worship. Finally, some weeks busyness consumes our personal time with the Lord, and we spend the first half of worship just trying to reengage spiritually.

How can we passionately participate with our church on a regular basis with so many potential obstacles?

Here’s my three suggestions:

1. Plan
Passionately prioritize worship with your church family, and then plan your weekend accordingly. Failing to plan our weekends so that we are rested and focused for worship on Sundays will hinder us from receiving the full richness of God’s gift for us. So I encourage you to spend time planning your Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons in such a way that you are rested and focused to not only receive the blessing of corporate worship, but also give your presence and service to others.

2. Pray
No matter what season of life you are in, Satan is seeking to steal, kill, and destroy. Apart from relying upon God to deliver us from the evil one, we will fall to his attacks. May we regularly pray that God would protect us from the evil one and prepare our hearts for passionate participation in worship. Also, let’s pray the same for those leading us each week.

3. Prime
Finally, prime the pump. In other words, read the passage of Scripture being preached before it’s preached. The more familiar we are with the text, the better prepared we will be to engage in active listening to the preacher and ultimately the Holy Spirit.

Let’s not simply attend worship, but may we passionately participate for the fame of Jesus and the good of the church.