08/27/2026
WHY SUNDAY IS GOOD, BUT NOT ENOUGH - Apostolic Solutions
If you’ve ever wondered, “How can I be in church for years and still feel stuck?”—you’re not crazy, and you’re not alone.
I pastor a local church. I love the Sunday gathering. I believe in it. Water baptism, communion, corporate worship, accountability, discipleship – all of that is incredibly important.
But here’s the tension:
You can attend Sunday services, maybe a midweek Bible study, the occasional cell group and barbecue… for 10, 20, even 30 years and still not see real transformation.
Why? Because the environment we create on Sunday is usually not the environment people go home to.
People leave church and go back home to things like…
* abuse
* addiction
* no real prayer life
* no Bible study habits
* hopelessness
* a lack of joy and peace
We don’t often say that from the pulpit, but as leaders, we know it’s true.
Now, most of us pastors (whether we say it out loud or not) are focused on:�“Get more people in the door, increase giving, hire more staff, build a bigger building, repeat.” But if we’re honest, that doesn’t automatically produce growth.�
It just produces bigger.
So what actually produces genuine spiritual formation?
In History Makers, we talk about three factors of success that really move the needle in a person’s life:
1. Knowledge
2. Environment
3. Character
Let me unpack this quickly.
1. Knowledge you pay a price for
Studies show that when you hear a sermon once, within 48 hours you’ve forgotten about 70% of it. That’s one of the reasons we’re on this perpetual hamster wheel:�Week in, week out, lots of services… but not always a lot of change.
Sunday sermons are important, but they’re not designed to give you the kind of specialized knowledge you have to pay a price for—through focus, sacrifice, and practical training. You simply can’t preach that in 45 minutes.
2. Environment that actually shapes you
About 50% of your personal growth is determined by environment. On Sunday, you’re in a high-octane, celebrative, faith-filled atmosphere. Beautiful. Necessary. But it’s only for an hour or two. Then you go home.
If your prevailing environment from Monday to Saturday isn’t set up to bring Heaven to earth in your life, you won’t see the growth you’re hungry for. Some people do know how to build that kind of environment—most don’t. And for all the great reasons to attend church on Sunday, Sunday alone can’t deliver the full result you are looking for (although still a crucial and biblical component for the growth that comes from community)
3. Character formed over time
We can nudge character a bit on Sundays. We tell you what you should and shouldn’t do, we preach holiness, we lay hands on people, we pray at the altar. That’s all good.
But character isn’t formed in a single service. It’s formed:
* over time
* through challenges
* through doing the things you don’t feel like doing
* through discomfort and stretching
In much of the Western church, we’ve built comfortable environments that don’t push the character factor too hard. Why? Because if we make people too uncomfortable, they might just go to another church. Then our attendance goes down, giving goes down, and the cycle reverses.
So what’s the solution? It’s not to tear down Sunday. Sunday is a celebration. Sunday is community. It’s a gathering of the family. It’s needed, and it’s powerful.
The solution is to add a crucial component to what’s missing. We need intentional, apostolic, result-oriented training alongside the Sunday service that:
* deliver specialized knowledge (not just inspiration)
* create transforming environments beyond one or two hours
* actively develop character through process, pressure, and real-life application
That’s what we’ve been building and proving through History Makers for over 15 years. It’s why we see such radical testimonies in a short period of time—because we’re deliberately leveraging those three factors.
And here’s a big point for you:
Don’t leave your growth to chance. Don’t assume that just showing up on Sundays will automatically transform your life.
Be intentional about:
* what you’re learning, and who you’re learning from
* the environment you live in daily (home, friendships, media, rhythms)
* the processes that are actually shaping your character
Be willing to pay the price of saying “yes” to intentional growth instead of drifting. My encouragement to you: don’t wait for “someday.” Take ownership of your transformation. Lean into training, equipping, and environments that stretch you. You’ll be glad you did.
🚨History Makers School of Destiny enrolment for September: https://www.historymakersschool.com
🙋♂️More great free content: https://www.derekschneider.ca/subscribe
